Nearly one and half million seedlings will be sown this year at Forestry Corporation of NSW’s Grafton nursery, providing a boost to local employment and helping reforest 1000 ha of forest plantations across NSW.

The southern pine and native hardwood seedling nursery employs a workforce of 13 staff who help to produce around 50,000 seedlings a day when in full production.

Forestry Corporation's Grafton Nursery Manager Kathryn French said the nursery is a crucial component of Forestry Corporation’s operations.

“Wood is the ultimate renewable resource – our forests are regrown or replanted to continue the forest cycle into the future," Ms French said.

"We've dispatched more than 70 million seedlings from Grafton nursery over the last 20 years, which have ultimately helped build people’s homes and vital infrastructure.

“Each year we dispatch around 500,000 pine and 500,000 native hardwood seedlings to be replanted in our forests. We also supply a further 500,000 seedlings to private industry, including private forestry and organisations such as Landcare.”

Over the coming year, the crop will be carefully hand-weeded, fertilised, nurtured and watered to produce seedlings in time for planting over summer and autumn.

“Sowing and dispatching are our busiest times of year, creating up to an extra 10 seasonal positions, which have traditionally been filled by local people.”

Forestry Corporation is the largest producer of plantation-grown radiata pine in Australia, managing more than 200,000 hectares of plantations around the state and producing more than 3.5 million tonnes of timber each year. This is enough to construct about a quarter of the houses built in Australia each year.

Media contact: Rod Campbell 0428058549