Since 1992, Wildlife Habitat Nursery has developed a reputation for their on-time supply of high quality, robust, native plants.

In our start-up years Wildlife Habitat Institute, along with running a nursery, provided consulting and restoration services related to fish and wildlife habitat restoration, assessments, surveys, plans, directions for action, monitoring, construction management, and completed projects with organizations engaging in the use and management of natural resources.

In 2003 we changed our name to Wildlife Habitat Nursery and focused our energy to the supply of high quality, native, containerized herbaceous and woody plants for wetland, river, and stream habitat restoration.

Wildlife Habitat Nursery does business from a 1600 square foot office and work shop located in the rolling hills and forests of rural Princeton, Idaho. We own and operate five, 4350 square foot greenhouses. Our first four greenhouses are equipped with AndPro automatic watering booms and our irrigation water comes from a private, artesian well. The greenhouses have roll-up sides, back-up fans and louvers for ventilation.

Plants are grown in styroblock, or Tall One containers, placed on plastic pallets and set on concrete or gravel surfaces. Our media consists of a mix of peat moss, perlite, and EKO compost. We fertilize with Dosomatic brand injectors and use primarily Scott’s water soluble fertilizer.

During harvest, pallets of plants in styroblock containers are moved to the shop with forklifts and pulled from containers by our experienced crew, packaged in bags as easy-to-count multiples, and then boxed. Our boxes have handles and are consistent size for easy stacking. The boxes are waxed to tolerate weather conditions and resist moisture. We prominently label the boxes with species and number, and place the boxes immediately into cooler storage. We personally deliver or ship via UPS. Your planting crew has only to open the box and go to work – no time spent pulling, no loss of unsatisfactory plugs, and no containers to return. We do that for you.

Tall-One containerized plants are held in our own designed and built portable pallets which can be loaded by forklift. They are sorted, cleaned, and clearly labeled with common name and number purchased to guarantee that only quality plants are sent out to your projects. With the Tall One pallet system we are able to lift the plants onto trailers they also fit into the back of pickups. We deliver with either a canopy or shade tarp to insure our plants are not damaged along the way.

WHN principle clients include Idaho and Washington Fish and Game Departments, Coeur d’Alene, Colville and Nez Perce Tribal fisheries, wildlife and watershed programs, numerous Soil Conservation Districts in Idaho, Washington, and Montana, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and The Nature Conservancy, along with numerous private organizations and individuals such as Plants of the Wild and Northwest Management.

We know you have a choice and we would like to thank you for choosing us. It is always exciting to see and hear about your restoration projects and even be involved with the backyard ponds getting a makeover. The changes that occur when hard working people get involved with something as great as creating and restoring fish and wildlife habitat are memories that last a lifetime.

 

 

A section of a newly constructed stream channel planted with WHN herbaceous and woody riparian species in September 2011. 

 

 

  

  

 

Meet the Wildlife Habitat Nursery Team:

		Denny Dawes, Owner, started Wildlife Habitat Institute in 1992 while attending the University of Idaho, tracking a degree in wildlife resources. WHI, now known as Wildlife Habitat Nursery, has been involved at various levels on numerous major restoration projects in the Inland Northwest, with Denny often as a lead. Denny has over 36 years' experience in the nursery industry, was a 12 year board member of the Idaho Nursery Association and is a past president of the organization. He is also a 25 year member, serving several years as the Chairman, of the University of Idaho, Nursery Advisory Committee.
		Dana McGreal, Nursery Technician, has been with Wildlife Habitat Nursery for 16 years. During those years Dana has mastered and improved upon many of our different production and cultural tasks in the nursery; tray cleaning and filling, sowing, thinning, and trimming are just a few. Dana's hands have likely touched most every plant you receive and she's become excellent at directing WHN's pulling, packing, shipping, and delivery production at WHN. Dana has toured many local nurseries, even worked at other nurseries as a production intern, and is now a regular attendee at the Wilbur-Ellis Grower seminars and Intermountain Container Seedling Grower Association Conferences.
		Levi Dawes, Assistant Manager, started at his current position with WHN in June 2017. He actually started working at the WHN nursery, leaving his handprints in the concrete of Greenhouse #2, in 1995. Levi received a Bachelor's degree in Eco-Hydrological Engineering from the University of Idaho in December 2014. He has professional experience in the Idaho forest industry, agricultural engineering, hydrology, and CAD design. He recently designed and installed the irrigation and electrical system in WHN's fifth greenhouse, assisted a customer with an extensive dredge mine restoration, assisted in plant production, as well as assisting in WHN's administrative practices.