Victoria, BC – June 24, 2016 – PRT USA Inc. (PRT) is pleased to announce that PRT has signed a long term lease with the State of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI DNR) for the cooler/warehouse building located at the Hayward State Nursery in Hayward, WI. This cold storage facility will be called PRT Great Lakes States. The lease will commence on July 1, 2016, and PRT plans to immediately upgrade the refrigeration capabilities in order to cold store containerized forest seedlings at this facility for spring plant seedlings destined for plantations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. PRT grown forest seedlings will arrive at the facility later in 2016 and will be available for local deliveries in 2017.
PRT President and CEO Rob Miller commented: “With establishment of this facility PRT will take another step towards our goal of better serving our customers in the Great Lakes States region. The states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are important markets for us. A fully functioning cold storage facility that is local to our customers will allow us to make PRT’s containerized forest seedlings available for quick and effective turnaround deliveries during the key spring plant period starting in 2017.”
Mr. Miller added: “We have worked diligently with the WI DNR in order to arrive at this mutually agreeable arrangement for the cooler/warehouse building at Hayward State Nursery. We recognize the importance of the Hayward facility to the WI DNR and the history of forestry in the state. We will do our part to maintain the site in its heritage condition. We look forward to continuing to work with customers in the Great Lakes States region and being an integral part of their successful reforestation efforts now and in the future.”
About PRT
The PRT group, through affiliates PRT USA Inc. and PRT Growing Services Ltd, is a forest seedling propagator and the largest producer of container-grown forest seedlings in North America, currently growing more than 180 million seedlings annually and operating a network of forest seedling nurseries in the US and Canada. For further information, please see PRT’s website at www.prt.com.