Sustainability in action: Temple-Inland lifts one-billionth seedling

LIFTING CEREMONY - Jim Tule, Tree Improvement Team Leader; Jim Brody, Vice President of Forest Operations and Tim Stewart, Nursery Team Leader hold the one billionth seedling produced by Temple-Inland nurseries. “We’re growing the best forest in the world,” Brody remarked at the lifting ceremony held in Jasper County, Texas, Feb. 9.

On Friday, February 9, 2007, Temple-Inland's Clyde Thompson nursery marked the one-billionth-pine seedling produced by Temple-Inland nurseries in a ceremonial “lifting” of the seedling. The occasion also marks the company's 50th year of pine seedling production in a company-owned nursery.

As part of its program to manage its 2 million acres of southern forestland for sustainable growth, Temple-Inland grows over 30 million seedlings each year in the Jasper County, Texas, nursery. The seedlings are “lifted” or extracted from the nursery beds between November and February and packaged for shipping to planting sites in Texas and Louisiana.

Approximately 75 percent of these seedlings are planted on company lands, with the rest being donated to landowners, the public and conservation groups, or sold. This year's crop produced 37 million seedlings, resulting in a 32 percent average increase in volume per acre, compared to volume that would have been produced from original wild seed.

Seedlings produced over the past 50 years account for multiple plantings of some 1.6 million acres of forestland.

In 1957, the Stillman Nursery in Newton County began production of seedlings for

Southwestern Settlement and Development Company, which became part of Temple- Inland through a merger. The nursery was named for Charles Stillman, a former Executive Vice President and Treasurer of Time Inc.

Stillman prompted the nursery's construction in an effort to increase the productivity of forestland. As the first private corporate nursery in Texas to grow tree seedlings, the

Stillman nursery produced 20 million pine seedlings in the first year. The Stillman nursery closed in 1988.

The Thompson Nursery opened in 1989 and is named for Clyde Thompson, a long-time former employee whose career with the company spanned three generations of the

Temple family.

Temple-Inland Inc. operates four business segments: corrugated packaging, forest products, real estate and financial services. The Company's 2.0 million acres of forestland are certified as managed in compliance with ISO 14001 and in accordance with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative(r) (SFI) Standard of the Sustainable Forestry Board to ensure forest management is conducted in a scientifically sound and environmentally sensitive manner. Temple-Inland's common stock (TIN) is traded on the New York

Stock Exchange. Temple-Inland's address on the World Wide Web is www.templeinland.com.