Experience and good judgement should warn us from taking any election promise literally. But many nursery operators and planting contractors did place some hopes on the NDP 2024 campaign platform to restore the province’s declining reforestation program to 300-million seedlings annually. Admittedly, there were few specifics described in the commitment; particularly by when and how we would make up the current 70-million seedlings drop in demand owing to our shrinking harvest. As we head into the 2025 planting season the annual program has declined to 230-million the lowest in a decade. Speaking at last January’s WFCA annual conference BC Chief Forester Shane Berg laid out some estimates—of what definitely looks like a best-case scenario—that could get us back to 280-million seedlings annually. But, the how of that recovery would depend on our government’s success in restoring the annual harvest to 45-million cubic metres. Currently it’s languishing at 36-million cubic metres.