Our Future Forests

Mosaic produces its own seeds for reforestation to ensure our future forests have the best genetic quality we can provide. Since its establishment in 1979, our Mount Newton seed orchard in Saanich has produced enough seed for over 300 million seedlings. Orchard species include Douglas fir, western redcedar, western white pine and western hemlock.

At the seed orchard, we collaborate with tree breeders from BC’s Ministry of Forests to select orchard trees that will pass on desirable traits for volume growth, wood quality, pest and disease resistance, and ones that are adapted to meet projected future climates on our land base while still thriving in the present. For example, we recently adjusted the range of parent trees in our western redcedar orchard to produce seedlings more closely adapted to summer drought conditions.   

In addition, Mosaic has implemented the Ministry of Forests’ Climate Based Seed Transfer guidelines on private and public forest lands.  The Climate Based Seed Transfer project is an important climate change adaptation strategy that matches seedlings and seedlots to the best biogeoclimatic zones.

We also participate in cooperative research with university and government agencies on innovative projects such as selection and breeding for drought tolerance and pest resistance, and landscape level forest genetic diversity.