SIERRA FOOTHILLS – With the massive loss of ponderosa pines across the mountain area, this is the perfect time to “adopt” a few seedlings for planting.
Foothill residents from North Fork to Mariposa can become participants in the spring planting program by planting a few seedlings on their property.
The Forest Service now has bare root one-year-old ponderosa pine seedlings available for adoption, and persons wishing to adopt seedlings may obtain 5 to 10 or more at the Sierra National Forest’s Bass Lake Ranger District office in North Fork.
The Bass Lake Ranger District office is located behind the Pizza Factory in North Fork on Grizzly Road, and is open Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
To minimize moisture and heat stress, seedlings should be transported in an ice chest with the roots covered with a moist towel and planted the same day, if possible. Please call a day ahead of pick-up time, and bring a one-gallon baggie to prevent the moist towels from drying out during transport. Instructions on how to plant the seedlings will be included during your pick-up. These seedlings are meant to be planted on private property.
Seedlings are grown from seed picked a number of years in advance by the Forest Service and stored at Forest Service nurseries. In order to accomplish reforestation objectives, seedlings must be ordered one to two years in advance of planting. Many of the trees being planted were grown at the Placerville nursery as one-year-old bare root stock. The blister rust resistant sugar pine being planted is grown as one-year-old containerized stock.
The Bass Lake Ranger District is set to begin the 2015 reforestation program, and during the next two months, contract and Forest Service crews will be planting approximately 90 acres of recently piled portions of the Carstens Fire. Contract crews will plant the majority of the seedlings while Forest Service crews will plant small, isolated openings.
Approximately 300 to 400 seedlings per acre will be planted, for a total of up to new 23,000 trees on the district during this period. Openings will be planted with a mixture of ponderosa pine and sugar pine trees.
If more information is needed, please contact the North Fork office at 877-2218. Go Green! Plant a seedling today!
Follow the Sierra National Forest on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SierraNF and Like the Sierra National Forest on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SierraNF. Visit their website at www.fs.usda.gov/sierra
