Forestry Corporation of NSW’s silviculture supervisor Alex Slattery said around 40 contract staff had been brought on board for planting season, which will continue across the region until August.

“Each winter we re-establish around 8500 hectares of pine plantations across NSW and about 30 per cent of these are in the Central West,” Ms Slattery said.

“This year we will be planting 2.2 million radiata pine seedlings over an area roughly equivalent to 3500 football fields to restock plantations that have been harvested for timber in recent years.

“The seedlings were grown in Forestry Corporation’s production nurseries at Tumut and Grafton and will be planted all over the Oberon plateau, including a large part of Lowes Mount State Forest, as well as in plantations in Sunny Corner and Mount Macquarie.

“We plant in winter when pine seedlings are dormant, which makes them hardier and more resilient to the stress of being planted to give them the best chance of survival. Each seedling is planted by hand and an experienced planter can plant around 2000 seedlings in one day.

“The ground in each plantation has been carefully prepared, cultivated and treated with herbicide for weed control to give the seedlings the best start possible but, like any crop, the seedlings are still susceptible to frost and weather damage so we’ll need to keep an eye on them to monitor how they are growing.

“If the seedlings survive the next 12 months, they are likely to make it to harvest.

“Forestry Corporation has around 200,000 hectares of pine plantations in NSW and produces enough timber to construct a quarter of the homes built in Australia each year. The seedlings we plant today will grow into the trees that are going to build the new houses, home extensions and backyard fences 35 years from now, so this is one of the most important times in our plantation cycle.”