Old news

Future of Forest Genetics at SLU after me? A process to replace me as professor is going on since late 2007, but at present there is no acting professor of forest genetics in Sweden. Nine applied, three from Umeå (UPSC), five from abroad, no one from Skogforsk or Uppsala. The faculty ranked three applicants mid June 2009, but I have not heard the University made a final decision and when it is done the person may come first in the autumn. Skogsgenetik vid SLU är nu svagare än någonsin förut sedan 1948. Det finns tre "seniora" forskare, en enda docent som är halvtidsanställd och finansiering säkrad några år framåt, en vars förordnande går ut 2010, en som pensioneras 2012.

In connection with my retirement. I retired 090930. I got the best possible retirement present a professor can dream about! That is to successfully mentor and collaborate with students resulting in good doctoral research. My student Finnvid Prescher will get the International Union of Forest Research "Outstanding Doctoral Research Award" at its world congress in Seoul 2010. At the word conferences 2005 and 2000 my students also got "Outstanding Doctoral Research Award!". It seems I have had the most gifted Forest Genetics students in the World for the past fifteen years! It also seems that the path of research I chosen has been the right in the opinion of the international research communitty. After this success I probably keep a closer link with forest genetics 2010 than I planned for in the autumn.

The Swedish Forest Sector prepared a surprise for me 091029, the inauguration of "Dag Lindgren's lektionssal", a demonstration site in the Forest where forest tree breeding is visualized on an area where demonstration materials of pine is planted. Jag rekommenderar platsen för besökare, som är intresserade av skogsträdsförädling (30 km NV Umeå)!

It is likely that I maintain this web and my email some time ahead and will not be completely invisible before end 2010. Earlier I brought some news here of public interest, from now on I will focus on what is directly interesting for me, but some of it may still be interesting for others as well. Jag har trappat ned till halv arbetsinsats från början av juni 2009 (tagit ut sparad semester), ytterligare nedtrappning kommer april 2010 men under en kvartstid blir det nog knappast före hösten 2010, eftersom jag nu tänker delta i världskongressen i Seoul 2010. Jag skall snart sluta att komma med notiser om utveckling vid institution och forskarskola, vad som står kan vara inaktuellt.

Proceedings from the 31st Canadian Forest Genetics Association has appeared. Since this organization has got a website, proceedings will be published where. Go to http://www.cfga-acgf.com and clidk further from where. Most of the earlier proceedings can be found where also.

Tim Mullin has made a new status number calculator (see Tree Breeding Tools below)

15-17 September 2009 GENECAR-meeting: Next generation in breeding. Ekebo, Sweden.

Docent Sanna Black-Samuelsson har ersatt Lennart Ackzell som Skogsstyrelsens skogsgenetiker.

The text book by Gösta Eriksson, Inger Ekberg and David Clapham. An Introduction to Forest Genetics, Third edition is available at http://www2.vbsg.slu.se/forgen/ There is also a paper edition!!!

Arthur C Clarke in memoriam and pine breeding
The most famous and respected science fiction author of our time died 08-03-18. The Universe saluted his death by launching the largest number of gamma ray bursts observed in a day, one of them highly spectacular, the most distant object ever observed visible by the un-aided human eye Among his visions about the future there is one about pine breeding and its impact on the ecology (reminding of the actual question about its potential to counter climate change). In the end of his book "The ghost from the grand banks" pine-breeding is nicely saluted; "The star once called the Sun had changed little since the far-off days when men had worshipped it... On the whole the Solar System had not been badly damaged during its brief occupancy by a space-faring species. Indeed, some regions still showed signs of past improvements. The Martian oceans had dwindled to a few shallow lakes, but the great forests of mutated pines still survived along the equatorial belt. For ages to come, they would maintain and protect the ecology they had been designed to create."

Filmen "Bröllop i Skogen", populär men värt att se på för de som sysslar med tallens och granens reproduktionsbiologi (fröplantager, genmigration, evolution) har nu gjorts tillgänglig på Skogforsks web!

For some reasons the address to enter this page has been changed to:
http://daglindgren.upsc.se/ if the former http://www.genfys.slu.se/staff/dagl/ is used linking to the new name will appear automatically. But a link longer in into the structure may not work. Try replacing the . with a - !

The email group for forest geneticists and tree breeder, FORESTGEN, has migrated to a new home. The web site is to be found at http://groups.google.com/group/forestgen Subscribe the list: forestgen-subscribe@googlegroups.com

Ett dokument för en nationell svensk forskningsagenda för skogsnäringen, s k NRA, har tagits fram i samband med Forest Based Technology Platform (FTP) som skall stärka skogsnäringen i EU:s kommande 7:e ramprogram finns på www.nra-sweden.se. NS-9 (träd för framtiden) är väl det som är mest intressant för läsarna av detta.

No further cut backs of Forest Geneticists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences 2006!
A gradual severe reduction of forest genetics has been going at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences the last decade. A decade ago there were three "full" professors in forest genetics leading groups at three locations, now only one remains (me), in two years it may be zero (I will retire in a few years). The Uppsala group ("genecology") is unlikely to survive, although Gösta Eriksson and Inger Ekberg are still active to some degree, but formally retired since five years. Since they retired (without replacement), five senior (PhDs) forest geneticists with tenure ("tills vidare anställda") have been fired from SLU (besides those retired as scheduled without replacement). The number of PhDs specializing in Forest Genetics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has sunk around 60% during the last decade. Few PhD dissertations occurred 2003-2005. However, during 2006 no further reductions took place, there was a PhD dissertation 2006 and it seems likely it will be one in 2007. Gösta Eriksson's former position has been announced in "genetics" (open to all plant geneticists), but it is 25% chance the filling will mean a strengthening of forest genetics in Uppsala. Thus the situation may have stabilized on a new considerable lower level.

A European web discussion on GM Trees has been initiated for members (many Europeans who read this are associated to member organizations) of the European Forest Research Institute. To my surprise, essentially only two signatures contributed after five months!.

Cut backs of Forest Geneticists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
A gradual severe reduction of forest genetics has been going at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences the last decade. A decade ago there were three "full" professors in forest genetics leading groups at three locations, now only one remains (me), in two years it may be zero (I will retire in a few years). The Uppsala group ("genecology") is unlikely to survive, although Gösta Eriksson and Inger Ekberg are still active to some degree, but formally retired since four years. Since they retired (without replacement), five senior (PhDs) forest geneticists with tenure ("tills vidare anställda") have been fired from SLU (and one retired as scheduled). The number of PhDs specializing in Forest Genetics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has sunk around 60% during the last decade. Few PhD dissertations occurred 2003-2005. However, for 2006, there is good hope that the decreasing trend through the previous decade will level out, and a number of PhD dissertations are in sight for 2006 and 2007.

Gertrud Lestander, who has been "administrative clerk" at our department since its creation 1978 will go into retirement at the end of February 2006.

www.nordgen.net blir til www.nordgen.org
Nordisk Genbank, Nordisk Genbank Husdyr og Nordisk skogbruks frø- og planteråd har i lengre tid arbeidet med å styrke sitt samarbeid, og som et første synlig tegn på dette samarbeidet vil fra 1. januar 2006 få nye Internett – og e-post adresser.

The National Board of Forestry and the ten Regional Forestry Boards are establishing a new structure. The new common name is the Swedish Forest Agency. The new e-mail addresses are firstname.sirname@skogsstyrelsen.se and new URLs (The old addresses will function for an extensive time).

En naturvårdsida, jag kan inte hitta något speciellt angrepp mot genetik, inte fröplantager och inte ens GMO-Träd!

Annual Meeting of Nordic Tree Breeders and Forest Geneticists 2005 The meeting will be held in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, Russia, at September 13-15, 2005. The group's activities will be replaced by GENECAR after this meeting!.

A book "forest genetics" (Adams, White, Neale) has been expected for the last four years, may be the moment when it becomes available is approaching now! You can find it on book selling sites including descriptions, but it has never been ready for delivery. Anyway, if you want to buy a general book you can look for it, maybe it is out now!

Nordic Council for seeds and plants conference, Frostavallen, Sverige, 2005. Dag Lindgren presentation of seed orchard diversity here

Milan Lstiburek's thesis is now available at
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-03142005-083542/

On September 16 2004 Hurricane Ivan struck SE US. Injuries to seed orchards seemed, no unexpected, to hit them harder the older they were. Graft union did not appear as a weak point, not even after top-grafting (which is rather frequent).

Finnish transgenic birches

FAO 2004 review of biotechnology in forestry, including genetic modification

Seed handling and quality, five presentations from Finland and Sweden at a seminar day in Finland 050211;
http://www.metla.fi/tapahtumat/2005/siemenseminaari/index.htm

North Carolina State University is hosting this year's Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference (SFTIC) June 20-23 2005, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

A book on forest tree breeding has recently been published: NANSON, A. (2004) Génétique et amélioration des arbres forestiers. It gives the state of art and presents diverse innovation, notable in the field of quantitative genetics. Its rather simple style and vocabulary should make it understandable even with a weak knowledge of French.

A storm in south Sweden January 8-9, 2005 felt 75 million m³, the normal annual felling of whole Sweden. The timber, mainly Norway spruce, lies now on the ground and will start to decay and attract insects in the summer. Harvesting capacity and industrial capacity must be reallocated, but that is hardly enough, I believe it will be a plant shortage also. There are a lot of problems connected to the storm, but also some challenges. Jag har gjort en sida med min och några diskussionpartners analys av läget och ideér omkring.

The proceedings is now available from the 2004 IUFRO div 2 meeting in Charleston.

It has been stated repeatedly that there is no single commercially GMO forest tree in the world, but in the same time there has been undocumented rumors about considerable plantations in China. Now there is a reliable documented information source.

A website for Nicholson: www.cnr.ncsu.edu/nicholson Nicholson supports PHD scholarships and visits between Sweden and NCSU at Raleigh in Forestry, particular Forest Genetics.

Patrik Waldmanns hemsida

The Proceedings of the 27th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference (2003) can be found on-line at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Forestry/sf27/

Si Wikipedia. A a free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It seems to give good background about recent events and be a coming major general tool. It maybe a problem that it seems slow. There is also a Swedish version. Forest genetic and forest tree breeding could be added, it may be a good tool for standardizing terminology and basic information even in our field.

FAO runs electronic conferences at a "Forum" on biotech, mainly GMO, including forestry, http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp

The forest tree breeders now only need to identify a good gene, when they can get it made commercially.

A website for Nicholson: www.cnr.ncsu.edu/nicholson Nicholson supports PHD scholarships and visits between Sweden and NCSU at Raleigh in Forestry, particular Forest Genetics.

The Proceedings of the 27th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference (2003) can be found on-line at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Forestry/sf27/

Tree Genetics & Genomes is a recently launched journal

2005 Gordon Conference on "Quantitative Genetics and Genomics" 20 - 25 Feb 2005 Ventura, California

A conference of IUFRO Division 2 was hold November 1-5, 2004 in Charleston. My contributions are available here.

Proceedings from a genetics and growth modeling workshop

News and Views. In addition to scientific articles, Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research contains a section with short and popularized articles covering Nordic forest research and forestry:, which are available on the net. A comment is that there is an almost total absence of “Views”, thus people connected to Nordic forest research seems characterised by remarkable few expressed views.

Links to different organizations of interest for Scandinavian Forest Research

A homepage for the recently inaugurated research school in Sweden is available at http://resschool.slu.se.

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.

Reflections on the tsunami late 2004

Swedish News:

Det nya TreO fröplantageprogrammet finns presenterat

Jämtlands läns institut för landsbygdsutveckling (direktör Erik Andersson) driver nu två ganska stora Skogsprojekt på Bispgården under ledning av Owe Martinsson
Tema SKOG;
- Projekt LÖVSKOG FÖR BÄTTRE EKONOMI, MILJÖ OCH SYSSELSÄTTNING
- Projekt LÄRKENS ANVÄNDNING OCH KVALITET (SIBLARCH)

Förr i världen experimenterade man med ballonger, kanske också för skogsgenetiska arbeten (kottarna sitter så högt upp)

IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organisations) har vart femte år världskongresser, som delar ut "Outstanding Doctoral Research Award" till de mest framstående skogliga doktorsarbetena. Detta har två gånger i rad tillfallit skogsgenetik SLU,

Jag gjorde ett inspel i genbanksdebatten...:-) Undras om det kan väcka någon debatt när man uttalar sig om genbanker som alla tycker är söta och trevliga istället för förädling och fröplantager, som inte engagerar nån.

A new version of the History of Swedish Forest Genetics has been issued. A gradual severe reduction of forest genetics has been going at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences the last decade. A decade ago there were three "full" professors in forest genetics, now only one remains. The Uppsala group's ("genecology") survival is currently at stake. Two new assistant professors were employed 2004 (formally for two years, but in reality for five). That did not break the decreasing trend, at the same time three senior scientists (PhDs) became redundant. The number of PhDs in Forest Genetics employed by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences sunk more than 60% during the last decade and can be predicted to sink further.

Det är möjligt att köpa Bengt-Olle Bengtssons bok "Genetik och Politik" (från 1999) för ett lågt pris på www.netbokhandeln.se

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 Program 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 programs (where investment is considerable), making a significant difference to the forestry sector of Sweden." "The breeding programs are an outstanding feature..."

SkogForsk has recently closed down the station at Brunsberg (mid west Sweden). The basic funding to breeding in the Framework program 2005-2008 is reduced in crowns by 12%, in spite of that SkogForsk as a whole get increased funding, thus the share of its resources SkogForsk spends on long term breeding will (for the first time ever) be substantially reduced. Insufficiently compensated costs results in an additional accumulated reduction for long-term breeding over a decade, but that loss is shared with rest of the SkogForsk framework.