December 2, 2019 3:35 a.m.
In the KQEN Business Spotlight:
The Seneca Family of Companies is calling attention to their planting of the 40 millionth tree this year.
While the actual planting took place in the spring, the company is following up with a campaign to let Oregonians know about the milestone.
Casey Roscoe, Senior Vice President of Public Relations told News Radio 1240 KQEN, “it was a big year for us and we wanted to share it with our fellow Oregonians”. Roscoe said now more than 50 percent of Oregonians did not grow up in the state so many don’t know that Oregon is the number one lumber producing state in the nation and that the state “has more trees today than we had 100 years ago”.
Roscoe said the 40 millionth tree was planted on their tree farm where two of the three owners, Becky Jones and Kathy Jones-McCann planted seedlings with their grandchildren, grandnieces and grandnephews.
Jones-McCann said “healthy trees are important to us, but so is healthy soil, cool clean water and thriving wildlife”. She said on the tree farm, they plan for a 50-year horizon.
A release from Roscoe said if the 40 million seedings were planted end to end they would cross America five and a half times. It said the company manages its 167,000 acres of timberlands sustainability so they grow more than they harvest each year. Currently there is 92 percent more timber on their lands than they had on those same acres 25 years ago, according to the release.
Roscoe told KQEN that for every one tree that is harvested, three more are replanted.
Go to www.senecasawmill.com for more information about Seneca.