Species in Nebraska hardwood forests include bur oak, red oak, silver maple, green ash, cottonwood, black willow, hackberry, black walnut, American basswood, boxelder, American elm, honeylocust, hickories and mulberry. Conifer forests primarily contain ponderosa pine and Rocky Mountain juniper. The boreal forests contain a mixture of several of the above species and paper birch. All three of these forest ecosystems converge in the Niobrara River valley, the only such occurrence in the nation. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the forest types.
Deciduous species dominate in the east and conifers in the west.
Hardwoods follow the major drainage systems from east to west. Conifers are found in the Pine Ridge area of northwest Nebraska. The Niobrara River valley contains both hardwoods and western conifers. Eastern redcedar is distributed across the state and can be found in all of the forest and nonforest land types. Major forest areas in Nebraska in 1983.