Seeds of Change

Sierra Pacific’s New Grenada Nursery Help Forests Come Back to Life…

Although sometimes incorrectly used to describe the intensity of a wildfire, fire severity refers to the effects of a fire on the environment. And a high-severity wildfire leaves a dramatically altered landscape in its wake. Often, the mortality rate of trees is at 80 percent or more, and the soil and its minerals are fundamentally impacted. Without direct intervention, the forest returns as brushland. That’s where reforestation and Sierra Pacific Industries comes in, with their new state-of-the-art seedling nursery in Grenada.

“We started construction in April of 2023,” explains Jessica Hinojosa, who oversees the facility’s nursery operations. “Phase one was just under 5 million seedlings that we packed in November of 2024, then shipped them out for planting in the forests. This year, we’re in Phase Two, growing just under 13 million seedlings. Full capacity will be 25 million seedlings.”

Hinojosa details why the site makes sense. “We already had our seed orchard here for 30 years, and that was chosen because there aren’t any other conifer species around to contaminate pollen. So, when it came to seed collection and the seed center, it really behooved us to be close to the orchard.”

Tree seedlings grow from seeds, and the orchard is just one part of the nursery’s critical process of selecting, gathering and storing seeds. “California is broken out into certain seed zones and elevational bands. We collect seeds from a specific seed zone, broken into 500-foot elevational bands, and that is tracked with the seed through cone collection, to stratification (aka various germination techniques), to sowing,” Hinojosa says. “We even get as specific as to whether those seeds were collected on the south or north slope. If seed was collected in a drainage or a basin, it’s going to go back to that same basin. It’s not going to be planted on a ridgetop. Where a seed is collected means that’s where it’s genetically adapted to grow. If you collect a seed at an elevation of 2,500 feet elevation and plant it at 4,000 feet, it won’t look superior. It might even die. So, it’s paramount to return it to the specific area it was selected.”

Michelle Nystrom, Sierra Pacific’s community relations manager, agrees. “Many in the general public don’t realize when they see our forests, and what we do for reforestation, everything that goes on behind the scenes. We’re not just taking a seedling, putting it out into the woods and hoping that it’s successful. We’re doing everything on the back end to study those trees. We identify the healthiest trees that will grow the fastest and will survive the best out in the woods.

Then, throughout every part of that process, we manage it to make sure that the trees we’re putting out during reforestation will be as successful as possible. That leads to added benefits down the road like faster growth, better use of resources and higher carbon sequestration.”

As a fourth-generation, family-owned company, Sierra Pacific Industries isn’t just focused on the forests, but the communities surrounding them. “Our company’s philosophy is that being a part of rural communities means taking care of our land and our people,” explains Corporate Affairs Director Andrea Howell. “We encourage our leaders to be involved in the community. We have a foundation that contributes to a number of individual projects, key signature events and activities throughout the year. We’re also really proud of the scholarship program we have for the children of our crew members. Last year we provided $605,000 to 202 recipients.”

That ethos extends to long-term sustainability. Howell notes that Sierra Pacific Industries is certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which is “an independent third-party standard that ensures that we’re meeting a number of sustainability metrics around long-term management of the forest, including sustainable production of lumber in addition to the other materials we create. It also means ensuring our logging contractors understand what we do, and their responsibility in that.” The addition of the nursery is also adding to the company’s long-term impact as an economic driver. “We currently have 12 full-time people at the nursery, including our employees in the orchard. Seasonally during packing season, we have an influx of 30 more,” says Hinojosa.

While the nursery is generally not open to drop-ins by the public, Nystrom says the company is open to setting up tours. “We host a number of tours, both in the forest and at our facilities. Here at the nursery, we’ve coordinated with several different community and school groups. Because we invest so much in the communities we operate in, it’s important for us to give access to them to see what we’re doing.”
The company’s long-term goals go far beyond building the nursery’s capacity to 25 million seedlings a year. According to Howell, the company is always identifying ways to grow. “While we don’t know exactly where we’ll be five years from now, we intend to be here, looking ahead, being a leader and ensuring that our manufacturing is state-of-the-art. As the technology changes, we change too, and we’ll continue investing to make that happen.”•

Sierra Pacific Industries
www.spi-ind.com