A Win for the Trees

In recent years, the State Forest Nursery in Akeley has produced 2 to 3 million tree seedlings annually for planting projects across the state. On a crisp October morning last fall, workers at the nursery were busy packing up some of the 2025 growing season’s production—more than 7 million seedlings in all. And they haven’t even hit full stride yet: In coming years, they expect to reach 10 million to meet increased demand.

The nursery’s ramped-up production is the result of a long-overdue expansion enabled by an influx of state and federal funding, says nursery director Sarah Ebert. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which operates the nursery, received $10 million from the state Legislature and more than $230,000 in federal grants for nursery improvements.

“This is the biggest step forward in decades,” says Ebert.

The nursery has been operating since the 1930s, and its facilities and equipment often looked like it. The new infusion of money will allow the nursery to replace several critical buildings and modernize outdated and inefficient equipment. One new structure, an enormous cooler that can hold an entire season’s seedlings, is already up and running, chilling seedlings “lifted” last fall for distribution and sale this spring.

The nursery obtains seeds collected by trained volunteers, extracts, cleans, and sorts them, then grows them to “conservation seedling” size—smaller than the trees you see at your local nursery or garden center. Because the nursery grows many species of native conifers, hardwoods, and shrubs, and every species’ seed and seedling needs are different, a lot of specialized equipment is required. More modern equipment means greater efficiency, quantity, and quality.

“Having an up-to-date facility is going to help us increase our efficiency and improve the quality of seedlings that we send out,” says Ebert. “Improving our seed extraction area will help with basically everything, because everything starts from the seed.”

About half of the seedlings produced at the nursery go to DNR reforestation projects, and half go to private landowners and community groups. With a minimum order of 300 trees, the nursery supports large-scale replanting efforts to help “protect the sustainability of Minnesota’s diverse forest resources,” according to its mission statement.

It’s a momentous time for the nursery and its staff as they replace old, worn, and often MacGyvered equipment and move into the 21st century.

“I’m excited to see the upgrades and to navigate that path,” says Ebert. “But it’s also great to see how excited the staff are, because for so long they’ve been band-aiding or trying to fix what we had with what we had.”