NEWBERG, Ore. — Following the destructive wildfires in 2020, state officials started looking to plant new trees to replace those that burned. Now the Oregon Department of Forestry has turned to an expert to make sure those new trees have the best chance of survival.
Workers at the Oregon Department of Forestry spend a lot of their time keeping Oregon green, and one place they spend much of that time is at J.E. Schroeder Orchard in Saint Paul.
ODF manages the property, but you could say Kevin Barnes is a key figure in making sure our forests continue to grow. He’s a grafting specialist and makes sure the trees in the orchard will be able to produce seeds for replanting in forests both in Oregon and across the Pacific Northwest.
“I cut down into the root and then you cut your sign into a wedge and I put the wedge into the wood stock here and I tie it up with a strip,” said Barnes.
Casara Nichols is the seed orchard manager with the Oregon Department of Forestry. She said grafting has proven to be successful over the years, and it’s a way Oregon trees are going to survive.
She says the success was evident during the wildfires that broke out across the state in 2020.
“After the 2020 wildfires, known as the Labor Day fires, there was an increase, a drastic increase (in the need) for seed because people needed seeds to reforest,” said Nichols.
It's a success that everyone wants to continue to see, so everyone can enjoy what makes Oregon so beautiful.