State-run greenhouses in Missoula grow 1 million seedlings for reforestation efforts
Five greenhouses tucked away in the Orchard Homes neighborhood of Missoula produce over a million seedlings every year to help reforest Montana’s wild landscapes with native trees and other plants after wildfires.
The Montana Conservation Seedling Nursery, operated by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, recently added its fifth greenhouse.
Ponderosa pine trees grow in the Anaconda greenhouse at the DNRC Conservation Seedling Nursery on Monday, Aug. 5 in Missoula.
SHANNA MADISON, Missoulian
“The greenhouse will grow hundreds of thousands of seedlings each year to help reforestation efforts in underserved communities and on Tribal lands throughout the state,” said DNRC forestry communications coordinator Anna Lau in an email.
The newly built 4,320-square foot Anaconda Greenhouse (they’re all named after mountain ranges) is part of what nursery manager Michael Butts calls the “reforestation pipeline of the state.”
It shelters mainly ponderosa pine seedlings destined for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, which is trying to promulgate millions of new trees in wildfire-stricken areas in eastern Montana.
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The primary focus of the nursery
