Stuart Seed Orchard

Although KNF employees managed the nursery, nearby CCC camps with 200 young men each provided manpower for its operation and field planting (Barnett and Burns 2012). Nursery seedling production was about 25 million annually with most of these seedlings shipped to CCC projects that had reforestation emphases. Wakeley’s research, now located at the nursery, took advantage of the CCC crews to apply a variety of nursery cultural practices and to establish outplanting studies. Over the 9-year duration of the CCC involvement and support, nearly three-quarters of a million tree seedlings were planted in research studies on the newly formed Palustris Experimental Forest. 

The nursery was an important part of history as it provided the seedlings needed to reforest the denuded lands of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. With help from the leadership of the Southern Forest Experiment Station, the CCC crews at the nursery planted 700,000 seedlings in research studies that pioneered the reforestation technology that was applied across the South.