Do Windbreaks Contribute to Eastern Redcedar Infestation of Grasslands?

Planting cedar in the Great Plains has increased cedar seed sources at an unprecedented scale and now contributes to cedar invasion. Originally, scientists assumed that cedar was not capable of naturally spreading from windbreaks due to the difficulty of establishing cedar windbreaks in grasslands. Because of this assumption, planting cedar became common practice to generate local benefits associated with wind protection. Now that we know this assumption is wrong, decisions to plant cedar should be evaluated based on windbreak benefits vs. invasion consequences.