Seed collection is now underway to grow another million native seedlings to replant another 1,000 hectares of hardwood timber plantations in State forests on the north coast next year.

Forestry Corporation’s Nursery Manager Kath French said Grafton Nursery staff were currently collecting seeds from specially selected trees in preparation for the 2022 planting season.

“We have doubled the capacity of Grafton nursery, allowing us to grow a million eucalypt seedlings this year to replant hardwood timber plantations, and we’re now getting ready to plant another million eucalypt seedlings in 2022,” Ms French said.

“Our nursery staff have been gathering seeds from trees in Wedding Bells State Forest near Coffs Harbour that we’ll propagate and nurture so they can be planted early next year.

“The trees we plant in our plantations today are going to grow the timber the next generation needs, so we carefully select seeds from trees with good genetic properties that are adapted to the local conditions and will grow straight and strong.

“Once we’ve collected our seeds, we will spend the next nine months or so growing them into seedlings before distributing one million trees to State forest plantations early next year.”

Forestry Corporation’s Hardwood Plantation Manager Craig Busby said the seedlings would restock plantations that have recently been harvested for timber.

“Unfortunately, many of the hardwood timber plantations we manage were impacted by fires in 2019-20, so we have been working to harvest and replant the affected plantations as quickly as possible. We have also increased the amount of timber we have been harvesting from plantations over the past couple of years following the fires while we’ve been carrying out environmental assessments and monitoring recovery in the native forests that produce timber,” Mr Busby said.

“Every time we harvest a timber plantation we completely replant it for the next generation, so we have doubled our replanting rate to restock these plantations for the future.

“This year, we hand planted one million native eucalypt seedlings to restock 1,000 hectares of timber plantations – that’s about the equivalent of 2,000 football fields – and we are preparing to do the same again in 2022.

“Plantations are a really sustainable way to supply the community with renewable timber products that look beautiful and store carbon for life and we manage them to be harvested and replanted so the same plantation continues to produce renewable timber in perpetuity.

“Hardwood timber is a product the community love in their homes, it is in high demand for everything from flooring and decking to fencing, furniture and power poles, and it is processed right here on the north coast of NSW, supporting local jobs.”

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