From the ground up
Forester Aram Eramian describes the U.S. Forest Service’s 220-acre nursery in Coeur d’Alene as “wilderness in prime real estate.” The nursery – the only nursery serving the agency’s Northern Region of Idaho, Montana and North Dakota – is west of Ramsey Road and adjacent to Kathleen Avenue. It’s accessed by making a left turn, just beyond little-used railroad tracks. The entry is through gates that remain open during business hours from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday
The quarter-mile drive to the low, green-painted office and greenhouse area is an asphalt lane flanked by 35-year-old Colorado blue spruces planted when the site was developed in 1960. Eramian says that the first nursery was on the site now occupied by Wild Waters.
On either side of the drive are billiard-table flat, well-tended fields, some fallow and others with rows of small trees. One row is covered with straw to protect young Engelmann spruce from frost burn and ground heaves when a hard freeze could force an unprotected tree out of the ground.
Eramian, with 24 years’ experience and a master’s degree in silvaculture from the University of Idaho, is our tour guide. The brochure we are given explains that tours for larger groups, such as schools, are usually arranged through the business office but, “…we welcome drop-ins.”
Before our tour begins, Eramian provides us with some interesting facts about the operation: The facility has on hand a 10 years’ supply of seed – Douglas fir, Western white pine, Engelmann spruce, Western larch, lodgepole pine, and Western hemlock, plus seeds for a variety of grasses and shrubs that make up the understory of our forests.
Eramian further explains, “We seek the most efficient way to do everything and the nursery receives no appropriated money from Congress. Our income is derived from selling to ranger districts. If we have surplus we may sell to private foresters, which was the case last year.
“This is a tight, lean period,” he said. There have been cutbacks in Forest Service funding and “we have dealt with most of the fires from the 2000 fire season – like the Flathead and the Beaverhead (Montana).” Despite this, the nursery has an order for 3 million trees.
Forests damaged by fire are reforested by planting small trees by hand. Seldom is this done by broadcasting seeds. “We did give out some leftover seed once,” Eramian recalls, “but rodents ate most of it. In areas where fires have burned exceptionally hot, there is not much left for the animals to eat. They are opportunists and will go after anything.”
However, he says that seeds often do well when seed trees survive a fire. “Young forests grow up very well around these seed trees.”
Tours take visitors to the storage units and greenhouses – there are 15 of the latter, all with controlled environments. Few workers are in evidence in late afternoon but Eramian said there are about 20 regular employees and, at different times, 35 to 40 seasonal employees. The nursery also makes use of outside contractors.
Eramian makes clear the nursery’s mission: To provide quality seedlings for national forests in North Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, to develop the best possible methods for producing quality seedlings, and to work with cooperative forestry to demonstrate successful tree-growing practices and share new technology. “We share what we learn with anyone.”
The first greenhouse on our tour houses trees that have been field-grown on the plantation for two years. These seedlings, less than a foot tall, are “lifted” in November, laid flat, one on top of the other, in gray, plastic boxes and stored below freezing at 28 to 29 degrees until May. This constant, temperature keeps the trees dormant until they are gradually warmed to acclimate them to warmer outdoor temperatures. Then they are shipped for planting to the ranger district that supplied the original seeds.
The ranger districts are the only source of seeds for the nursery
“They ship us their cones, then we place them in racks where the cones are heated and dried in trays at 105 degrees, he said. “From the drying racks the cones go on through another mechanized process that shakes the seeds from the cones already opened by the heat. Once the seeds are free of the cones they go through still another series of mechanized stages that ultimately cull out inferior and sterile seeds.”
The last stop for the seeds, before bagging and placement in the freezers where they will be held until planting in the greenhouses, is an X-ray of a sample of the final product to be sure that the number of poor seeds is acceptably tiny. Bad seeds show up white – empty.
“We are judged by the quality of our product and the satisfaction of the buyers,” Eramian said. “We are service-oriented.”
He also said the nursery is a very economical operation and that everything is recycled and reused. He shows us a compost pile where ground up cones and rejected trees are reserved for mulch to be spread back on the fields. Rows of corn are also planted yearly and the stalks are ground up and plowed under to improve the soil.
Besides storing seeds and propagating quality seedlings, the nursery also provides plant material for the region’s Tree Improvement Program. This includes growing and testing white pine seedlings for blister rust resistance.
Blister rust is a disease originating in Asia that attacks and kills white pine. Some trees are resistant and the testing has involved growing seedlings in test plots from naturally occurring rust-resistant stock.
We visited one greenhouse where several employees painstakingly graft shoots onto host trees to improve breeding stock. Staff horticulturist Karen Baur’s work involves propagating grass and native shrubs – the understory of a healthy forest. She also oversees the program of raising “campground trees,” trees tall enough to be planted in Forest Service campgrounds.
“These are trees sturdy enough to not be run over or stepped on by campers,” she said.
Eramian says that if people see strange lights at the nursery, on all night or going on and off at different times, it is because light is being used to push seedlings to optimum growth. After the light treatments, the seedlings are allowed to rest and are gradually cooled before they are taken to the fields for planting, where they will spend the next two years.
As we leave the greenhouses and walk back to the office, Eramian tells us, “We do everything carefully and handle seeds and young trees gently. We change their environment gradually so there is no shock – no damage. These are all living things and we need to keep all the energy in the seed and the plant.”
He is a man who obviously enjoys his work. He says he became interested in growing things as a child, working in the garden in his home state of Rhode Island.
We drive away, taking with us the feeling that we have had an almost sacred experience – not too unusual after spending an afternoon in a place that is all about life, a place where our forests of tomorrow grow – and sleep.