The battle is being won on several fronts. The invasive eastern red cedar has encroached on pastures and hardwood forests across the Great Plains over the past century. Although ERC is a native tree, wildfires of old kept the prolific tree under control a century ago.

With wildfires fortunately no longer sweeping across the Plains to keep the encroachment in check, ERC has become the enemy of cattlemen over the past few decades, and in many cases, it has become the largest and fastest-growing forest resource.

Planted in a windbreak or living snow fence, ERC is hard to beat. It does good work in protecting livestock and farmsteads from wind, snow and weather extremes. However, growing wild in grasslands and grazing lands, it can give headaches to every rangeland manager.

What can farmers and ranchers do to get control of ERC encroachment and win back their grasslands? Are there ways they can use this forest resource? These are key question that are being answered on many farms and ranches every day, with help from federal and state agencies, including USDA Forest Service and state forestry and conservation agencies.

Nebraska Farmer has compiled a list of ERC resources and articles over the years. In this slideshow, we offer a few of the most recent articles on battling ERC. Click through our gallery to find links to all of those recent articles about strategies in beating back ERC where it isn’t wanted.