{"id":35596,"date":"2023-02-20T10:40:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T17:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-colorados-seedling-tree-nursery-curb-forest-fires-and-disease\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T17:40:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T17:40:14","slug":"can-colorados-seedling-tree-nursery-curb-forest-fires-and-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-colorados-seedling-tree-nursery-curb-forest-fires-and-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Colorado\u2019s seedling tree nursery curb forest fires and disease?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Nursery
Nursery technician Jack Sevier maintains and rinses seedling cells Feb. 8 at the Colorado State Forest Service Seedling Tree Nursery in Fort Collins. Seedlings from the nursery are grown to reforest areas of Colorado affected by wildfires, floods, and drought, and for other private and public projects. Up to 350,000 to 400,000 seedlings are produced annually of spruce, willows, firs and other tree species. The nursery eventually aims to produce up to 2 million seedlings a year. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FORT COLLINS \u2013 At the base of the foothills, not far from the burn-scar reminder of the massive High Park wildfire a decade ago, Scott Godwin enters a greenhouse where warm air whispers of early summer, white sprinkler pipes dangle overhead and blue sky shimmers through the translucent roof.<\/p>\n

In this 6,400-square-foot space, one of three on the grounds of Colorado State University\u2019s Foothills Campus, thousands of tree seedlings poke their heads from rows of cylinders neatly arranged by type \u2013 aspen, Colorado blue spruce, alder, Rocky Mountain juniper among them \u2013 and bask in climate-controlled bliss.<\/p>\n

Godwin points to a matrix of containers that have sprouted a riparian species called Geyer willow that eventually will be planted to stabilize stream banks along a new stretch of the Colorado River that bypasses the problematic Windy Gap Reservoir near Granby<\/a>. It\u2019s just the kind of project he hopes will revitalize not only the landscape, but the state\u2019s 66-year-old seedling tree nursery that almost became a casualty of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce COVID-19 hit, it just kind of knocked the legs out from underneath it,\u201d said Godwin, who started in September as the new nursery manager,<\/p>\n

\"Narrowleaf
Narrowleaf cottonwood plants will be used throughout Colorado\u2019s Windy Gap Project in Grand County, which will route a diversion dam on the Colorado River and a pipeline to Lake Granby. Other seedlings from the nursery are grown to reforest areas of Colorado affected by wildfires, floods and drought, and for other private and public projects. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But in a time of surging wildfires that turn massive swathes of Colorado\u2019s forests to ash, and beetle kill that has claimed still more woodlands, the roughly 135-acre Colorado State Forest Servic<\/a>e Seedling Tree Nursery has re-imagined its future, just as its crumbling infrastructure and outdated business model forced a reckoning. Now, bolstered by wide political support that already has delivered $5 million toward long-overdue improvemen<\/a>ts \u2013 with more potentially on the way in this legislative session \u2013 the nursery is positioning itself to take a new and expanded role in reforestation efforts.<\/p>\n

The transition marks a reconsidered approach to the nursery\u2019s decades of service to state landowners. Until now, the work has been largely characterized by partnerships with state conservation districts or individuals with an acre of land or more who need seedlings for small-scale reforestation or a conservation project, like a creek bank or an irrigation ditch that needs stabilizing or shading. All those rows of trees planted along highways as \u201cliving snow fences,\u201d or around a farmer or rancher\u2019s fields to shield them from erosion \u2013 there\u2019s a good chance the nursery cultivated those seedlings.<\/p>\n

State forester Matt McCombs notes that the facility also has stepped up before in times of crisis \u2013 the nursery grew riparian species to help reclaim land damaged by historic 2013 floodwaters. Now, the climate change-driven triple whammy of drought, disease and wildfire has created something else that the seedling tree nursery can at least help to address \u2013 demand.<\/p>\n

\"Rocky
Rocky Mountain juniper plants sprout at the Colorado State Forest Service Seedling Tree Nursery in Fort Collins. Seedlings from the nursery are grown to reforest areas of Colorado affected by wildfires, floods and drought, and for other private and public projects. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When fire or disease defoliates vast expanses of federal land \u2013 and those forests far exceed state-owned land in Colorado \u2013 the U.S. Forest Service traditionally calls on its own seedling nurseries, such as the Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery<\/a> in Nebraska or Lucky Peak Nursery<\/a> in Idaho. But McCombs says there\u2019s an expanding need that the state nursery can help fill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really tough competition for limited resources in Colorado, and we really feel like there\u2019s an enormous demand for the conservation-focused species that we cultivate here,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that we can, with the right investments, become an epicenter of reforestation in the intermountain West.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points to the adjacent foothills, where the High Park fire burned for nearly a month in 2012. It claimed more than 87,000 acres in the Poudre River watershed and the adjacent Rist Canyon and Buckhorn Creek drainages while claiming one life and 259 homes. Natural recovery has stalled because the sheer intensity of those wildfires continues to impact the soil health and plant regeneration, in part by consuming and nearly eliminating the seed source.<\/p>\n

Reforestation serves as a tool to keep ecosystems intact, McCombs says, restoring forests for a variety of reasons including wildlife habitat and maintaining watershed health, which means keeping soil in place and minimizing erosion \u2013 which in turn minimizes sediment that can undermine water quality and increase treatment costs. Another critically important factor for Colorado is a multibillion dollar recreation industry predicated on healthy forests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so when we lose forests to uncharacteristic \u2013 and that\u2019s the key term, uncharacteristic \u2013 wildfire, and historic drought which weakens trees and makes it possible for bug infestation and crud infestation at scales outside of what we believe scientifically is the norm, we come in behind and give nature a helping hand to recover,\u201d he says. \u201cAcknowledging that much of the science suggests that human activity as it relates to climate change could very well be driving some of these substantive changes we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCombs sees the nursery stepping in to help meet the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a huge opportunity to be in control of our own destiny in this state and move forward aggressively with reforestation, which has huge benefits in the short term and obviously in the long term,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

New business model<\/div>\n

The seedling tree nursery remains grateful and loyal to the customers who have sustained it since its inception in 1957. But, especially for an enterprise agency that must produce its own operating capital, large-scale projects like the one that produced the young willows destined for Windy Gap hold particular attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually went out to the site and collected these cuttings,\u201d says Godwin, who took over as nursery manager last fall. \u201cSo we\u2019ve collected the local genetics to that site, brought them back here and propagated them so that they are genetically identical to the populations that are already there. We love this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Technicians
Technicians at the Colorado State Forest Service Seedling Tree Nursery use a rooting hormone to help seedlings, collected from the wild, produce roots and preserve the genetics native to the places they\u2019ll be used in reforestation projects. Seedlings at the CSFS Nursery ideally are 12 to 14 inches tall before they are planted. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The science of producing suitable species to reclaim Colorado\u2019s varied landscapes provides part of the appeal, but so does the business end of the equation. It\u2019s a \u201ccontract grow,\u201d a guaranteed order that can provide greater financial stability for the nursery. The facility\u2019s recent decline in part reflected a reliance on speculative growing \u2013 producing trees that the nursery guessed, and hoped, might sell.<\/p>\n

The nursery, which operates under the auspices of CSU\u2019s Warner College of Natural Resources, found that some lean years leading up to the pandemic presaged problems. When the COVID-19 lockdown hit the university in spring 2020, the nursery had to furlough its mostly student workers.<\/p>\n

Years of deferred maintenance also came home to roost. Heaters failed, which led to burst pipes during a bitter cold snap. Both indoor and outdoor structures had fallen into disrepair. And the budget didn\u2019t support the necessary fixes.<\/p>\n

Godwin says he has been \u201ctriaging\u201d the greenhouses \u2013 repairing the crucial, immediate problems. He points to the fans that just cycled on to modulate the structure\u2019s rising temperature on a balmy winter day. Only one of them worked when he arrived, meaning that if the others were left broken, temperatures could easily rise high enough to kill plants in the heat of summer.<\/p>\n

The overhead irrigation system sags, but it works. Godwin will circle back to that later, when it can be upgraded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just kind of coming through and getting the place operational so that we can grow a crop and then we\u2019ll come back and dress it up later on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In the nursery\u2019s outdoor spaces, where the seedlings eventually are moved to experience the stresses of a natural environment and develop deeper root structure, pergola-like slats atop a shade structure slump from years of neglect.<\/p>\n

In some ways, the nursery still reflects its existential crisis. Although it vows to fulfill all existing orders for the coming spring, it has stopped taking new orders until the facility can be repaired and upgraded, and more staff members can be hired.<\/p>\n

But until recently, it looked like the facility that has served generations of landowners and conservation districts across the state had arrived at a crossroads.<\/p>\n

Hints from Hayman fire<\/div>\n

In a sense, the first hint that the state needed to retool its reforestation efforts came in 2002, when the Hayman fire 22 miles southwest of Denver scorched 138,000 acres and triggered a dawning awareness of wildfire threat exacerbated by climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the total acreage burned. The Hayman fire burned so hot in some areas that much of the seed source required for regeneration \u2013 ponderosa pine were particularly vulnerable \u2013 also perished, magnifying the critical need for long-term reforestation. What new growth did appear tended to be in proximity to surviving trees. Elsewhere, the only reforestation option became replanting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the post-fire erosion, and the seed source being burned up \u2013 that really started shifting our focus,\u201d says Kristin Garrison, who has worked more than 20 years in the Colorado State Forest Service and now serves as associate director of forest planning and implantation. \u201cYes, we have our traditional conservation plantings, but now we have this new need. So that\u2019s where I kind of saw a shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the pandemic is probably what really daylighted a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the years leading up to COVID-19, the nursery took on a variety of projects in the region, putting in windbreaks to protect farm or ranch land. Wyoming was a big customer. But a lot of those projects were one-offs, rather than reliable customers returning year after year.<\/p>\n

Add to that the speculative method of choosing the nursery\u2019s crops and, Godwin says, the result was \u201can unfocused approach to what we were growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also a growing sense that the nursery needed to change its business model. While the projects and plant choices were in flux, COVID-19 hit. And then the pandemic hung around.<\/p>\n

\"Nursery
Nursery Manager Scott Godwin shows ponderosa and pinyon pine seeds, kept in a 35 degree refrigerator to simulate an overwintering process. Due to the self-preserving nature of some tree species, a ponderosa seedling can take over a decade to mature in its natural environment, compared to just seven months in controlled conditions. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The facility\u2019s aging infrastructure revealed its cracks, and operations ground to a halt. With the recent infusion of state money, it\u2019s been back to square one.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruthfully, it\u2019s worse than square one,\u201d Godwin says. \u201cWe have to kind of dig out from the mess. Everything was left in place and they walked away. So you know, the weeds grew up and the bushes grew over and I got here and heaters didn\u2019t work and lights didn\u2019t work and so we\u2019re having to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the rebuild comes a long-overdue emphasis on modernization.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur processes are super labor intensive and don\u2019t benefit from any of the efficiencies associated with modern production,\u201d McCombs says. \u201cAnd so, you can only do that for so long before literally your shade houses are falling. Wood can only last for so long. Infrastructure that was built in the \u201960s and \u201970s has a useful life. And when you\u2019re beyond it, the capital improvements associated with that are substantial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adapting to emerging need<\/div>\n

Hayman reigned as Colorado\u2019s biggest wildfire until 2020 produced three that surpassed it \u2013 Cameron Peak, East Troublesome and Pine Gulch. The next summer, the state legislature\u2019s Wildfire Matters Review Committee assessed the impacts of the wildfires not only on forests but also post-fire erosion and started asking questions about the state forest service\u2019s role, and its capability to aid in reforestation.<\/p>\n

Soon conversations turned from how the seedling tree nursery could continue to cut costs and keep its head above water to how it could adapt to this rapidly emerging need. In 2022, the legislature gave bipartisan support to spending $5 million from the general fund to upgrade the nursery and expand its capacity. A little more than $4 million of that was earmarked for the greenhouses, with $550,000 aimed at improving the shade structures and $40,000 allocated for an overarching analysis of how to better respond to \u201cwildfire, flood, insect and disease events.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the current legislative session, another pending bill would add $1.9 million<\/a> to upgrade fields and outdoor facilities like the irrigation system, pump house and roads on the property. It would also buy a new seed storage cooler and two refrigerated trucks.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service stands among the supporters of an expanded role for the state\u2019s seedling tree nursery. In a letter to McCombs and provided to the state House agriculture committee, agency officials touched on some numbers related to implementation of the 2021 federal REPLANT Act (Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees), part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.<\/p>\n

\"Older
Older ponderosa pines in a wooden shade house at the Colorado State Forest Service Seedling Tree Nursery, where they are placed after starting inside a greenhouse. This is where they adapt to natural environmental conditions and further develop their roots. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Rocky Mountain Region, which manages more than 40 million acres in five states, pegs its current estimate for reforestation at 270,000 acres over the next 10 years, creating a potential need for more than 10 million native tree seedlings. That exceeds what the federal nurseries can supply.<\/p>\n

McCombs said that in his conversations with colleagues from other states, he doesn\u2019t hear much about their investments in nursery capacity \u2013 something he takes as an indicator that Colorado not only is \u201cputting its money where its values are\u201d but also has a leg up on federal money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always good when states can demonstrate their own financial commitments to outcomes that have benefits not just to the state, but to the nation,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd as a headwater state where we collect the lion\u2019s share of the water for down-basin states, there\u2019s an explicit connection between healthy forest and healthy watersheds. I think that also makes us a very attractive investment in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrison says the nursery is waiting for completion of the program review to make sure it is focusing on the critical pieces. She says about $14 million in improvements have been identified.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we have very limited production,\u201d she says. \u201cWe want to get our improvements done as quickly as possible, so we don\u2019t have to go multiple years without growing or selling trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first year of the rebuild includes scaled-down production of a small crop of container-grown seedlings. Normally, the nursery splits its yield between container-grown and field-grown, but the machinery and equipment for field growing was, like most everything else, in disrepair.<\/p>\n

\"A
A machine in need of repairs at the CSFS Nursery is typically used to seed multiple containers at once instead of relying on the nursery\u2019s current procedure of filling containers of soil by hand. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

So this year\u2019s game plan focuses on regaining customer confidence by restoring quality and delivering on expectations, even if it\u2019s on a smaller scale. The nursery also wants to get the word out that it\u2019s going to return \u2013 bigger and better \u2013 to woo back customers forced to look elsewhere when it paused production.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that not only are they able to resume buying plants from us, but that our quality will exceed their expectations,\u201d Godwin says. \u201cAnd kind of maybe make up for having left them high and dry for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, the nursery\u2019s new mission extends to becoming a bigger player in providing seedlings for reforestation, particularly native or regionally adapted species. Part of that mission includes a focus on regionally collected seeds that preserve the state\u2019s native plant genetics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to go from an average of 350,000 to 400,000 to 2 million seedlings a year,\u201d McCombs says.<\/p>\n

Colorado as a \u201crelief valve\u201d<\/div>\n

McCombs witnessed large-scale reforestation as a U.S. Forest Service district ranger out of Gunnison, where he worked before becoming Colorado\u2019s state forester. When the spruce beetle epidemic led to massive logging efforts to remove dead timber, the Forest Service planted 1.1 million trees over more than 3,000 acres across the district.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why he thinks Colorado\u2019s seedling tree nursery can become a game changer \u2013 preserving regional genetics by cultivating a seed bank and potentially establishing a seed orchard, increasing capacity by modernizing its facilities to become \u201ca relief valve\u201d for the demand for seedlings nationally.<\/p>\n

\"Drops
Drops of water gather on the leaves of Geyer willow plants being propagated at the Colorado State Forest Service Seedling Tree Nursery in Fort Collins. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

His colleague Arthur Haines, a silviculturist for the Gunnison ranger district, worked on the spruce beetle project and others and understands well that the demand for seedlings, especially in the wake of the REPLANT Act, will underscore the importance of partnerships with state nurseries.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much all of the nurseries in the federal system are at capacity already,\u201d Haines says. \u201cSo we need to reach out to other nurseries. If we can get more trees from Colorado State Forest Service, we can concentrate our trees on the national forest and their trees on the private lands right next door.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCombs sees several important institutions converging in Fort Collins to create ideal conditions for collaboration, including the Rocky Mountain Research Station<\/a> of the U.S. Forest Service on the CSU campus, the federally funded Colorado Forest Restoration Institute<\/a> and the university itself as a leader in plant genetics and research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say we are at a jumping-off point,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of those resources are in place and perfectly designed, as well as the fluency that our political leadership has in these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Godwin, too, sees a place of great potential, built by professionals and scientists who were smart about how they laid it out. The deferred maintenance and shifting customer base led to some inefficiencies, he acknowledges, but those can be corrected, and he relishes the opportunity to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my world and I love it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo while this place looks rough around the edges, it\u2019s got a lot of potential. It\u2019s got good bones. We\u2019ve just got to give it a little TLC to get it going again.\u201d<\/p>\n

That reconstruction rests on the pillars of improving quality and uniformity; adding automation where possible in a labor-intensive operation; and being nimble enough to turn multiple crop cycles. With current processes, he says, losses could reduce the yield by 40% to 50%.<\/p>\n

His aim for this growing season is to produce 750,000 seedlings from the three greenhouses. But with improvements in quality and uniformity, he estimates he could nearly double the output.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can bump that number up real quick to one and a half million or thereabouts, 1.2 million maybe, just out of one turn of these greenhouses,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd by increasing how quickly we can get this crop out and the next crop in there\u2019s a possibility of turning at least a portion of these greenhouses a second time with, say, some grasses or flowers, something that we can sow and grow and finish in a shorter amount of time than what it takes to grow one of these trees. And it\u2019s only up from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCombs figures that with the snowpack piling up as it is, the coming warm weather and accompanying runoff will further demonstrate the incredible need for reforestation and soil stabilization efforts all across the fire scars from the past few years. Trees stand as one of the most elemental ways to accomplish that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most heartwarming components of being a natural resource worker is knowing that, yeah, it\u2019s gonna take probably another 150 years for those trees to become the type of trees that they were before they were impacted,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you know you\u2019ve left a down payment on the future, and you can go into retirement or go to your grave knowing that you\u2019ve done everything you could to leave things better than you found them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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