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Kids and seedlings grow together at Michigan plant nursery

June 26, 2023
A shot inside a large domed ceiling greenhouse, shwoing thousands of sprouted seedlings stretching all the way to the end of the greenhouse.
Inside one of the greenhouses at J.W. Toumey Nursery. Each year, the nursery ships roughly five million tree seedlings across the region. Four million of the seedlings are bare-root stock that are grown outside and one million are grown in the greenhouses. Photo courtesy of Shanelle Saunders.

MICHIGAN—Spring on the Ottawa National Forest means many things: unpredictable weather, muddy road and, for the education staff, school field trips. Every year, fourth grade students from across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan come tour the J.W. Toumey Nursery.
Once there, students learn about:

  • History of the Ottawa National Forest and J.W. Toumey Nursery
  • Civilian Conservation Corps
  • Tree biology and photosynthesis
  • How seeds are extracted and stored at the nursery
  • How the seedlings are carefully grown from seed to seedling
  • How seedlings are lifted out of the ground in the spring and prepared and shipped to National Forests where they will be planted

School tours start on Arbor Day and continue through May, which is usually the same time as lift-and-pack, when crews are lifting trees out of the ground and sending them out to national forests.

Every year the nursery ships roughly five million tree seedlings across the region. Four million of the seedlings are bare-root stock that are grown outside and one million are grown in the greenhouses.

On the left side of the photo, trays with seedlings about to sprout. On the right, already sprouted seedlings. All seedlings are inside a greenhouse as the greenhouse's ceiling can be seen on top.
The USDA Forest Service is working with NASA to grow Moon Trees. These seeds and seedlings are a part of the Artemis Moon Trees project, which were launched into space aboard the Orion spacecraft last November. They orbited the moon and splashed down to Earth in December. Photo courtesy of Shanelle Saunders.
 

“The process of growing seedlings at the nursery has remained very much the same since 1935 but with added research and technology,” said Jim Pelkola, J.W. Toumey Nursery manager. “This might sound uninteresting to a fourth-grade student, but the tours are what make it fun and interesting.”

“This spring we had over 300 students and chaperones from eight different schools come through the nursery,” said Shanelle Saunders, conservation education coordinator. “Each student fills out a worksheet while on the tour and at the end receives an ‘Every Kid Outdoor’ pass and a tree seedling that they can plant somewhere and watch grow for, hopefully, years to come.”

The weather can be very unpredictable. Warm and sunny one day, cold, snowy and muddy the next.  Usually, the students are so excited to be out of the classroom and inside a greenhouse that unpredictable weather doesn’t really matter. Their excitement makes these field trips fun and full of energy.  

“One of our favorite portions of the tour is when the students hang out in the greenhouses where the seedlings are a vibrant green, the smell is wonderful, and the greenhouse warm,” Saunders said. “The students also really love pretending they are ants looking through the seedling forest; it’s really fun.”

This spring’s nursery tours had an extra cool component: Moon Trees. The Moon Tree seeds, which are a part of the Artemis Moon Trees project, were sent into space aboard the Orion spacecraft on Nov. 12, 2022. They orbited the moon and splashed down Dec. 11. The nursery was selected to grow American Sycamore Moon Tree seeds for this collaborative effort with NASA. This was exciting for the student because they also participated in the Moon Trees Live learning programs. “It was really such a great moment to see the students faces when they saw the Moon Tree sprouts,” said Saunders.

Forest staff and teachers alike hope the experience cultivates the minds of students for years to come.  

Group photo of kids with teacher standing in a field
A group of excited fourth graders during their field trip to the Ottawa National Forest and J.W. Toumey Nursery in Michigan. Photo courtesy of Shanelle Saunders..