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Staff Feature – The Nursery Team

October 1, 2020

The Nursery Production team comprises of eight hardworking staff that help to maintain the 25-acre nursery located adjacent to the Kortright Center for Conservation and the Restoration Services Centre. The Nursery has a yearly production target of 25 native species of shrubs and 19 species of native trees in bare root, container grown and balled and burlapped formats.  In addition, the Nursery team produces a variety of bio engineering materials and aquatic plants and was able to meet the demands for plant materials and ensure a steady flow of quality stock required to meet TRCA’s  planting requirements this spring. In the midst of the challenging environment posed by COVID-19, the team was able to establish the necessary protocols required to perform their job tasks in addition to ramping up seed collection and fine tuning propagation methods by using more sustainable soil amendments, reducing conventional fertilizer inputs, and improved irrigation methods and vegetation management. The team has truly come up with creative and innovative ways to work in tight quarters while achieving their lifting, planting, and shipping goals.

These creative methods included the development of separation screens on the back end of tractors to help provide barriers to staff working in close proximity to one another. Please take a look at the following video to see this idea in action!

 

The dedicated team, led by Waylon D’Souza, in the field day in and day out consist of Graham Hush, David Owen, Tyler Cathcart, Robert Makinen, Aleksandra Navarro, Jessica Corrigan, Nicholas Campbell and this year, redeployed staff from Lake St George Ken MacGillivray. A big thank you to all the managers, project managers, coordinators, and the many field staff at every level who successfully plan and implement the many restoration projects that require plant material.  The team looks forward to propagating, sourcing and supplying the TRCA’s plant material needs for years to come. Thank you to everyone involved!

Please click on the above pictures to take a more in-depth look at the team!