NORTHAMPTON, MA (News release) -- Rayonier invited nonforestry employees into the woods recently for its first-ever employee planting day in the U.S. Under the guidance of company foresters, about 50 employees planted 4,000 seedlings on a Rayonier forest tract near their Florida headquarters.

Working in fields like accounting, IT and HR, these employees enable Rayonier to be the steward of more than 2 1/2 million acres of land, but they rarely get to work in the woods themselves.

The event, called More than Planting, gave them the chance to play a direct role in reforesting a forest that has been planted and replanted four times now. The seedlings came from seeds developed in Rayonier's orchards and grown for 18 months in Rayonier's nursery.

As a sustainable forestry company, Rayonier plants more than 30 million seedlings every year across the U.S. and New Zealand.