Forest Genetics in a Changing World - A Geneticist's Vision of the Future

The beginning of this decade has been marked by major shifts in public attitudes toward forestry and whole new belief systems about forests. Ecosystem management and biodiversity have become the new buzzwords. Multi-storied management with a reliance on natural regeneration is hailed as "kinder and gentler" forestry, while "clearcut and plant" is seen as environmentally destructive and technologically primitive. Diversity is touted as necessary for ecosystem stability, while the planting of genetically improved trees is assumed to result in impoverished monocultures on the brink of disaster. In response, many public agencies and some privately held corporations have begun to move away from the forest practices that traditionally utilize genetically improved trees and some tree improvement programs are currently in a precarious position. These decisions appear to be based on a set of beliefs and assumptions that are unsupported by the evidence. Nonetheless, there is some hope. There are tremendous opportunities for forest geneticists in the future. Our expertise will continue to be important to descriptive and restoration ecologists, physiologists, pathologists, and ecosystem managers, as well as to those who are still in the business of growing wood and wood fiber as a crop. Keywords: Forest genetics, genetic diversity, ecosystem management, tree improvement, forest health.

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Author(s): Lauren Fins

Publication: Tree Improvement and Genetics - Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference - 1993

Section: Theme-Vision for the Future