Category Archives: Tree Nursery/Greenhouse

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment has contracted with a Saskatchewan nursery to grow and store 2.5 million tree seedlings, all destined for planting projects in the Provincial Forest.

The pine seedlings will be grown this year by PRT Growing Services, located north of Prince Albert, stored for the winter, and then planted in the spring of 2013 as part of the province’s ongoing forest renewal program.

Under current agreements, forest companies must renew the areas they harvest. The provincial renewal program addresses harvested areas that are outside areas covered by these agreements or that predate them.

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PRT Growing Services Ltd., North America’s largest producer of container-grown forest seedlings, today unveiled a refreshed corporate identity. The new logo and positioning statement, Trusted to grow, better reflect the company’s service-oriented business and its diversified growth strategy. The updated corporate identity will also be featured on the redesigned www.prt.com website.

“Our new corporate identity represents who we believe we are and how our customers, investors and employees perceive us,” said Rob Miller, PRT President and CEO. “We continue to focus on providing reliable reforestation products and silviculture services, while capitalizing on growth opportunities in markets such as bioenergy and starter plants for food crops.”

Forestry companies and private landowners in Canada and the United States have trusted PRT to grow forest seedlings since 1988. Today, PRT is using its expertise in plant propagation to diversify its business into energy crops, hybrid starter plants such as cranberries, and new North American markets for its forest seedlings.

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PRT Forest Regeneration Income Fund has seen a 41% increase in seedling order volume over 2010, mainly attributable to improving forestry markets due to stabilization of the US housing market and growth in Chinese lumber exports.

PRT announced their financial results today for it second quarter.

Revenue increased 23.2% to $18.3 million compared with the first half of 2010. Gross profit increased 2.6% to $7.3 million due to increased efficiencies in production.

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Again this year, the Canadian dollar is rising near Christmas tree exporting season, and that is making our Christmas tree growers nervous.

The CBC interviewed Gordon Young, a grower near Fredericton, New Brunswick, who said the rising Canadian dollar will impact his profits this year.

Young exports 6,000 – 10,000 Christmas trees from his 30 hectare woodlot, and says his bottom line will be hit when the Canadian-American exchange rate results in fewer dollars going into his pocket.

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Four seasonal workers at the provincial Strathlorne forest nursery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia had to be laid off recently due to the low sales for tree seedlings.

The nursery has just 21 seasonal employees now, and 5 permanent employees. When the nursery opened, more than twenty years ago, it employed upwards of 200 people and has been considered a major employer in Inverness County. Just four years, the nursery employed 48 seasonal workers.

Ned MacDonald, a councillor for the county, said, “We were hoping to save those, a lot of the earlier indications were that we’d have the same number of employees at that site, but last week four of the 25 were let go.”

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PRT Forest Regeneration Income Fund today announced receipt of $4.6 million in insurance proceeds as cash settlement for damages to greenhouses resulting from an unusually heavy snowfall in December 2008, as previously reported by the Fund.

The greenhouse losses occurred in the lower mainland of BC, with the majority at PRT’s Maple Ridge nursery which was permanently closed in 2009. The settlement amount is expected to exceed the underlying book values of the damaged assets, and the resulting gain for accounting purposes, once determined, will be netted with other gains or losses arising from the nursery closure, and reported in the December 31, 2009 consolidated financial statements of the Fund.

Source: PRT Forest Regeneration Income Fund

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Pacific Regeneration Technologies Inc. (“PRT”) announced today that it will discontinue seedling production at PRT Kirkland Lake, its nursery facility in Northeastern Ontario, for an indefinite period until market conditions improve. It also announced that PRT Summerland, located in the Okanagan region of British Columbia, will be consolidated with PRT’s three other sites in the region. Both actions will take place once crops currently in production are completed, expected within the next 30 days. Cold storage operations at PRT Kirkland Lake will continue in order to serve local customers.

PRT Kirkland Lake is a comparatively high production cost facility, as it relies on relatively expensive propane fuel for greenhouse heat. The PRT Summerland nursery site is leased under a short term agreement, and current production can be readily consolidated with other nearby sites in the Okanagan valley.

“The closure and site consolidation will improve economies of scale in light of the continued downturn in demand for tree seedlings across PRT’s market areas, while still allowing us to provide a high level of localized customer service,” said Rob Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer of PRT. “Forest seedling demand is strongly influenced by US house construction and with continued weakness in US housing markets this year we are anticipating some further decline in seedling demand for 2010. Next year’s demand is expected to be down approximately 5 to 10% from 2009, which will be approximately 50% off its peak in 2006. There is also a risk that the pace of the US housing market recovery could be slow. Accordingly, after careful review, we are taking these steps to improve our capacity utilization, production costs and efficiency. We have selected these two sites based on anticipated customer needs over the next few years.”

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The sharp rise in the Canadian dollar in recent days is not welcome news to our Christmas tree growers who export their product to the United States.

Bill Kilfoil grows Christmas trees in Florenceville, New Brunswick, and sells them in the United States. He has been at this business for a long time and he said the last time the loonie achieved parity with the U.S. dollar it was bad for his seasonal business.

“When the U.S. dollar went to pieces, we all stood there wondering what we were going to do, because all we were getting was the same price in Canadian as we [did in] American,” Kilfoil said. “When that happened we had to go back to our customers, and they’re not real big on giving you a lot of money.”

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Pacific Regeneration Technologies Inc. (PRT) wants deep concessions from its tree nursery workers in British Columbia. As a result, the workers have voted in favour of strike action.

“Our members who grow seedlings for reforestation in B.C.’s forestry sector have approved strike action by a 96 per cent margin with a very high turnout,” said Darryl Walker, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union. “It sends a strong message to their employer that they are not prepared to accept concessions in a new contract.”

PRT wants wage cuts of up to 17%.

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The provincial forest nursery facility at Strathlorne, Inverness County, will be able to explore long-term opportunities, invest in necessary upgrades and develop a program to employ seasonal workers, with $1,140,000 in funding over two years from the Nova Scotia Community Development Trust Fund.

“There has been a dramatic decrease in harvesting that affects every aspect of our province’s forestry industry,” said Minister of Natural Resources Carolyn Bolivar-Getson. “We must continue to make smart investments and seize opportunities to ensure our rural economies remain sustainable during this difficult time and for many years to come.”

The forest nursery has been a major employer in Inverness County for more than 20 years. Sustainable communities are crucial to the future strength and prosperity of the province.

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