Lezlee Johnson says her bias runs in favor of trees. Fortunately for her, she’s a forest health manager with the North Dakota Forest Service. Yes, North Dakota, where about 1.8 percent of the state’s area is native forest. “The trees we have are extra important partly because of that,” she said. Now the North Dakota Forest Service will investigate how extensive the state’s tree resources are, relying on data from the Great Plains Initiative II. The project with Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota maps tree cover on the Northern Plains with aerial imagery analyzed into data. …All forest resources in North Dakota, including windbreaks, comprise just less than 4 percent of the state, said Claeys, adding there are many benefits from trees.