Genetics and the Family Forest

By Bob Playfair

Is forest genetics important to the family forest owner? You bet it is. The best illustration I can think of involves an old Montana cowboy I once knew. He could not figure out why his calves only weighed 300 pounds when his neighbor sold 550 pounders and he used the same type bulls. The problem was he had kept back a few heifers each year because they were "too small to sell." Then, by the following fall, they had managed to get too close to the bull and were pregnant. Within five generations he had created a dwarf cattle herd.

Most of the forest land my family owns has been handled the same way. The big, fast growing trees were always sold to the sawmill because they brought the most money. After three harvest cuts we were left with nothing standing but cull dwarfs for seed trees. Remember, size (diameter and height) is not a function of age, but rate of growth. Which is better, 4 years or 20 years to get the same inch of diameter growth?

Those of you on the westside have been lucky because the state, USDA Forest Service and timber companies started tree improvement programs in the 1940s. You also historically clearcut and plant, therefore you could buy the genetically improved seedlings for not much more than common woods-run. You now have fast growing plantations. Those of us on the eastside have not been so lucky. We were advised to cut the old-growth pine and larch that started after the last catastrophic burn about 400 years ago, then to grow the young fast growing Douglas- and white fir that came up naturally after fire was eliminated from the ecosystem.

It worked for most of a rotation, but the Root Rot fungi liked the same growing conditions and started hammering our converted stands. In addition, the mills didn't want the small commercial thinnings we had to offer so they were left in the stand, further complicating the problem with overcrowding.

In the 1980s the USDA-ACP tree planting program created a need for ponderosa pine and larch seedlings. Several conservation districts got into tree sales. Their seed source was whatever they could find, and in many cases poor quality trees have been planted off site.

With my agriculture background and having used certified alfalfa and grain seed, I wanted the same quality tree seed for our farm, but it was not available. So our ranch joined the Inland Empire Tree Improvement Cooperative, allowing me to keep involved in generating genetically improved seed for northeast Washington and northern Idaho.

During this time we had some stands of 80-year-old trees that had not been hi-graded. The strategy we used was to remove all Douglas- and grand fir, then harvest the small, forked, diseased and poorly formed pine and larch from the stands. We had to wait from 3 to 15 years for the sanitized stand to produce a seed crop.

In a good cone year we now go in, fall the trees and pick the cones when the seed is ready in August. We also dry the cones and process the seed ready for nursery use. This seed has been made available to the local conservation district to be mixed with seed they buy from industrial producers. This seed is genetically improved by controlled crosses, and we do know that at least one of the parents was fast growing, had good bole form, was reasonably disease resistant and was native to the area.

The production of improved seed through genetic selection takes a long time. That is why our family is in the sixth generation of ownership and our third generation of trees on the farm are still 40 years from harvest. In managing your tree farm, keep the best of the genetics you inherited and buy the best locally adapted replacement stock you can afford. It doesn't cost any more to grow two or three times the wood on each tree if the genetics are there and you provide the TLC necessary to keep your forest healthy.

Bob Playfair is a vice president of the Washington Farm Forestry Association and manages xxx of family property in Chewelah, Wash.

This article appeared in the Northwest Woodlands magazine, Winter 2000 - Published quarterly by the World Forestry Center for the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, Washington Farm Forestry Association, Idaho Forest Owners Association and Montana Forest Owners Association.