Eastern red cedar is a friend or foe, depending on whom you ask.

    For some landowners, this shrubby evergreen has been a popular, hardy species for windbreak plantings and wildlife habitat. An estimated 1.2 million eastern red cedar seedlings were planted annually from the 1980s through the '90s in Nebraska.

    But the lack of control of the encroachment of cedar into grasslands — has created an eastern red cedar invasion across much of the Great Plains. Thus, to more and more landowners, the tree is a foe that competes with grasses and ultimately reduces forage production and land values.

 
    According to the OSU extension service surveys by the soil conservation service in 1985 indicated that red cedar had invaded almost 1.5 million acres in Oklahoma by 1950, and by 1985 this area had increase to over 3.5 million acres. A red cedar with a six-foot crown diameter reduce herbaceous production on shallow prairie sites approximately six pound per acre. Red cedar infestations cause a loss of biodiversity in native plant communities and change habitat structure, composition and dynamics that many songbirds and other fauna such as deer and turkey depend on for survival.

    The Oklahoma Red Cedar Task Force estimated that in 2001, the loss of cattle forage, loss of wildlife habitat (lease hunting), recreation and water yield was $218 million. According to research, two hundred-fifty red cedar trees per acre covering 28 square feet each (a six-foot crown diameter), about one tree every 13 feet, would reduce herbaceous production (grasses and forbs) by 50 percent. If no preventive steps are taken to control red cedar, that estimate rises to $447 million in 2013. The task force's estimates did not include other potential economic losses such as loss of endangered species, poor water quality, sedimentation in water reservoirs and degraded air quality resulting in compromised human respiratory health.

    Water is rapidly becoming one of the most important social, political, economic and biological issues in Oklahoma, Stevens says. The spread of red cedar is a serious threat to Oklahoma's water resources. Red cedar stands can reduce infiltration, degrade watershed quality and use a lot of water that would otherwise be captured and stored in aquifers by healthy rangelands. A mature cedar can use over 30 gallons of water per day, and its leaves can intercept up to 25 percent of rainfall where it can evaporate before reaching the ground.
Fortunately, red cedar is very easy to control. The problem is not in the control methods, but in failing to recognize the consequences of doing nothing. Prevention is always the best control method. Monitoring red cedar establishment and removing trees when found will prevent the total loss of a natural community later.

Eastern red cedars are an easy species to control because they do not re-sprout. It’s important to control cedars while they are small seedlings. Red cedars can grow an average of 1' per year, so they can quickly get out of control.
Cedar Tree Links

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Oklahoma cooperative extension service fact sheet F-2868.