Tree Tube Poll - What is your tree planting objective?

This tree tube web site is polling visitors to learn what their primary tree planting objective is.

As of this writing the results are:
Wildlife Habitat - 40%
Food Crops - 19%
Ecological Restoration - 13%
Landscaping - 13%
Timber Production - 10%

I find these results fascinating, especially since I now have 23 years of tree tube experience to draw on and use as a basis of comparison.

In a very real sense the use of tree tubes is a measure of how much each group of growers cares about and is willing to invest in the success of their tree planting project.  I find it interesting - and a bit amusing - that folks using tree tubes to produce food for wildlife are more likely to seek out and purchase tree tubes than any other group!

I find it extremely encouraging that the number of folks using tree tubes to establish landscape trees is up to 13%.  Twenty three years ago that number would have been very close to zero.  I honestly think that the dramatic increase is due in part to a phenomenon that I have observed recently:  When people use tree tubes to establish seedling trees for wildlife or timber see how fast the trees grow, they no longer see the point of spending hundreds of dollars to plant trees in their yards.  Instead they plant seedlings - or even tree seeds - in their yard, protect them with tree tubes, and grow their landscape trees the inexpensive, fast, healthy and long-lived way.

Twenty-three years ago the percentage of tree tube customers whose primary interest was timber production - planting high value hardwoods such as black walnut and red oak - would have been closer to 90%.  The drastic reduction doesn't mean that the number of tree tubes used for hardwood regeneration has decreased; it hasn't.  It means two things:  1) The sales of tree tubes in the USA in many times what it was back then, and has expanded into many other areas of tree planting, and 2) It is much more common these days for trees to be planted with multiple goals in mind, and landowners are naturally more inclined to think of the goal(s) that have a chance of coming to fruition within their own lifetime (wildlife habitat, ecological restoration, etc.) as compared to the generation-spanning objective of timber production.