Even though it’s in Texas County – and has been in operation for about 80 years – awareness among local residents is fairly sparse about the Missouri Department of Conservation’s George O. White State Forest Nursery near Licking.
But that doesn’t mean the facility doesn’t touch the lives of a whole lot of people. The nursery’s purpose is to grow and sell tree seedlings, and it does so in huge numbers.
In fact, in a typical year the nursery fulfills more than 10,000 orders and ships out more some 4 million seedlings.
“This place grows and moves a huge volume of trees,” said nursery supervisor George Clark. “It’s pretty amazing, really.”
George O. White State Forest Nursery supervisor George Clark holds jars of persimmon seeds (left) and wild plum seeds at the MDC facility near Licking.
The origin of the George O. White Nursery can be traced to the mid-1930s, not long after the U.S. Forest Service had designated national forest land in Missouri. Thousands of acres needed restoration, requiring millions of seedlings, so the Forest Service sent a young forester, George O. White, to Texas County to scout for a possible site for what basically would be a nursery for native shortleaf pine trees. White pinpointed a property now adjacent to Schafer Drive, about two miles northwest of Licking.
In 1947, a deal was made giving MDC full use of the nursery, in exchange for annually producing two million shortleaf pine seedlings. Over the years, the Forest Service nursery grew with help from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees, Works Projects Administration (WPA) workers and local labor.
White went on to serve as a state forester for 21 years, and the MDC’s one and only state nursery was renamed in his honor in 1960. In 1976, the Forest Service transferred full ownership of the nursery property to the MDC.
The facility now grows seedlings of about 70 species of trees (almost all of which are native to Missouri) and conducts a massive ordering and shipping business. Clark said about 70-percent of the orders are place online, while others are placed through a catalog, and a few are made in person.
The original nursery property was 40 acres and had about 15 acres of seedbeds. After a series of purchases of adjacent tracts over the years, the current total is 752 acres, about 100 of which contains 22 “blocks” of various seedlings.
Missouri Department of Conservation Texas County resource forester Travis Mills stands next to a young shortleaf pine tree displaying significant new growth in a plot planted a few years ago by Mills and his crew at the George O. White State Forest Nursery near Licking.
Including Clark, the nursery has 11 permanent employees, but the payroll grows to about 50 during the peak season – Dec. 1 to April 1 – to help fulfill orders. Much of the temporary help involves “grading” of seedlings by workers who sit next to large conveyor belts and separate the sellable from the unworthy. Packing, storage and shipping operations are conducted within the same building.
“A lot of the graders have been coming back every year for a long time,” Clark said. “And what’s interesting is that I’d say their average age is about 70.”
The minimum order the nursery will accept is 10 seedlings, down from 200 a few years ago. Clark said the most seedlings shipped out in a year by the nursery was 6 million. To grow so many species and fulfill so many orders, the nursery buys tens of thousands of pounds of seeds each summer and fall – mostly from the public.
“There are some people who have been doing that for us for years,” Clark said.
Clark said the most popular seedlings include red cedar, pecan, wild plum and various oaks. Three 1,000-foot-plus deep wells help irrigate the seedling blocks.
When 11 inches of rain fell in a short period last December, the nursery sustained heavy damage when Sherrill Creek became a raging torrent and overflowed its banks with a vengeance.
“That was a lot of water that came rolling through here,” Clark said. “I’m estimating we lost about a third of our seedlings. The impact was incredible.”
Students from the Licking, Raymondville and Rolla school districts have visited the nursery in the past to learn about its history and conservation practices used there.
“We would like to do even more of that,” Clark said. “There’s a lot for kids to do and learn here.”
Clark has been with the MDC for about 25 years and has been at the helm of the George O. White Nursery for about five. He plans to retire in about a year, and his replacement is long-time MDC resource forester Mike Fiaoni.
Fiaoni said he envisions the nursery moving more into the public eye and see some of the rest of the 752-acre tract (that includes a fishing lake and hundreds of acres of forest) become more of a destination for people interested in many activities – including just seeing the unusual beauty offered by expansive beds of tree seedlings. MDC Texas County resource forester Travis Mills and his crew will help, and have already done extensive work thinning overcrowded stands of trees and performing other tasks at the nursery.
“I’d like to do more to drive people in,” Fiaoni said. “What we’re mainly known for right now is the nursery operation, but there are a lot of neat things in this conservation area, like some old CCC foundations, old barns and other things. There are some who come here and use the roads around the beds for walking and I’d like to see some hiking trails in our forested areas. Also, we’ll probably put some food plots in to attract wildlife.
“But a lot of people have no idea that we’re even here, and the main thing I want to see happen is for that to change. In that case, the nursery will sell itself; the more folks who know we’re here, the more that will be interested in the seedlings aspect of the operation.”
A stand of native shortleaf pines provides a backdrop to a well-groomed block of land planted with tree seeds at the MDC’s George O. White State Forest Nursery.
For comprehensive information about the Missouri Department of Conservation’s George O. White State Forest Nursery (including how to order seedlings), click here:
http://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings/about-missouris-state-forest-nursery