EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick — Thousands of trees, some beginning to show the hues of fall on mountains in northwestern New Brunswick, provided the backdrop Thursday for Fraser Paper’s planting of its 100 millionth tree since the company started a nursery 18 years ago.

John Wasserlein, president of Fraser, was joined by the company’s woodlands vice president, Don Tardie, and New Brunswick Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Alan Graham for the ceremonial planting of a black spruce at the company’s Second Falls Nursery 10 miles northwest of Edmundston.

Wasserlein stuck the planting tube into the ground, Graham used his foot to push down a lever that opens a hole in the turf, and all three men put a hand on the 9-inch seedling before dropping it into a lawn next to the nursery. Tamping the ground around the seedling was all that was needed to complete the task, which is repeated over thousands of acres of forestland each year in reforestation efforts.

Six other seedlings were planted in a row by officials and nursery employees.

Tardie, overseer of the company’s 2 million acres of woodlands in Maine and New Brunswick, said the occasion was a “very special one in Fraser’s ongoing commitment to the forest.”

Noting the present issues of forestry coming to Maine’s voters in November, Tardie said, “We all have to stand up for forestry in New Brunswick and Maine. If we don’t, jobs will be impacted severely.” Maine voters will choose between banning clear-cutting in unorganized territories, a compromise measure restricting cutting, and none of the above.

Tardie said the company plants an average 250,000 to 300,000 trees a year on 90,000 acres of woodlands it owns in northern Maine, from Ashland to Wytopitlock. He said the effort reforests 220 to 250 acres a year in Maine alone.

In New Brunswick, the company reforests cuttings it makes on 1 million acres it owns and another 1 million acres of provincial crown land in which the company operates, mostly in the northwestern part of the province.

Wasserlein said the ceremonial planting of the 100 millionth seedling “shows the company’s commitment to sustainable forestry and responsible environmental management.”

He said the millions of seedlings raised from genetically improved seeds harvested from the company’s seed orchards are “used to help ensure a sustainable forest with the right balance of young, middle-aged and mature stands of timber.”

Fraser’s nursery, opened in 1978, produces more than 7 million spruce and pine seedlings each year. Over the years, it has also supplied private wood lot owners in New Brunswick with more than 14 million seedlings.

Started in cooperation with the New Brunswick Tree Improvement Council, the company tree improvement program includes three seed orchards which produce genetically improved seed for the nursery. It allows the company to reforest its forests with black and white spruce, red pine, Norway spruce and cedar.

Fraser’s three seed orchards are located at Second Falls, St. Anne and Plaster Rock, all in New Brunswick.

Graham called Fraser a “major contributor to New Brunswick’s forest industry. “We must manage forests differently than we did 20 years ago. It’s a tall order and Fraser has met it,” he said.

Since 1978, Fraser has planted 58.6 million seedlings on its own land and 41.4 million seedlings on crown lands.