The mission was to rescue tens of thousands of invaluable tree sprouts
from a research center in New Mexico and to keep safe a vital bank of
millions of pine, spruce and other conifer seeds that will be used to
restore fire-ravaged landscapes across the West. Owen Burney and his
team succeeded in evacuating most of the priceless collection. But the
superintendent of New Mexico State University’s Forestry Research Center
says the massive fire still churning through New Mexico highlights the
need for collecting more seed, building more nurseries and planting more
seedlings. The center is one of only a few such nurseries in the US and
stands at the forefront of a major undertaking to rebuild more
resilient forests as wildfires burn hotter, faster and more often.