Newstrack: Plan for growth at State Nursery proceeds

Background

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa's State Forest Nursery, on the south edge of Ames, cut operating expenses, left positions vacant and closed the nursery's 20-acre seed bed at Montrose after losing about $500,000 back in the 2014-15 fiscal year. 

As a result, the nursery ended the 2015-16 fiscal year about $120,000, according to State Forester Paul Tauke.

The Department of Natural Resources has kept the nursery operating by redirecting a few hundred thousand dollars from its $15 million budget. However, Director Chuck Gipp made it clear that was only a temporary fix.

In the face of the fiscal threat, Tauke was encouraged to work to keep the nursery open because of the support from woodland owners and conservation groups as well as commercial nurseries.

There's also support from the public even though most Iowans will never use the nursery, Tauke said. That's because the market is limited to people who have significant amounts of land, have disposable income or participate in government cost-share programs and the desire to reforest Iowa, create habitat or plant more pollinators.

'People like the idea that there is a state nursery in the same way they like Yellowstone National Park being out there,' Tauke said. 'It represents a conservation ideal. When it's gone, it's one more nail in the conservation coffin.'

What's happened since

More than a year after escaping the budget ax, the nursery is completing a plan to get back to being a break-even operation as required by state law.

Its next step is to raise the prices for the bare root seedlings the nursery sells for forestry, wildlife, erosion control and beautification. Assuming the Natural Resource Commission approves, Tauke expects the price increases to take effect in October.

Tauke is building his stabilization plan on the assumption the nursery will sell 1.1 million trees or more each year. Unlike commercial nurseries that cater to people establishing windbreaks or planting trees for landscaping, the state nursery sells seedlings to people planting for conservation purposes and to establish wildlife habitat.

It's a limited market, he said, and there's not a lot of money to be made. One commercial nursery in Iowa offers similar seedlings, but the owner has told Tauke he doesn't want to expand to fill the void should the state nursery close.

So the plan is to raise the price of small seedlings — up to 16 inches — from 45 cents to 65 cents and 17- to 24-inch seedlings from 55 cents to 65 cents. In most cases, the minimum order is 500 seedlings.

That, along with continued cost-saving measures, should support a budget of $820,000 for the current fiscal year.

For more on the nursery, click here.