University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Publications, etc. -- Nebraska Forest Service Nebraska Forest Service 2017 THE GREATEST UNDERTAKING: THE UNIQUE HISTORY OF THE NEBRASKA FOREST SERVICE Tony Foreman University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebforestpubs Part of the Agriculture Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, and the Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons Foreman, Tony, "THE GREATEST UNDERTAKING: THE UNIQUE HISTORY OF THE NEBRASKA ORF EST SERVICE" (2017). Publications, etc. -- Nebraska Forest Service. 98. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebforestpubs/98 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Nebraska Forest Service at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications, etc. -- Nebraska Forest Service by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. TONY FOREMAN The Unique History of the Nebraska Forest Forest ServiceThe Unique HistoryNebraska of the UNDERTAKING THE GREATEST erhaps forests and trees are not the first images one conjures when thinking about Nebraska.P Indeed, an old joke claims the Nebraska State Tree is a wooden football goal- post. Yet Nebraska has a unique forestry history. Pioneers of the mid-nineteenth century moved into what was popularly known as the Great American Desert, and they rolled the dice that this semi-arid land, seemingly incapable of sustaining trees, could somehow grow crops. After winning that gamble, the settlers yearned for the trees they had grown accustomed to in the Eastern United States. They missed the beauty of the wooded areas and the respite of a shade tree.