Located in Island View, NB, the AFSC was established in 1978 by the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development. The centre, which is managed by the Tree Improvement Unit, provides clean, high-quality seed for seedling production at the Kingsclear Forest Nursery. It also offers seed extraction, cleaning and storage services for other government and forest industry clients across the Atlantic provinces.
The Atlantic Forest Seed Centre can process seed from many conifer species including spruces, pines, balsam fir, larch, hemlock, and cedar. The number of cones processed annually varies with the yearly cone crops and the volume of seed already in storage. Trees naturally produce good cone crops once every two to five years. A heavy cone year enables clients to accumulate larger volumes of seed, usually followed by one or two years of relatively low seed extraction at the AFSC. The running ten-year average of cones extracted at the centre is just over 30,000 litres/year.
