Grand Opening of the Buckeye Tree Nursery
ZANESVILLE, OH – Ohio’s forests got some new additions Monday with the grand opening of a new state tree nursery in Zanesville.
The Buckeye Nursery was approved by the Ohio General Assembly as part of House Bill 101. It will be operated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and will support various projects like H2Ohio, the Girl Scout Tree Promise, and the abandoned mine land reclamation projects.
Mary Mertz, Director of the ODNR, said the demand for native seedlings has been high for the last few years.
“We’re doing extraordinary work both with our H2Ohio program, which is about clean water across Ohio, all the tree plantings we’ve had to do on those properties,” Mertz said. “We’re doing a lot of abandoned mine reclamation, that requires a lot of seedlings. I mean the demand has been huge and we’ve been a little frustrated making all of our orders out of State. So, what a great opportunity to meet the need we have.”
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, joined by First Lady Fran DeWine and their grandsons, planted some seeds they collected from their home to help get the Nursery started.
“It’s been a number of years since Ohio had a tree nursery and we really have a need for it today,” DeWine said. “What we want to be able to do is grow trees and propagate them that are native. What we’ve had to do in the last few years, since we stopped having a tree nursery, is to bring in trees from other states and other places.”
DeWine said once the Tree Nursery is established, landowners will be able to get tree seedlings that they know were produced in their native environments.
