The nursery in Sharya is part of a large-scale environmental program of the Russian timber industry complex Segezha Group. The enterprise plans to grow up to 4 million seedlings of coniferous trees per year. The seedlings will be used for reforestation primarily in the Kostroma region. State TV and Radio Company “Kostroma” visited the coniferous kindergarten.
Peat is mixed and moistened in a huge iron mixer. This is the soil for the germination of seeds of future pines and spruces. Further on the automatic line, it is packaged in small plastic cassettes and mixed with seeds of coniferous trees. Perlite is sprinkled on top of the soil – it holds moisture and creates comfortable conditions for plants. In five days of operation of the automatic line, it is possible to fill a greenhouse with one million seedlings.
Konstantin Kirillov, general director of GalichLes LLC: “The end result of this nursery is seedlings with a closed root system, suitable for planting in a silvicultural belt. Today, a closed root system is one of the preferred methods of reforestation, as it takes root well and quickly adapts to forest conditions.”
The creation of a seed-growing complex in Sharya is part of the Segezha Group investment project in the Kostroma region. In Galich, the holding built a large plywood plant. In Sharya, the investor created a nursery to restore forests, investing about 129 million rubles. The new seed-growing complex was examined by Governor Sergey Sitnikov during his working trip to the north-east of the region. The head of the region gave an instruction – the nursery in the gasification of Sharya should be provided with natural fuel in the first place.
Sergey Sitnikov, governor of the Kostroma region: “Coniferous materials for planting are a big deficit not only in our region. This complex makes it possible to use planting material with high efficiency for breeding these small sprouts, which then turn into beautiful trees. In fact, today we can say that this complex can provide both Kostroma and neighboring regions with high-quality planting material for reforestation.”
Now the first batch of seeds has been planted in the greenhouses of the new nursery – 2 million pine and spruce seedlings will grow from them. Starting next year, Segezha Group is ready to grow up to 4 million seedlings per year. In total, taking into account the plywood mill and the seed center, 1,300 new jobs will be created in the region.
