History

The forests of Wisconsin have ‘risen’ from the aftermath of massive timber harvesting and wildfires, which occurred during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The state nursery program has been a major contributor to this resurgence. Drive down almost any rural road and you will see acres of trees planted by the landowners of Wisconsin. These plantations are not only a tribute to the state nursery program, but to the land conservation ethic of Wisconsin’s citizens.

Seeding at Trout Lake

Wisconsin’s first state nursery was established in 1911 at Trout Lake in Vilas County. Preparation of the nursery site included the logging of a red and white pine stand in the fall of 1910. Cones were collected from these felled trees and dried in the sun to extract seed for the nursery. Two years after sowing seed, the first production of 68,000 trees was distributed for forestry planting. The benefits of this early conservation work can still be seen at Star Lake in Vilas County where the first trees were planted in1913, under the direction of E.M. Griffith, our first State Forester.

Tree grading at Gordon in 1960

Tree planting was not always viewed favorably by early pioneers who had toiled to clear the land for agriculture. Despite the prevailing attitudes of the time, state forestry leaders recognized the importance of reforesting land devastated by unrestricted timber harvesting and wildfires. As the years went by and forest tree planting assumed greater importance in the forestry program, the capacity to produce trees for reforestation was expanded.

Trout Lake Nursery in 1916

Trout Lake Nursery was followed by the establishment of state nurseries at Wisconsin Rapids in 1932 (Griffith State Nursery) and at Gordon in 1936. The Wisconsin Conservation Department took over operations at the former Hayward federal nursery in 1944 (Hayward State Nursery) and the Hugo Sauer federal nursery at Rhinelander in 1951. Also, in the fall of 1951, a new nursery was established at Boscobel (Wilson State Nursery) in the southwestern part of the state. Demand for reforestation stock grew with the advent of federal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and the Soil Bank Program in the 1950s. Seedling production from the state nurseries peaked in 1959 with over 44 million seedlings distributed that spring. As the pace of reforestation slowed, so did the demand for seedlings. The Trout Lake and Gordon nurseries closed in 1964. Production at the Hugo Sauer nursery ended in 1974.

Wisconsin has been considered a national leader in reforestation practices since the CCC era. The state nursery program has been and continues to be a critical part of Wisconsin’s conservation efforts by providing quality tree seedlings for reforestation. Since the creation of the state nursery program in 1911, the state nurseries have produced over 1.5 billion seedlings. Spaced at a typical tree spacing of eight feet, this would be enough trees to encircle the globe 91 times!