Producers, scientists tell Kansas committee woody plants are replacing grasslands, cutting water and forage

At a Kansas legislative committee hearing, ranchers, scientists and conservation groups described the rapid spread of woody plants — particularly eastern red cedar — across the state's native grasslands and urged coordinated action to restore and maintain prairie habitat.

David Craft, director of the Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition, told the committee that Kansas rangelands include nearly 15.8 million acres of native range and that another roughly 3 million acres are enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program. “To maintain, enhance, restore, or regenerate our Kansas grasslands, we all need to play our part,” Craft said, describing threats that include fragmentation, invasive grasses and the “rapid expansion of woody species.”

The hearing drew scientific testimony about how woody encroachment changes hydrology as well as forage. Dr. Jesse Nippert, a researcher at Kansas State University who oversees long-term work at the Konza Prairie research site, described field measurements showing that woody plants can use roughly twice as much water per unit…