Not sure if this will soak up the water in the ground but dogwoods are reputed to grow in wet areas. I also noticed that foster (sp?) holly grow in my neighbor's yard that gets flooded a lot.

Thank you for the reply. I'll have to check into those. I'd much rather put a tree out there instead of installing french drains(which I have been told by two landscapers that these will not work in this situation). This area in my yard is totally useless due to the wet ground.

Contour and drain it out the back. Your yard is too flat.
Either that or make a pond and drain that out the back.
Looks like you can go out right about where that, what looks like a Quince, is planted.

Without drainage work, don't expect trees to "soak" it all up. You can get trees that tolerate wet, even enjoy wet, but they won't solve the issue, they just deal with it.

By the way, not all dogwoods like wet, so make sure you get the right ones. Flowering dogwood, for example, is not the right one. You need something like swamp dogwood and some of the other shrubby relatives.

Yes, as above you need a swale out the back, make it a feature not a bug by doing a creekbed - not that expensive and an asset if you take your time and do it right. Second, bring in some soil (not cheap fill from Billy Bob's excavation up the street, but something with organic matter in it, not rubble) and make a mound or two, at least a 15 cy dump truck full, rototill the new into native for drainage. Why do this? No set of trees will 'soak it up'. The swale can go between the mounds to look more 'natural'. All you need is 6-8 inches and you're good. Don't mound around the base of that plane tree.

Dan

The overall problem is that there is so much water running through our yard during a hard rain. We are at the bottom of a slope that extends up about 4 other yards. The water runs across and then settles a bit after the rain is finished. Living in Arkansas, we have our fair share of torrential downpours. I could get a load of fill dirt and create a slope starting from my back deck but I have seen the amount of water than runs down. Our yard turns into a river of sorts. After a few days the standing water is gone and we are left with a very soggy yard. I was hoping that a tree would help soak some of it up.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I'll check into that as well, Dan. Your suggestions definitely seems like something I could do to make it work.

Cypress trees can handle the wet soil. But for people to enjoy it more, the contouring suggestions sound reasonable.

Other trees that enjoy wet sites would be Nyssa aquatica and Magnolias like it wet too. Swamp Oak..quercus bicolor is another one.
Joann

nuttal oak, tulip poplar, birch, blackgum, sweetgum, red maple, swamp white oak, pin oak, elm, sycamore, bald cypress, dawn redwood, willow, poplar, magnolia.

That should get you started. Many of the common everday ornamentals prefer wet sites like that

I'll third the quercus bicolor

Personally, I use Dawn Reds (Metasequoia) and Bald Cypress (Taxodium) for occasionally flooded areas. Nice to see there are so many choices though.