Letter to the Editor: The Benefit of Trees

Yerington NV – July 22, 2026

From Jim Wilkinson, resident of Yerington, Nevada:

It is interesting to me how people treat trees. You mainly have two camps that are polar opposites of each other. Some people are caring & nurturing. They appreciate the shade, their importance to wildlife & their character.

Others seem to see trees, especially native Cottonwoods, Siberian Elms & Russian Olives as a nuisance & treat them with disdain.

From what I have researched, the the City of Yerington & Lyon County do not have any Urban Forestry programs or written codes/policies to promote proper tree care or tree planting programs.

Luckily we all have the internet for a wealth of information on tree selection, planting and care.

When my family moved back to Mason Valley in 2013 from Spring Creek, NV, we purchased a 3-acre parcel with the back half being used as a horse-roping arena. The previous owners used ground kill to keep the arena barren. They utilized their property in the way they saw fit. However, the dust was really bad anytime the wind blew!

The previous owner did plant a nice row of 5 Cottonwoods & had an irrigation line set-up to water these. We like to call these ‘the Big Five’!

I wanted to see what would happen if I planted some trees & shrubs in the arena. I set about by first installing two 500’ foot irrigation lines that went around the border of our property. We fortunately had two frost free faucets to hook up to.

The soil was pretty much clay with no organic matter. When the leaves dropped from ‘the Big Five’, the wind would blow the leaves straight across toward a home to the east side of us…sorry Neighbor!

I remember having a lake in the arena area when we had a good rain storm.

I purchased bare root seedlings with a good variety of trees & shrubs. The only caveat being they were adaptable to arid areas & could put up with specific temperature extremes.

It was amazing to me the success I have had with specific conifers, mainly Scotch Pine & shrubs such as Siberian Pea & American Cranbush. They have done really well.

Then an interesting thing happened. The Four-Wing Saltbush came back with a vengeance. They have taken over which we think is beneficial. It has been beneficial because we have very few Koschia & Russian Thistle weeds.

The measurement of success with weed eradication is this year only having to kill a total of one Kochia in the arena area! I also pulled a few cheat grass sprouts but that was it. I stopped using herbicides & this has led to a big increase in species in our area such as Desert Spade Foot Toads & Jerusalem Crickets.

It is also good to see the improvement in the organic matter that is now prevalent for our first few inches of soil. This is mainly due to the Four-Wing Saltbush catching the leaves from the deciduous trees.

We now have a plethora of wildlife including Lizards, Quail, Bats, Cottontail rabbits & birds & bees of all types on our property.

The only thing I have done for maintenance is to ensure the emitters are working. I have not used much fertilizer & I feel it is best to have hardy trees & shrubs that can make it on their own. We also have a beautiful Black Sage that must have been deposited / scarified by a visiting bird:

I do not want to get negative with the practices of farming companies that cut down all of the mature trees that surround their fields. They probably have a valid reason to do so.

The U.S. Soil Conservation Service was a respected agency that for decades encouraged farmers to use trees for wind belts, to protect topsoil and to encourage birds of prey to eradicate field pests.

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading. You will know if you pass our property. It is green, shaded and teeming with life.