The BEST Nursery in Inverell, New South Wales, Australia, has received around 1 million radiata pine seedlings from Forestry Corporation of NSW in preparation for a bumper 2021 State forest planting program.
The nursery will manage the seedlings on behalf of Forestry Corporation to acclimatise to northern NSW conditions, before they continue their journey to the Walcha region for planting.
Forestry Corporation’s Grafton Nursery Manager, Kath French, said the path from seed to planted seedling relies on the support of countless local businesses such as the BEST Nursery.
Kath French said: “We have now moved our Walcha area seedlings to the BEST Nursery for four months of cold hardening prior to planting. These will be sorted in June, ready for a dispatch of 700,000 seedlings into the Walcha region in July. Inverell has the perfect climate for propagation and hardening of native species along with the cold hardening of radiata pine for northern NSW areas.”
The BEST Nursery has 2 permanent staff committed care for the pine crop to ensure the healthiest seedlings are available to the grading teams to dispatch.
Seedling production at the Grafton nursery has been boosted for the 2021 planting program after a $1 million expansion last year.
Forestry Corporation of New South Wales, Australia is the largest manager of commercial native and plantation forests in NSW. It manages recreation, environmental sustainability and renewable timber production in more than two million hectares of NSW State forests.
