Congratulations to Reforestation Advisor for South Carolina, Kylie Burdette, on her recent promotion to U.S. Sales Manager and to Reforestation Advisor, Paul Jeffreys, on his promotion to Manager of Special Projects and Sustainability.
News
Our Promise to You
We promise to always dedicate ourselves to providing the best performing seedlings available—anywhere. ArborGen’s work represents the integration of many of forestry’s leading seedling research and production companies into a single company, providing seedling solutions to landowners of all sizes to meet forest management objectives.
Planting Has Started
Talk to an ArborGen Reforestation Advisor or Nursery Manager before planting trees that have experienced abnormally high or low temperatures. Seedling survival will suffer if seedlings are exposed to excessively high or low temperatures. The level of mortality is directly related to the length of exposure to these temperature extremes. An exposure to 80°F for two hours can significantly reduce survival.
Containerized Seedlings Are Still Available!
Even though dry conditions have dominated fall and early winter 2023, The National Weather Service is still predicting Pacific El Nino conditions will create an unusually cool and wet late winter and spring 2024.
Updated Seedling Availability
With seedling harvest coming next month, there’s still a little time to get your seedlings reserved for this year’s planting. Get in touch with your ArborGen Nursery or Reforestation Advisor to place your order before we’re sold out.
Congratulations to the team at the ArborGen Bluff City Nursery in Arkansas!
Since the first crop planted in 1980, the nursery has produced 2 billion seedlings. Pictured left to right: Gene Bickerstaff, western regional nursery manager, BJ Hampton, business specialist, Chase Weatherly, production specialist, CEO Justin Birch, and Robert Nimmo, nursery manager.
FLA Awards ArborGen “Corporate Partner of the Year”
ArborGen receives an unprecedented second partnership award from FLA. Since 2006, the Forest Landowners Association (FLA) has recognized one of its Corporate Members with a Corporate Partner of the Year award.
Welcome Justin Birch
Please join us in welcoming Justin Birch to ArborGen as our new president and CEO! Justin succeeds Andrew Baum, who will retire on June 19th but will continue in a consulting capacity to facilitate a seamless leadership transition.
NC State University Tree Improvement Co-Op Survey
According to the NC State University Tree Improvement Cooperative annual surveys, almost 1.5 billion full-sib (control pollinated) seedlings have been produced in the southeastern United States. Most recent numbers indicated more than 191 million were produced in the 2021-2022 planting season.
The Language Has Changed
Seedling suppliers have moved away from “generation” vocabulary for over a decade. Tree improvement foresters have known for years it is not how old the tree is. Instead, it is crucial to understand the genetic performance of an individual family. On average, second-generation loblolly pine families were better than first-generation selections. In theory, third-generation families would represent an improvement over second and first-generation material. But this is not always the case. Some first-generation families still outperform second and even third-generation selections. New categorical designations such as Advanced, Select, and Elite have replaced “generation” and are a part of our modern reforestation language.