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Ontario Tree Seed Plant to be Closed

Amid the news of storms and floods we almost missed an important story about the impending closure of a provincial tree seed bank in Ontario. The Ontario government's Tree Seed Facility sells millions of seeds of up to 60 species of native trees every year, but the facility is scheduled to close in 2018. According to foresters and tree nurseries, the loss of this service will threaten re-forestation, and regional forest adaptation at a time when climate change already endangers the health of woodlands.

The Tree Seed Facility has been operating since 1923, providing seeds for forestry and restoration throughout the province. With 22 acres of land, equipment for germination, frozen storage, and large-scale seed extraction, it is a facility that cannot be duplicated or replaced easily, and foresters are concerned that the services it provides will not be available from the private sector as intended.

Every year, the facility contracts growers to collect millions of seeds from native trees that are chosen for practical uses and adaptation to specific climate zones. They use specialized seed extraction equipment to separate and clean the seeds. For example, pine cones are heated to a specific temperature to open them up and then rolled in a tumbler with a strong fan to blow the seeds out. Besides the need for special equipment to handle large volumes, and customized for many different species, this process also requires special expertise to heat the seeds to the right temperature without over-heating and killing them.

The facility also provides training, germination testing services, and seed storage for large volumes in a freezer that is customized for long-term viability of tree seeds.

According to officials, the Tree Seed Facility is only intended to serve the forest industry in Southern Ontario, and the bulk of forestry has shifted to Northern Ontario and other provinces. Different species grow in different regions, and it is well understood that even within the same species there are strains that grow better in different regions.

But foresters in Southern Ontario disagree that the services are no longer required. Given the special expertise and equipment that the Tree Seed Facility has provided for nearly 100 years, it will be difficult for private contractors to replace its services. Currently, industry can provide about 10% of the services that the Tree Seed Facility can offer.

The Tree Seed Facility will sell seeds until August 2018, then cease commercial operations. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry will focus instead on developing a "genetic archive" of tree seeds for scientific study.

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Commentary: Although Seeds of Diversity works mainly with food crops, and does not have specific expertise with tree seeds, we are concerned that a source of genetic diversity for forestry might be lost. As with all native plants, trees are highly adapted to the regions where they grow and originate. A pine tree native to one province will be different from a similar pine tree native to another province, because the two have adapted to different climate conditions. We would not want a forest industry to become unsustainable because it relied on seeds imported from another region. Biodiversity matters!

Photo: Forest by scotbot (2012) https://flickr.com/photos/scotbot/6777764806
Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

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