THE FOREST FACTORY
Professional forester Dave Kolotelo, left, and B.C. Tree Seed Centre manager Michael Postma sort through cones ready to be processed for their seeds at the Surrey centre, which is the primary provider of cone seeds for B.C.’s forest industry. See story on
The seeds of an idea from the 1950s took root in Duncan, and today has branched out to a massive operation in South Surrey with the goal of planting replacements for every lost tree in the province and more.
“We’re a full-service facility that processes cones and seeds,” said Dave Kolotelo, cone and seed improvement officer at the B.C. Tree Seed Centre. “We store seeds and prepare seeds for nursery sowing in British Columbia.”
That someone has a job title such as cone and seed improvement officer reflects how seriously the province takes reforesting land after lumber company harvests, pine beetle infestations and the worsening wildfire scene.
The Tree Seed Centre is under the umbrella of — in one of those instances of government loving a mouthful — the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
This year more than a quarterbillion seedlings will be planted, with seeds provided by the centre’s 36 tonnes of seed stock from 15 species.
That represents about $80 million of seeds on-site (there is no black market for these tree seeds and there is security, so don’t get any ideas).
The centre also houses a gene bank, with 10,000 tree seeds from 42 species, and is working on the restoration of whitebark pine, a long-living but endangered species found at high elevations.
“Basically, we are the repository for all the seeds for reforestation in the province,” said Kolotelo, who is a registered professional forester. “Currently we’re reforesting about 275 million seedlings per year.”
Seedling production began at a single forest research nursery in 1926 and slowly evolved until the Tree Seed Centre opened in Duncan in 1958 to ensure continuous seed supply. This year is the centre’s 60th anniversary.
Back in 1958, the centre supplied seeds for eight million seedlings, to give an idea of how much the operation has grown to today’s 275 million a year.
“We are the supplier of seeds, every single seed, for all Crown land reforestation,” Kolotelo said.
And consider this: 95 per cent of the province’s forests are on Crown land.
“We still have seeds here in the freezer that are still viable and that were collected in the 1950s,” said Michael Postma, manager of the Tree Seed Centre.
Cones are collected by industry (you can make $20 an hour), and delivered to the centre in burlap bags the size of potato sacks.
About 25,000 sacks will be processed this year.
Cones are put on a mechanized line based on the bottling industry. In fact, the processing conveyor was purpose-built in 1986 by Bevco of Surrey.
The cones then go in natural gas Salton kilns to open them — the kilns are also built locally, and based on the baking industry — before getting tumbled in a giant metal-screened drum, where the seeds fall out.
That’s only the beginning. The seeds are washed more than once, dried, stored in a walk-in fridge to induce dormancy, and kept in three walk-in freezer vaults (-18 C) on shelves that look like the library in Superman’s polar Fortress of Solitude.
Long story short: If you start with 440 litres of, say, lodgepole pine cones (the most common tree species in the province), you end up with 2.2 litres of seeds after final cleaning.
“That’s enough for 150,000 seedlings,” Kolotelo said.
To assure the quality of a batch, seeds are counted, dissected, put under a microscope, photographed by digital X-ray ... it’s a lot of effort to do Mother Nature’s work, and improve upon it.
A bag of Interior Douglas fir seeds from a wild-stand collection is worth $557 a kilogram after final cleaning; lodgepole pine seeds from Kettle River Seed Orchard go for $8,600 a kilo.
“Our level of quality assurance is phenomenal,” Postma said.
“Seed is expensive, but when you look at the gains — 19 per cent ( growth) over a native stand — that makes a big difference.”