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November 15, 2006
FREE WHITE PINE SEEDLINGS AVAILABLE FROM ODNR FOR SPRING PLANTING
Landowners with larger planting sites will benefit
receiving one white pine seedling for each one purchased
 COLUMBUS, OH A new state forestry program allows Ohio landowners who purchase at least 1,500 white pine Ohio Conservation Seedlings from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to receive an equal number of seedlings at no additional charge.
Each white pine seedling costs 20 cents under this special offer; early order discounts do not apply. Landowners will pay for half of the total seedlings ordered, including shipping. The remainder will be shipped at no additional charge.
“We are holding a limited number of premium white pine seedlings in the Marietta State Tree Nursery specifically for this program,” said John Dorka, chief of the ODNR Division of Forestry. “When that allotment is gone, the program is over.”
The program requires five acres or more of land suitable for planting the seedlings and pre-approval of the planting order by an ODNR service forester. Seedlings must be planted for reforestation; no Christmas trees or ornamental uses permitted. Once planted, landowners must agree to protect the seedlings from grazing and fire.
Thanks in part to the sales of Ohio Conservation Seedlings, the state is now more than 30 percent forested, compared to just 12 percent in the early 1900s. In the past 80 years, the Division of Forestry has planted more than 500 million trees for reforestation efforts in the state.
ODNR is the largest producer of bare root tree seedlings in the state, selling more than 2,000,000 trees each year at the Marietta State Nursery for reforestation efforts. ODNR foresters have planted more than a half-billion trees in the past 80 years.
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