News

Proceedings from a genetics and growth modeling workshop

The link to “nordiska skogsbruket frö och plantråd” has been changed to www.nsfp.nu

The World’s probably only GM-tree field trial (birch) of possible relevance of Sweden (from a provenance point of view) at Punkaharju was destroyed at end of June 2004 by some uninvited night-time visitors. The vandalism was reported to police, but activists responded by filing a contra-report accusing the Finnish Forest Research Institute for inadequate safety standards.

A homepage for the recently inaugurated research school in Sweden has been contructed. A first preliminary version can be found on http://resschool.slu.se.

Breeding for resistance against biotic and abiotic factors.

Nordic Group for the Management of Genetic Resources of Trees

Meeting in Denmark, September 8 to 11th - 2004

A joint conference of multiple working parties related to breeding and genetic resource management of IUFRO Division 2 will be held November 1-5, 2004, in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

Here is some material on gene conservation (and related issues) in an electronic journal.

http://www.geneconserve.pro.br/gene_conserve_home.htm

Dag Lindgren manages a minicourse in quantitative genetics, it will give credits based on performance and much of it is per correspondence. This link is one way of communicating with students.

Breeding and genetic resources of five-needle pines: growth, adaptability, and pest resistance; 2001 July 23-27, proceeding available on the web.

Ny brosjyre om nordisk samarbeid innen bevaring av skogstrær at http://www.nordgen.net/download/nsfp-brosjyre.pdf

An entry for Nordic genetic conservation is now available at: www.nordgen.net

The information available on this site at May04; Nov 03 early Oct 03 and mid Aug 03 (links in information sometimes does not work any more).

Swedish News:

SkogForsk’s activities on tree breeding 2001-2004 have been evaluated by an international expert panel appointed by Formas (Swedish Research Council, the evaluation is part of material collected for a new Framework funding 2005-2008), I cite: "The expert panel is very clear that the objectives of the current Framework Programme are being met to a high standard and that this area of the work is organized well with the appropriate collaborations".... "The research area is to be congratulated on a very significant achievement... The expert panel considers the work of this area to be of the highest international quality, comparable with the best of North American tree breeding programmes (where investment is considerable), making a significant difference to the forestry sector of Sweden." "The breeding programmes are an outstanding feature..."

SkogForsk is closing down the research station at Brunsberg (mid west Sweden). With the excellent review mentioned above as a new factor, I sincerely hope further reductions will not follow and the program will be looked at favorable by Swedish Forestry, which ought to be proud of their breeding programme.

Gene bank. A Forest Gene Bank was inaugurated at the National Board of Forestry, Sweden 1980. Since that, annual expenditure supported by the state budget has decreased to 15% of the initial resources once given 1980. That is probably a destiny for all activities once politically supported, but which later becomes forgotten and fades away in competition with more recent political ideas. But it surprises me that “gene conservation” has been so unable to defend its position as a political buzz word. The consequence probably will be increased reliance on forest reserves set aside mainly for other purposes.

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This page was last edited 04-08-18