Dotseth: Study return of nursery

Rep. Jeff Dotseth, R-Silver Township, authored a bill to study the reopening of the General C.C. Andrews tree nursery near Willow River recently, which received a House hearing and remains in the mix for consideration.

For years, legislators, mainly Republicans, tried to close state nurseries entirely, arguing that the state shouldn’t be in the business of raising trees. After the nursery closed in 2014, it was repurposed to train wildland firefighters and produce selectively chosen tree seeds to reforest state lands.

“The nursery was a self-supporting, state-owned nursery which used seeds col...