The Secret World of the Seed Collectors

By: MJ Kettleborough

They work long hours in the wilderness, they have a group of furry friends on the payroll (though the pay is peanuts) and they seem to know where the forest houses its secrets: The Seed Collectors.

It all starts with the seed.

Forests Ontario (FO) has orchestrated the planting of more than 34 million trees, and all of these trees took an incredible journey.

Before they were planted on their respective sites, they were carefully cultivated in one of FO’s partner nurseries. That’s about as far back as most people go when they imagine this
journey. But how did these small trees get their start? Well, that’s where a unique group of unsung heroes come in – the seed collectors.

I knew nothing about these guys (and gals!) when I started working at FO, and even after I learned of their existence, I didn’t truly understand the uniqueness of their craft until I took a trip out to a forest with a couple of them.

It started in an undisclosed location. If you’re wondering why a seed collection site would be shrouded in secrecy, here’s the thing – seed collectors get paid according to the volume or weight that they collect, and what they collect needs to be top-notch quality. They are in competition with one another, and their best spots are oftentimes handed down from generation to generation. By keeping historical collection records, they get to know where the forests conceal their secrets.

I can tell you that we were in Seed Zone 34. Ontario is divided into 38 ‘seed zones’ under the principle that a tree seedling will grow best when planted in the same zone that its seed came from – the area to which it is genetically adapted. Climate change impacts all facets of our forests – including seed and seedlings. In partnership with the Forest Gene Conservation Association, FO has begun to incorporate climate change projections into its seed collection targets to ensure resilient forests planted through our programs. Seed collectors play a critical role in this endeavor. Once the seed is collected, FO tracks this information in our database. We follow the seed through its journey and monitor its success after being planted.

We sprayed our legs with insect repellent, “for the ticks” a collector explained, and set off down a dirt path, hauling gear along with us. Six kilometers later and we finally arrived. “This is it,” the collectors said. That’s when we headed out into the forest proper.

“We forecasted this spot two months ago, it should be ready now,” one of them told me, knowingly. Seed forecasting is the prediction and estimation of a seed or cone crop via visual inspection throughout the reproductive developmental stages prior to collection. Forecasting lets the seed collectors know when the crop will be ready and gives them an idea of how much will be available for collection.

We were on the hunt for White Pine – a staple of the 50 Million Tree Program. How does one find White Pine cones? The answer may surprise you. You may picture the use of a ladder and a pair of sheers, but there is a much easier way. For most conifer species, the seed collectors rely on squirrels to do the job. As squirrels prepare for the long Canadian winter, these small, hard-working mammals gather calorically dense foods like nuts and cones and squirrel them away in caches. The seed collectors’ astute eyes can spot these hideouts or, if they are lucky, find the spots where their furry friends have snipped the mature cones from the trees and not yet completed the task of retrieving them.

But not all seed is good seed. Before collection, a seed collector must assess quality. In the case of White Pine, this means cutting the cone down the middle and counting the number of seeds inside one half of the cone; this is called a half-cut test. A good White Pine cone will have between eight and twelve well-formed white seeds. The seed collectors will also check for insect damage and poor seed appearance.

Once assured that the cone is up to par, the task at hand is a matter of pure elbow grease (or, in this case, pine pitch). The seed collectors are down on hands-and-knees retrieving these precious resources and stowing them away in measurable containers so they can keep track of how much they have collected. 

And once an area has been picked, these particular seed collectors have a tradition. “We never take all that a squirrel has gathered,” I am told.  “And we always give them something back to replace what we took; peanuts or sunflower seeds, usually. And these are often higher in calories and better for the squirrels than what we took from them.”

I left the seed collectors after a couple of hours, but they would stay in the woods working until dusk. From there, they would deliver the cones to one of FO’s partner nurseries for storage until the seed is extracted from the cones in the new year.

The cones are encouraged to open by managing the heat and humidity surrounding them. Then the cones are tumbled until the seeds fall out. Once the seeds have been extracted, they are cleaned, dried, tested and stored in a freezer. The nursery then sows the seeds and grows them for about two to three years before lifting the seedlings and transporting them to their final destination at one of our planting sites. Here, the seedling will grow into a tree and produce its own cones – and the incredible journey will begin anew.

For more information about the seed collection process or to become a seed collector yourself please visit the Forest Gene Conservation Association.