The Prairie States Forestry Project

This panel was moved to Neligh after the Schleusener windbreak it describes was removed in 2017. The program was drawn on a vast scale: a zone about 100 miles wide from the Canadian border in North Dakota south into Texas, with headquarters in Lincoln and Raphael Zon as technical director. The first tree went in on March 18, 1935, an Austrian pine on the H. E. Curtis farm near Willow, Oklahoma. Farmers were paid to plant and tend red cedar, green ash and other trees along fence rows, and funding disputes moved the work to the WPA.

What the plaque says

The Prairie States Forestry Project The Prairie States Forestry Project was initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to combat the severe wind-caused soil erosion of the Dust Bowl days. From 1935 through 1942, the U.S. Forest Service, working with the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps planted windbreaks throughout the Great Plains. Nearly 220 million seedlings were planted creating 18,600 miles of windbreaks occupying 240,000 acres on 30,000 farms. Nebraskans led this effort planting almost 4,170 miles of windbreaks occupying 51,621 acres on 6,944 farms. The windbreak before you was planted in April, 1935 on the John Schleusener farm and was the first windbreak established under this project in Nebraska. Today, the growth and vigor of many of the trees has declined due to close spacing, age, and invasion of undesirable, short-lived trees. The Nebraska Forest Service and the Upper Elkhorn Natural Re- source District, in cooperation with the Schleusener family, has established two demonstration areas within this windbreak to show methods of improving the condition of the remaining trees and to encourage new growth and establishment of desirable trees. The area closest to the roadway will remain unaltered as a living reminder of the Prairie States Forestry Project and the efforts of Nebraskans to protect our valuable farmland. Upper Elkhorn Natural Resource District Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Neligh Mill State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A brick flour mill on the Elkhorn, begun in 1873, that sold its flour as Gold Medal until 1940, ground until 1969, and still has its original 1880s equipment in place.
• Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park — 21 mi
  A watering hole in Antelope County where ash from an eruption in Idaho buried rhinoceroses and horses about twelve million years ago, now uncovered in place under the Hubbard Rhino Barn.

More markers nearby

• The Neligh Mills — 0.3 mi
• The Neligh Mill Bridge — 0.3 mi
• Ponca Trail of Tears - White Buffalo Girl — 0.7 mi
• Meadow Grove — 17 mi