Capitol Ideas: DNR’s state nursery escapes budget ax for one more year

DES MOINES - Although it appeared earlier this year that the budget ax would fell Iowa's 80-year-old state nursery, it now appears the source for seedlings and saplings will live long enough to grow at least one more tree ring.

'The imminent threat is put off for at least a year,” State Forester Paul Tauke said this past Wednesday.

However, Tauke warned that the nursery that was established during the Civilian Conservation Corps era in the late 1930s still is sprouting leaves on borrowed time.

That's because the nursery, which by state law must be self-supporting, is losing $500,000 a year largely because of declining demand for seedlings. Redirecting a few hundred thousand dollars from the $15 million budget of the Department of Natural Resources, which operates the 98-acre nursery at Ames and 20-acre unit at Montrose, may not seem to be asking much.

However, Director Chuck Gipp said it could mean closing a state park.

That won't happen this year, Tauke said. He's working on a rule change that would allow the nursery to raise prices which run from $25 per hundred trees and shrubs to $40 per 100 for Iowa hardwoods.

'Our first thought was to stop the bleeding,” Tauke said.

A price increase was one of many recommendations from woodland owners, forestry businesses and conservation groups that spoke at an informational meeting back in March.

That sentiment was not unanimous, but the consensus was that would be better than the state nursery closing.

Private foresters and woodland consultants are among the nursery's biggest customers. If the state nursery closed, Tauke said trees still would be available from private nurseries.

'But without the nursery, Iowa would be losing its biggest and primary source of Iowa native seedlings - trees and shrubs evolved in Iowa that have adjusted to Iowa climate,” he explained.

Without the nursery, he added, 'people are going to get seedlings from out of state nurseries and depending on how far they go, the stock will not as well-suited to our climate.”

That contributes to stress over the course of a tree's life, which makes the trees more vulnerable to disease, he said.

Also, bringing tree stock in from other states and regions increases the likelihood of importing invasive species such as Emerald Ash Borer and Asian long-horned beetle as well as plant pathogens including sudden oak death, thousand canker of walnut and oak wilt.

Non-native stock is 'more likely to pick up hitchhikers that possibly could jump to native plants,” Tauke said.

Fortunately for the nursery, the state administrative rules process is slow-moving. Tauke speculated the rules change process will take six to nine months.

There's more he'd like to do, such as lowering the number of seedlings an individual can buy. Now the minimum order is 500 seedlings except specialty packets for songbird, pheasant, quail and turkey habitat.

'I didn't want to propose a lot of stuff and get through the rules process and get to the end only to see it derailed,” Tauke said. 'A price change has some controversy, but not as much as other stuff.”

If the rule change isn't approved to allow the nursery to raise prices, 'there is no reason to think we won't be in same financial condition next year that we are today,” Tauke said.

'Costs (are) not likely to go down, and there's nothing that is likely to increase sales by 500,000 to a million trees.”