TFS seed is made available to our commercial partners, who then
make seedlings available to their customers. We also make the seed available to
TFS’ West Texas Nursery. Currently seed from our drought-hardy
loblolly pine orchard at Magnolia Springs is being collected and provided to
both TFS and to private and commercial partners to produce seedlings to
reforest Bastrop State Park and surrounding lands devastated by the Bastrop
wildfire in 2011. This seed is a product of some of the earliest selection and
testing work done by TFS with loblolly pines originating from the Lost Pines
region.
The TFS Tree Improvement Program also collects hardwood
seed developed to support a unique improvement program focusing on street, or
urban, trees. Most cities in Texas are outside the range of the eastern
hardwood forest and most seed made available to support urban reforestation
when this program began were from the northeastern U.S. and very poorly
adapted. TFS collaborated with several municipalities and commercial nurseries
to make local selections in several species, including baldcypress, bur oak,
green ash, live oak and Shumard oak, and tested these for suitability in the
urban environment. TFS and the cities of Burleson and Forth Worth have
continued this partnership to deploy seedlings of several species from this
program in their respective cities. The program is continually looking to build
partnerships to further the collaborative effort that gave rise to this unique
state resource.
The TFS Tree Improvement Program also partners
with the Texas Christmas Tree Growers’ Association to produce Virginia pine
seed to support seedling production for the members.