Ness Lake Forest Nursery

Industrial Forestry Service Ltd. (IFS) Ness Lake Forest Nursery strives to produce the highest quality seedlings with morphological and physiological characteristics that meet and exceed client expectations.

The nursery was established in 1980, and is located about 30 km northwest of Prince George near Ness Lake. Primary operations include growing seedlings for reforestation, site reclamation, habitat enhancement, Christmas tree plantations, landscaping, and other purposes.

The nursery includes:

• 107 free-standing poly-covered greenhouses with 178,000 styro-block capacity to produce approximately 20 million seedlings depending on the container type. These individual environmentally computer-controlled structures provide IFS growers the opportunity, where required, to manage client stock orders separately.
• 20 ha of transplant beds, with a potential to hold 10 million seedlings.
• 4 cold storage rooms with a total of up to 46,000 cartons.

The nursery grows forest seedlings for both the spring (fall lifted and cold stored) and summer (hot lifted) planting seasons.

Species include:

• Spruce, Lodgepole Pine, Douglas-Fir, Balsam
• Aspen, Cottonwood, Hybrid Poplar
• Native plant material, seedlings for Christmas trees, plantations, and landscaping (Scots Pine, Norway Spruce, Muhgo Pine, Colorado Blue Spruce etc.)

Stock types include:

• Container Sizes: PSB/PCT 512A, 415D, 412A, 415B, 412B, 410, 313B, 313A, 211A: 1-year old greenhouse grown seedlings for summer or spring planting.
• Transplants: PBR 0.5+1.5; 2-year old seedling for spring planting. Started in a greenhouse then transplanted into fields in the first year. Large stock designed for brushy wet areas.

Support equipment includes:

• An automatic seeding line with a maximum capacity of 4,500 containers per shift.
• 3 deep wells supplying pathogen free water to 2 covered reservoirs for automated greenhouse irrigation and a lake supplying water for field transplant beds
• 5 sites with injectors for liquid fertilizer application
• A laboratory for testing pH and electro-conductivity of water and growing media
• 2 computer systems providing environmental control in all facilities with 24 hour data logging and 24 hour monitoring for alarms
• Supplement lighting in all greenhouses to provide extended photoperiods in the production of secondary needles in pine seedlings and to prevent premature bud set in other conifer species
• Several blackout systems for production of uniform spruce and Douglas fir crops
• Lifting lines sorting and packaging up to 300,000 seedling per shift at exact morphological standards