Almost 2.5-million hardwood and softwood seedlings are being dispatched from Forestry Corporation’s Grafton Nursery to be replanted in state forests across New South Wales. The Grafton Nursery grows a mix of eucalyptus and pine seedlings, which are replanted in state forest timber plantations that have previously been harvested for renewable timber products.
“These seedlings will be planted and grown for around 30 years to supply renewable timber for the next generation’s homes and infrastructure,” Forestry Corporation’s District Manager for Grafton Lyndon Orpwood said.
“After timber harvest operations, state forests in New South Wales are regrown or replanted to continue the forest cycle into the future,” Mr Orpwood said. “Timber is the ultimate renewable resource and is crucial to the Australian construction industry. “ Almost 100 million seedlings have been raised at the Grafton nursery over the past two decades, ultimately helping to build people’s homes and to replenish vital public infrastructure including power poles, marine piers, bridges and platforms,” he said.
Forestry Corporation’s pine and native hardwood seedling nursery at Grafton employs a permanent workforce of 13 staff, who are assisted with the annual dispatch by a seasonal workforce. When in full production, the Grafton Nursery produces around 50,000 seedlings a day with all stock grown from seed.
The eucalypt and pine seedlings are being dispatched from the Grafton nursery across the state for replanting schedules in plantation forests.
For plantation forests in southern NSW, Forestry Corporation produces seedlings at its Tumut Nursery. Since it opened in 1997, the southern NSW nursery has produced more than 176 million cold climate seedlings.
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