This small monograph is an attempt to sort through the characteristics that make an effective windbreak.

The plant must thrive on your site. The plant should not be subject to any pests or diseases that will either decimate the stand or will force you to squander your time caring for your windbreak. Windbreaks are not a place for fragile plants.

Consider how wide of a swath you can spare for the windbreak. Windbreaks that are more than 60 feet wide are extremely beneficial to wildlife. Also, you might want your windbreak to trap blowing snow to keep it off your driveway. Wide windbreaks can trap more snow. As you make the windbreak wider it might occur to you that perhaps you can use plants that offer other benefits...fruit, nuts, fall color, or firewood. That is a good thought. Work with it.

Don't get too hung up on height. A tree that grows to 60 feet of height is not 50% better than a tree that tops out at 40 feet. It will be many years before the trees reach their "mature" height.

Most trees self prune if planted too closely together. The tree's lower limbs get shaded and the limbs die. The tree drops them. Consequently, many windbreaks become sparse near ground level as the mature. The canopy might be nice and thick, but be centered 25' (8 meters) above the ground. Pioneer species that are shade intolerant are particularly prone to this problem. There are four solutions:

-Plant shrubs along the edge of the windbreak that will span the ground-to-15' (5 meters)

-Plant trees that stay short. Behold the apple tree. The fruit load keeps dragging branches down lower. Chinese Chestnuts are another short tree.

-Plant trees closely together within the row but space the rows very widely apart. The sun will penetrate between the rows and the lower limbs will not self prune.

-Have a harvest plan. Cut two adjacent rows within your windbreak every 5-to-10 years. Harvest a different set of rows each time you harvest. Select species that will sucker (like aspen or black locust) or resprout from the stumps (most deciduous species). The reason for harvesting two rows is to ensure that the sunlight penetrates all the way to the ground. Removing only one row might result in the canopy simply closing over and smothering the new growth. An alternative to harvesting the wood is to make diagonal, downward cuts 75%-to-90% of the way through the trunk and to topple each tree within the row domino fashion on top of the tree that was previously cut and toppled Photos of trees cut domino fashion . The tree canopy usually survives, but now it is lying on the ground.

Select trees and shrubs that are, well, bushy. The best way to explain is to give species at opposite ends of the spectrum. Ash, black walnut Photo of Black Walnut tree , sycamore, hybrid poplar and sumac are not bushy. They have compound leaves and their twigs are thick and blunt. You can very easily look through an ash tree or a stand of sumac. By contrast, gray dogwood, coyote willow and hawthorn are bushy. They have very fine twigs and aggressively branched. A general observation is that trees and bushes with small leaves tend to have slender twigs. The table listed below shows twig diameter for some common mid-West tree and shrub species.