Seedlings at Prince Albert Forest Nursery. (Jaryn Vecchio/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Millions of Trees

Forest nursery in northern Sask. celebrates 25 year anniversary and over 250 million seedlings grown

Sep 23, 2022 | 1:15 PM

A nursery responsible for helping grow millions of trees is celebrating 25 years of operations in northern Saskatchewan.

PRT Growing Services Ltd. took over the Prince Albert Forest Nursery in 1997 and over that time they’ve been able to produce over 250 million seedlings.

If you were to put all these seedlings fully grown next to each other with two feet of space between them, this would amount to roughly 23,000 acres. That’s roughly one and a half times the size of the city of Prince Albert.

Doug Gullickson, the nursery manager, told paNOW that even the seedlings themselves take up a lot of space.

“They’re typically 12 to 15 cm high and we grow them in 46 greenhouses that are 210 feet long each.”

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Greenhouses at Prince Albert Forest Nursery. (Jaryn Vecchio/paNOW Staff)

He explained it takes roughly one day for 50 people to seed an entire greenhouse. When it comes to harvesting, which happens in October, it usually takes 50 people another full day’s work.

Gullickson added they are hiring for the upcoming harvest.

Meanwhile, the nursery doesn’t just provide trees for P.A. and northern Saskatchewan. Most of the trees they grow are spread out across Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba.

“We have a lot of customers, primarily serving the forestry industry for reforestation but also reclamation and for some of the new programs like carbon capture and billion trees,” said Gullickson.

Seedlings from the nursery have also been planted in British Columbia and Ontario. However, Gullickson noted this isn’t the farthest some have traveled.

“I guess that would put as down into Michigan and the Great Lakes states.”

PRT Growing Services Ltd. has 19 nurseries set up across Canada and the United States. Gullickson added the company expects to surpass 5 billion seedlings grown during the upcoming harvest.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow