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Published Monday, August 24, 2009 in Local

Special

Georgia Forestry Commission staff collect pine cones that will be sent to the GFC nursery in Byromville and planted for use in reforestation efforts.

Ga. Forestry Commission wants to plant more trees

By Winston Skinner

The Newnan Times-Herald

Youngsters may associate the Georgia Forestry Commission with Smokey Bear and his fire-in-the-woods safety message, while their parents may think of the agency as the folks who come to the rescue when there is an outdoor blaze.

The commission, however, has some other duties -- including collecting seeds from various types of trees and encouraging the planting of more trees throughout the state. "We have a seed program," said Terry Quigley, who is head ranger at the GFC office on Corinth Road on Newnan's south side.

"We have our own nursery in Byromville," Quigley explained. The nursery -- located in Macon County on the Flint River -- grows trees that are native to Georgia.

"We grow native trees of Georgia -- pines and hardwoods. We do it for reforestation," Quigley said. He said most sales are in Georgia, though some trees are available for sale to other states -- particularly hardwoods to South Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee.

GFC offices around the state work to get seedlings in the hands of Georgians who will plant them. Much of the effort is aimed at large landowners who will plant anywhere from 50 to 1,000 trees or more. Bare root pines -- Virginia pine, longleaf and three varieties of loblolly -- are offered in sets of 50, 500 or 1,000.

A package of 50 costs $15-$32 depending on the type, and 1,000 pines can range from $45-$95.

The forestry commission also offers hardwoods -- dogwood, green ash, persimmon, red maple, redbud, yellow poplar, crabapple, wild plum, catalpa, crepe myrtles, wax myrtles and eight types of oaks -- cherrybark, live, northern red, southern red, sawtooth, swamp chestnut, water and white oak.

The hardwoods -- and bald cypresses and red cedars -- are offered in packages of 10-500. Prices for the packages range from $25 for 10 to $200 for 500.

In addition, the office offers an ornamental package -- five each of dogwoods, crepe myrtles and redbuds -- or wildlife package -- five each of crabapple, persimmon and sawtooth oak -- for $40. "We do sell a lot of wildlife trees," Quigley said.

The ornamental package is popular with people who have smaller yards. Hairy lespedeza, a herbal ground cover, is also offered through the GFC.

Quigley emphasized that the goal is to get trees planted, not generate money. "We just pay for the cost of the nursery. The nursery sustains itself," he said. Some seedlings are sold to commercial nurseries.

The Coweta unit sells about 70,000 trees a year. Some south Georgia offices -- where there are many large tract landowners -- sell more than a million. "The main goal is to increase the productivity of Georgia's forest lands," Quigley said. "Every county wants to do a 10 percent increase every year."

Georgia remains 67 percent forested, but the state lost 57,000 acres of forest land last year. In Coweta County, 69 percent of the land is forested.

In September and October, GFC employees will be harvesting seed for the types of trees grown in Byromville. "We've got a seed quota every year," said Jeff Mansour, who works with Quigley.

Local GFC employees know where some good stands of various types of trees are, and they go in the early fall to collect acorns or other type seeds. "We go back to the same trees every year," Quigley said.

Many trees are on public right-of-way, while others are on tracts where owners allow the forestry folk to gather seed. All the types of trees at the nursery are grown from seed collected by GFC staff except for cherry bark oak, which are native to Georgia but too scarce for many seed to be found.

For some types of trees -- such as persimmons and crabapples -- gatherers have to know when to pull the seeds from the trees. "Once they get on the ground, either the deer get them or they're no good," Mansour said.

For pine trees, cones are collected. There is a large cone shed at Byromville where the seeds are gathered from the cones. Quigley and other staff members go to Byromville to help at the nursery from time-to-time.

"All seedlings are two-years-old when they're pulled," Quigley said. People can go to Byromville to get trees or pick them up -- for a five percent fee -- at the Newnan office. Trees are available from the middle of December until the middle of March.

"Generally, they are picked the day before and bagged, so they are fresh out of the ground when they get here," Mansour said. He also said the local GFC office has tree planting equipment that can be rented.

For more information on the tree program, people can call the local Georgia Forestry Commission Office at 770-254-7218.

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