The WSCA is estimating 275 million trees for next year’s planting season counting seedlings sown and summer planting projections based on recent trends.
That figure is a slight increase over the 2007 season of an estimated 270 million seedlings produced. The attached graphs show the trees actually growing in the nurseries today. They will be adjusted upwards this fall when the 2008 summer crop is sown. In recent years the provincial summer plant has been about 25 per cent of the spring plant.
The attached information shows how those sowing requests are distributed by region. Most of the regional distribution is unsurprising except for indicators that the south east corner of the province may be coming out of its silviculture dormancy. There also appears to be a shift towards increasing the summer plant. BCTS is the main instrument of this trend and they seem to be the only clients who have wisely heeded the WSCA’s advice to move trees out of the crowded May window whenever silviculture considerations will allow.
John Betts
Executive Director
Western Silvicultural Contractors’ Association
Phone: 250-229-4380
hotpulp@netidea.com