The replanting of forests occurs on a relatively small portion of the nearly 8 million acres harvested annually in the United States.
Landowners rely primarily upon natural means of regenerating their forestlands.
However, a large portion of these acres would remain unproductive without artificial regeneration. When you consider the great difficulty of naturally regenerating these stands with desirable species, it is to the landowner s advantage to use artificial methods. The decision to use artificial regeneration as opposed to natural regeneration or direct seeding may be dependent on many factors. The lack of an adequate seed source for the desired species is the primary reason for many landowner s choice to plant seedlings manually. Secondly, the only method to grow genetically improved seedlings is to plant them.