Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery

If you suddenly decide that you’d like to build a 20,000-acre forest from scratch—like President Theodore Roosevelt did in 1902—you need a serious engine, a facility capable of turning out an unfathomable quantity of seedlings at a breakneck pace. Enter the Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery, the oldest nursery of its kind in the U.S.

The idea to craft a new forest came from one Charles E. Bessey, a University of Nebraska botany professor in the early 1900s. Bessey had a hunch that turning a portion of Nebraska’s Sandhills into a woodland would have a positive effect on the local climate, resulting in cooler temperatures and milder weather. So, he pitched the idea to President Roosevelt, who gave him an enthusiastic green light. Bessey got to work. Soon after, planting crews started building the forest, one tree at a time, over the course of 120 years.

Ultimately, Bessey got his wish. Nebraska National Forest is now the nation’s largest man-made woodland, a sprawling tract of varied tree species and a verdant haven for wildlife and outdoor recreationists alike. While the woods have been affected by wildfires in recent years, and a larger man-made forest in China has stolen the world record title, Nebraska National Forest remains one of the most ambitious feats of environmental engineering the nation has ever attempted.

Equipped with more than 46 acres of fields and greenhouses, the facility is capable of producing up to two million trees per year. It currently supplies seedlings to national forests across the Great Plains and Mountain West—mostly Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, Blue spruce, various pines, and other timber species. The facility also houses one of the U.S. Forest Service’s few official seedbanks. Massive refrigerated rooms house more than 14,000 pounds of seeds kept on hand in case of natural disaster. When fire or pestilence strikes, the nursery ships those seeds to areas in need so they can begin replanting right away.

Bessey isn’t just the oldest Forest Service tree nursery, it’s also one of the nation’s most respected. Case in point: After NASA sent a handful of loblolly pine seeds into orbit around the moon in 2022, they sent those seeds to Bessey to germinate. The result was three young loblolly pines—dubbed Moon Trees—that have since been gifted to universities and other organizations around the country. They may have started their journey in outer space, but they—like many of our nation’s modern forestry practices—were born right here at Bessey.