Columbia County Small Woodlands Seedling Program 2023-2024
I plan to mail the Order Forms for our February 2024 seedling crop after July 4, 2023, as in recent years. We will have another large crop of Douglas-fir 1+1 seedlings (more than 75,000?) and substantial western red cedar P+1 seedlings.
The cost to produce our seedlings increases almost every year and seed cost has nearly doubled in the past few years. Our goal is to produce high-quality forest seedlings at an attractive price and with some convenience for our customers. We buy Douglas-fir (DF) seed from the Oregon Seed Bank and contract with Lewis River Reforestation of Woodland, WA to grow, lift, pack and load the little trees. This is a crop, therefore we never know exactly how many DF seedlings will be produced although we have some data to minimize uncertainty. The western red cedar crop is different in that we order a set amount (7000) which begin as plugs in a greenhouse and are transplanted to the field for the second year.
All of the work for the seedling program is voluntary (administrative, hauling, unloading, distribution). Our Feb. 2023 DF crop was 90,720 seedlings of which 6,000 were sold at the public “ornamental” sale in St. Helens March 11, 2023.
For the past two years, Lynn Baker has been the leader and key worker for the March “ornamental” sale held at Lawrence Oil in St. Helens. This event offers at least 20 different species to the public. I know that Lynn appreciates the 30 to 40 members and friends who do the day-of-sale work at this impressive public service. For the March 2023 ornamental sale, Mark Dreyer used his trailer to haul DF, western red cedar and western hemlock from Woodland. Lynn and Eve Lonnquist hauled the ~ 17 species from two Willamette Valley nurseries for the ornamental sale in St. Helens.
Back to the forest seedling program. I want to thank those who worked to haul, unload and stack, and distribute the 84,000 DF and the cedar. For many years, Paul Nys has allowed us to use his barn for seedling layout and distribution. We thank him for this critical part of the program. I believe that many buyers look forward to talking to him each year. Joe Banzer has been the big dog hauler during the past two years with his large utility trailer and has told me that he plans to haul for us “until the wheels come off”. I haul a small load of western red cedar from the nursery in my F-250. Ray Biggs distributed a load of seedlings to buyers in St. Helens and I took a load to Vernonia. Customers who purchase 50 or more bags of seedlings have the option to pick them up at the nursery and we thank those who do this because it reduces our hauling to only a few tons! I give a hearty Thank You to the following members who unloaded and stacked seedlings at the Nys Barn last Feb: Dennis Nelson, Joe Banzer, Alan Johnston, Dan Kloppman, Noah Kloppman, Bob Hoard, Paul Nys, Mark Dreyer.
Bill Hanson, seedling person