More than 40 different trees, shrubs and half-shrubs are native to North Dakota. By Joe Zeleznik, Forester, NDSU Extension I’ve completed nearly 20 years at NDSU as the Extension forester and I’ve seen a lot of the state (and its trees and forests) in that time. I sometimes wonder how many miles I’ve driven through the years. Numbers fascinate me. They can offer a clear understanding of a situation.
For example, we could say that trees had great growth in 2022. My question would be, “How great is great”? What one person considers great, another person might consider to be average. Putting a number to that claim of great growth – say, two feet of new growth for ash trees in central North Dakota – allows for clearer communication.
Here are some numbers for North Dakota trees and forests. 0 – The number of emerald ash borer beetles found in our state as of August 2022. There are a lot of peo- ple searching for this pest and we’ve been looking for it for almost 20 years.