Nestled in the front-range foothills on the outskirts of Fort Collins, the Colorado State Forest Service seedling nursery is made up of some outdoor growing areas, several greenhouses and a small office. Inside the greenhouses, sunlight filters through the translucent roof and rusty fans blow air over thousands of trees only a few inches tall. The tiny ponderosa pines, douglas firs, junipers and willows are organized in neat rows alongside various shrub and wildflower seedlings.
The state-run facility grows half a million native plants a year for reforestation and conservation projects, but it has not been able to meet demand because of aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance. New efforts by state lawmakers are now underway to shore up its capacity in the face of increasingly severe natural disasters.
鈥淚t's just been one maintenance project after another: addressing heaters, ventilation, greenhouse lights, digging out from all the mess,鈥� nursery manager Scott Godwin said. 鈥淥ver this winter, we experienced some sub-freezing temperatures for several days. The heaters couldn't keep up. This building froze, burst some plumbing and flooded out our office.鈥�
The greenhouse heating system has not been updated since the 1970鈥檚 and Godwin can no longer get parts for it. Without artificial heat, seedlings can be killed in cold snaps or over the winter.
The irrigation infrastructure is also outdated. It uses more water than it needs , doesn鈥檛 water plants evenly and creates standing water that鈥檚 a breeding ground for flies and mosquitos.
鈥淲ith the state of our facility, we're consistently having to manage small crises, again and again and again, which is expensive,鈥� Godwin said. 鈥淚t threatens the finished quality of the crop, and, just in general, distracts us from the larger projects that we're trying to focus on.鈥�
Because it鈥檚 been neglected for so long, the nursery is limited to smaller projects and doesn鈥檛 have the capacity to help reforest large areas of the state where wildfires have swept through. Instead, it focuses on providing seedlings for small-scale public projects and selling plants to private landowners interested in conservation.
The facility also doesn鈥檛 typically contribute to federal reforestation efforts. Not only does it not have the capacity, but there is no established pipeline for collaboration between state and federal-level US Forest Service nurseries.
The lack of maintenance over the years is largely because of a lack of funding, but Godwin said he is hopeful that new investments from the state legislature can help usher the nursery into a new era. Gov. Jared Polis signed for upgrades.
鈥淭his tree nursery becomes even more imperative during those big fire years when we are working towards reforestation of those burned areas, but also stabilizing watersheds,鈥� bill sponsor Rep. Tammy Story said. 鈥淏eing able to renovate and remodel this tree nursery will provide that they can churn out maybe two to three times as many tree seedlings.鈥�
Sometimes forests regrow naturally after a wildfire, but when a fire produces intense heat, the seeds that would normally regrow don't survive. According to the U.S. Forest Service, and creating a backlog of reforestation needs. Wildfire accounts for about 80% of those needs, but reforestation is also needed after significant flooding, insect infestations and disease, all of which are exacerbated by the changing climate.
Story said shoring up the nursery now, while Colorado is experiencing a temporary lull in large wildfires, is important preparation for future natural disasters like wildfires and floods. Expanding its capacity will allow it to sell seedlings to large-scale buyers, like other states, when Colorado doesn鈥檛 need them.
鈥淔or the State Forest Service to be able to sell those seedlings to other states that are in need, that helps the tree nursery then be more sustainable,鈥� Story said.
There is plenty of demand for native plants across the Mountain West, but there aren鈥檛 many growers. There used to be ten large-scale U.S. Forest Service nurseries across the West. Now, there are only six, the closest of which are hundreds of miles away in Idaho and Nebraska, and they provide seedlings primarily for federal land.
On top of that, those federal facilities are experiencing the same neglect as the state nursery in Colorado.
鈥淎ll our metal roofs, they're beyond their age of usefulness. Some of the windows in the buildings are still single pane. It just adds up,鈥� Aram Eramian, manager of the U.S. Forest Service nursery near Coeur D鈥橝lene, ID, said. 鈥淚 have probably two to $3 million in just deferred maintenance.鈥�
Eramian also said that state natural resource agencies should ideally be able to look to their own nurseries because their plants are specifically adapted to the local conditions. In order to get to that point, though, the Colorado state seedling nursery first has to undergo major renovations to expand its capacity. The nursery鈥檚 staff hopes the $5 million dollar investment from lawmakers will help make that happen.
