Outplanting Seedlings in the Pacific Northwest: Historical Efforts and Contemporary Constraints to Success

As incidence of wildfires increase across the Western United States and world leaders call for the implementation of tree-planting programs to mitigate the effects of climate change, the demand for tree seedlings has surpassed current nursery capacity. Reforestation goals cannot be met, however, by increasing nursery capacity alone. Outplanting capacity must be scaled simultaneously with increasing seedling production. Once seedlings leave the nursery to be outplanted, their survival is dependent on a number of factors, including expertly timed site preparation, storage and transport specifications, timing and logistics for seedling delivery, labor availability, planting method, and the interaction between the planting prescription and biophysical conditions onsite. Building a greater understanding of historical and current outplanting practices as a social framing of current outplanting capacity may be useful as the industry prepares for surges in financial resources for improving the reforestation pipeline. This article examines the components of the outplanting process based on literature reviews, interviews with foresters, planting crew foremen, planters, and field observations during planting events throughout the Pacific Northwest. Results indicate that current outplanting practices have changed very little in the last 80 years, yet planting outputs are increasingly expected to meet growing reforestation demands. Planters are limited by myriad species and stock types, tool types, and elevation ranges. To improve future outplanting operations, innovating in tools and equipment to reduce the burden of labor is critical, along with addressing the issue of sourcing and supporting future labor pools with the appropriate infrastructure to expand the outplanting pipeline. This paper was presented at The Reforestation Pipeline in the Western United States–Joint Annual Meeting of the Western Forest and Conservation Nursery Association, the Intertribal Nursery Council, and the Intermountain Container Seedling Growers Association (Missoula, MT, September 27–29, 2022).

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Author(s): Gabriel Altieri, Rebecca Downer, Matthew Aghai

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Volume 66, Number 1 (2023)

Volume: 66

Number: 1