The Nebraska Sandhills are currently undergoing a state shift to a redcedar dominated woodland due to anthropologic planting of eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) and woody encroachment from the periphery of the Sandhills. To better understand this novel ecosystem and how bats are utilizing it we collected data at Barta Brothers Ranch with acoustic sensor grids consisting of 24 100m spaced acoustic sensors placed adjacent to planted windbreaks. Supplemental data from the Nebraska North American Bat Monitoring Program was used for data analysis at larger spatial scales. We used Spearman ranked correlation and kriging interpolation maps to see how bats used windbreaks during nightly activity. Eptesicus fuscus, Lasiurus borealis, and Nycticeius humeralis showed close usage pattern to the windbreaks while Lasiurus cinereus and Lasionycteris noctivagans showed usage patterns outside of our sensing area, while still showing a correlation to trees at a larger scale. We used multi model inferencing and model averaging to find the best model to explain bat species richness and call count. We found that distance to trees, with a preference to deciduous, and time through the summer to be the best predictors of bat species richness and call count. We used linear regressions of first instance calls in our grids to determine if bats are using windbreaks to roost or travel from their roost to feeding grounds. All species combined, Eptesicus fuscus and Lasionycteris noctivagans showed higher numbers of first instances closer to the windbreak, this shows that bats, in general, are using windbreaks for roosting or for roads from roost to their feeding grounds. Lasiurus cinereus reported a flat regression line, hinting that this species may travel across open grassland from roost to feeding grounds. Bat presence and use of trees in the Sandhills creates a dilemma of battling ecosystem services when there is management incentive to control the spread of woody plants for grassland diversity and forage quality and quantity.