MINNESOTA – Last year the Superior National Forest planted approximately 1.3 million seedlings by hand, nearly doubling the number of seedlings planted in the previous season of 2019 (no planting occurred in 2020 due to COVID-19). This amazing accomplishment led to the forest’s reforestation program, including Silviculturist Kyle Stover, winning an Eastern Regional Forester’s Honor Award in the Sustain Our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands category, a national priority for the agency.

The Superior National Forest has been planting trees since the 1930s, from large vegetation management projects like the Pearl Project to smaller projects such as the stabilizing lakeshores with long-lived pine species.

“We plant trees for a variety of reasons,” Stover said. “Trees are planted to reforest a site after timber harvesting or a wildfire, to restore certain tree species identified by our Forest Plan where the existing seed source is depleted or to offer specific wildlife habitat requirements like white pine. All these opportunities help contribute to a healthy and diverse future forest while considering climate change. In essence, trees are foundational to ecosystem health here in northeastern Minnesota.”

Recently, Stover and forest silvicultural staff, who study the science and art of growing and managing forest vegetation, visited the JW Toumey Nursery in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to learn about the operations and reforestation support provided by the facility. Comprised of approximately 110 acres, with 66 acres designated for planting and capable of producing 12 million seedlings per year, the nursery located on the Ottawa National Forest is the only Forest Service-owned nursery in the Eastern Region.

Established in 1935 in response to a growing need for tree seedlings, the nursery continues to be critical for our nation’s forests and supports vegetation management by producing native plants for seven national forests in the Lake States. Forests include the Ottawa, Huron-Manistee and Hiawatha in Michigan, the Chequamegon-Nicolet in Wisconsin and the Chippewa and Superior in Minnesota.

“I was amazed at how much ingenuity takes place to keep the nursery running using very old but specialized equipment and staff that understands the equipment,” said Keely Drange, a forester for the Kawishiwi District on the Superior National Forest.

Stover described how trees are grown at the nursery and shipped around the region. “In the fall, they ‘lift’ and pack containerized seedlings grown in the greenhouse. ‘Lift’ refers to pulling seedlings grown either in an indoor greenhouse foam block cavity or an outdoor soil nursery bed, preparing them by shaking off excess soil, packaging them, freezing them over the winter and storing them for future spring shipment and transplant needs.”

The forest would not be able to conduct so much restoration and forest management if it were not for the nursery facilities and the way it can host a plant from seed to seedling.

Starting from seeds

Collecting the native seed that grows at the nursery for reforestation is also a process of its own. Forest staff collect seed, usually by hand, from either the Superior National Forest or from an orchard within the correct growing zone at our regional Oconto River Seed Orchard in Wisconsin. Next, the seeds are cleaned, cooled, and stored to meet species dormancy requirements in a process called stratification.

Care must be taken with seed at the nursery as mice, disease, and moisture levels can adversely impact the product. After stratification, the seed is sown at the JW Toumey Nursery and grown for one to three years. Seedlings then get lifted and packaged, shipped under specific environmental conditions.

“The overall health and condition of our forests are not as balanced as we would like regarding the stand types of trees, stocking or size and growing space of trees in the stands and age distributions of the trees,” said Carl Layman, forester on the Superior. “With the help of the nursery, we are able to restore our forests and then use silvicultural tools that mimic natural disturbances, such as thinning, bud capping (paper stapled to top of seedling to protect it) and pruning, which allow established seedlings more growing space and better success.”

Once the seedlings arrive in the spring, they are stored in large tree coolers and then planted on site. On the Superior, all planting is done by hand and some seeding is conducted using the Beaver floatplane aircraft.

To complete all this planting, the Forest works with the State of Minnesota and The Nature Conservancy for site preparation and planting, resulting in more treated acres in the last few years than before. “If we keep up this pace and scale; we should be able to establish a more healthy and balanced vegetative condition across the forest for our kids,” Layman said about recent planting efforts.

Seedlings are the most vulnerable in the first several years after being planted. However, like other plants, poor seed crops, drought, erosion, wind events, insect and disease infestation and other factors can inhibit growth success and have wiped out stands and seed orchards.

The Forest is monitoring how the seedlings planted in spring of 2021 fared during the summer drought and how they grew during this critical timeframe. Unfortunately, some sites will require replanting or fill-in planting if not enough survived.

Despite all the factors that influence survival those first critical years, once established, healthy stands can regenerate naturally over time. In addition to pine species, the Superior National Forest also plants spruce, tamarack and occasionally birch, northern white cedar, red and bur oaks and basswood. The nursery’s ability to support the Superior and other regional national forest’s planting and forestry work to implement their Forest Plans is vital in managing healthy, diverse forests in both the short and long term.

“It’s clear that with expanding restoration work going on across the region in an environment of climate change, we’ll need to get creative with the way we do business,” Keely said. “The nursery mentioned a possible expansion and I can't wait to see what the future will hold for the region’s reforestation program,” she added.

For more information or a tour of the JW Toumey Nursery, contact Jim Pelkola, nursery manager.