Shallow DG soil, high altitude and high wind: Trees?

Hi all!
I just bought a property in Park County, CO and the land has no trees in it. I’ve been advised by excavators that it’s mainly decomposed granite soil, maybe 18-24” deep, and that I can’t grow trees because of the high winds they get (60-100mph). But, there are trees on other properties surrounding mine, and I have watershed at the bottom of the property. I was thinking of starting with smaller trees like saplings or 3-4’ Aspen, and using rock around the base to weight down the trees. I’m hoping if I start with young trees they’ll grow into the soil and as long as I can keep them weighted down, they won’t blow out of the ground. Does anyone have some recommendations? Thanks in advance!

Wow... no one's responding. I too have high winds in southern colorado. Any hoo, here's my advice. Establish a porous and temporary windbreak until trees and bushes grow. Snow fences would be ideal and easy to set up, but time consuming and moderately expensive. If not then find brush and stack it in a line perpendicular to the prevailing winds. Try to get to 3 feet high to give your trees enough time and cover to establish. Put these windbreaks in every 50-100 feet depending on your preference. The more windbreak lines you can establish, the more they will support each other and you can stack their benefits. Find trees that stay low to the ground and have a pyramidal shape. Pinyon, eastern red cedar,  and rocky mountain juniper may be your best bet. Juniper especially have flexible limbs which the Indians used for bows. For your nitrogen fixation use mountain mahogany which is also an excellent low growing and evergreen windbreak. From this frontline establish secondary and tertiary windbreaks and this time you can use deciduous shrubs and trees such as caranga (nitrogen fixing), cotoneaster, lilac, skunkbush, gambeloak, austrian pine,  bristlecone pine (a true bombproof and ancient pine), and siberian elm. Hackberry might be worth a try since they are known for extensive root systems. Stay away from the poplars and cotton woods as those are weak wood plants.

I didn't spot this thread before and I would second everything Skyler said. My soil is about 18 inches on average, wind gets to 80mph or more most winters, and my trees and windbreaks are doing fine. If you believed what the books say nothing would grow on marginal land.
Having said that, I'm not intending to allow my trees to grow too tall - I'm coppicing most of them at about 30 feet or so which avoids some of the potential issues. I will probably pollard or remove the conifers too when they get taller too. Because my climate is so damp and the soil light I do find that some more shrubby trees out grow their roots, blow over, and carry on growing. Hawthorne and holly seem particularly likely to do this, although I have a few strange shaped birch trees as well.

Edited to add:



Trees showing the three ways they react to the wind - Alder shaped pruned to have more branches on leeward side. Birch leaning over and then growing upright. Holly grew upright and then blew down!