Seed orchards

Dag Lindgren

UPSC lunch

2007-12-13

• At my only chance in life to speak to UPSC I could say something philosophical, but instead I say what I think is most important for forest research.

• Seed orchards are the channel get improved material out into the forest!

• Today, 60 percent of Swedish forest plants start their life in seed orchards!

• Now a National program with seed orchard establishment is going on, 90% seed orchard supply within two decades.

Clones?

• Clones (cuttings of Norway spruce) can be produced in large scale with well known and developed technique. The added plant cost is 1 SEK per plant. Forestry is not willing to pay that for the higher genetic quality. Thus almost no clonal plants are marketed (<0.1 %, it has been up to 1% but only with a heavy subsidue), and there are no plans increasing the share!

Why seed orchards?• Long term investment, belief in future • Timber• Sustainable• More CO2 binding• The technique exists today• Cheap, the seed price is just a few percent of the regeneration

cost (some 3-10 öre/plant).• Forestry is sometimes willing to pay 5-10 öre/plant more for

genetically better plants, so better seed orchard seeds is a realistic channel!

• Better seeds are the cheapest and easiest way of rising forest production

• Seed orchards are the only outlet for better breeding methods.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2010 2030 2050 2070 2090

milj. m3/year

Seed orchards as planned

Ash fertilization

Restoring forest drainage

Agriculture land converted to forest

Clonal forestry at the best sites

Fertilization 100 000 ha/year

Contorta pine 15 000 ha/year

Improved regeneration

Reference level with no improvements

Figure 2. Allowable sustainable timber harvest in Swedish forests under different scenarios to increase production. For seed orchards it is the difference including the planned program compared to no seed orchards. The gain by seed orchards is considerable larger than all other options together.

Idea for UPSC!!

Inpu

ts

Heaps of research!

Outlet from UPSC:

Methods for better seed orchards!