Best trees to block cell tower

I have recently purchased several acres of land (!!) that's mostly going to be for growing things. It has a cell tower near the north edge of the property. I'd like to plant trees that will help obscure the tower as well as possible. Since we're talking about the north side, shade isn't going to be a big issue. My criteria are (1) fast growing, tall final height (so fruit trees are mostly out), but not overly short-lived, (2) ideally productive of food or other useful products, and (3) not going to negatively affect the growth of other plants nearby. I'm in Iowa, where we have hot summers and cold, snowy winters. Below are some of my ideas -- I'm very curious about other suggestions people might have.

1. Cottonwood. These trees are very fast growing and I like their appearance. They don't produce usable crops that I'm aware of. I think they may draw so much water that things nearby might be affected.

2. Silver maple, especially the high sugar varieties. Fast growing but not as fast as cottonwood. I also like their appearance. Should produce sap that could be used for maple syrup. I'm not aware of issues affecting nearby plants.

3. Walnut. Relatively fast growing, nice looking, produce a usable crop, but juglone is going to be an issue.

4. Stone pine (Korean or Siberian). I don't know so much about these trees yet but like the cropping potential.

5. Oak (various varieties). These are some of the natural trees for this ecosystem. Not the fastest growing. May be possible to plant varieties with usable acorns.

6. Shagbark hickory. Another native for this ecosystem. Not sure about its growth speed. Possible usable crop.

7. Sycamore. Native to Iowa but not to this specific land. Fast growing. Nice looking. No known usable crops. No known negative impacts on other plants.

Is Paulownia considered invasive in your area? It can grow 10 feet per year and reach a final height of 60-90 feet tall. It also coppices well and is a light and strong wood similar to Balsa, so you could plant 2 rows and cut them for lumber alternately so the tower remains hidden.

I'm actually not really familiar with Paulownia. Looks very striking in some of the photos I googled. I see you are in N. Illinois so we should have similar conditions. Is it invasive there? If you grow it, does it do well for you?

I haven't actually grown it yet. I only heard about it myself pretty recently.

I was just now trying to find out which states list it as invasive with no luck, but one nursery website claimed that only one of the dozen or so species is invasive. They make millions of tiny seeds, but the nursery claimed that the species that they sell are incredibly hard to sprout so there is no worry of them spreading.

I did find an article about growing them in Wisconsin that mentioned them having a mature height of 40-60 feet. So they will for sure grow in both our areas, but either they don't get as tall in colder areas or the different species have significantly different mature heights.

They are also claimed to be nitrogen fixers and excellent bee feeders!

Perhaps start with hybrid poplar to initially cover the site of it, and get something more productive growing just south of that? Once the productive trees are tall enough you can drop the poplar or perhaps coppice them in rotation.

I'd guess that you don't want a tree that will grow as tall as the cell tower is. What you might need is a tree that on a line of site from your house and yard will block the sight of the tower while staying below the elements on the tower.

Thanks Mark -- that's definitely an idea worth considering.

If I were wanting to block the view of a cell tower, I think I would use layers and patterns.

Something like the small fruit trees closest to my home.  Next would be the slightly taller trees.  The next layer would be the tallest trees.

I would want to use patterns to mimick how nature plants her trees so the trees are not in rows though scattered. And I would use a mixture of several different trees.

When I finished planting and the trees have matured my home would be blocked from someone's view and I would not be able to see the cell tower.

I like the suggestion of using poplar trees since poplars are fast-growing.  I would use them as some of the second-layer trees.

Thanks John -- the tower is well over 100 ft, so actually reaching that height is highly unlikely in the near term. Line of sight is indeed my priority. I don't actually have a house there -- it's open land about a mile and a half from my house. May perhaps build something eventually but it's not the immediate plan.