IUFRO Working Party 2.09.01 Seed Orchards

At the IUFRO web, the unit is  http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-2/20000/20900/20901/

·         The WP arranged a conference May 2012 in Turkey.

·         How seed orchards were reflected by the IUFRO world conference 2010 ____

·         The working party arranged a conference September 8-11, 2009 in Jeju Island, Korea.

·         The first seed orchard meeting at Umeå, Sweden, 2007__

A breeding theory conference in Prague took place Aug 2014. A number of presentations concerned seed orchards (abstracts can be downloaded from the meeting site). Main responsible: Milan Lstiburek.

Next seed orchard meeting or activity is planned in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 2015 in conjunction with the CFGA conference. The conference will be held August 17-21, 2015 and the theme is Integrating Tree Breeding, Silviculture and Growth & Yield. The Seed Orchard WP will be joining the CFGA conference. Web site for the meeting is http://forestgenetics2015.ca/ and website for CFGA http://www.cfga-acgf.com/?Itemid=1 ). The theme will encompass tree improvement, silviculture and growth & yield. The theme is intended to focus on practical and applied aspects that will benefit people managing breeding and seed production programs. The first day will consist of a Tree Seed Workshop in the morning and a tour in the afternoon. On that same day there will a genetic conservation symposium lead by CONFORGEN www.conforgen.ca . The second day will be papers and posters. The third day will be a field tour to include an industrial company’s seed orchard complex. The fourth day will be papers and posters followed by a tour and barbeque at the provincial government nursery and seed orchard facility.

About the Unit
The main scope is to facilitate exchange of information on the research and progress of seed orchards and seed crops. Seed orchards are the link between research and breeding towards better forests, and better forests help in solving future problems of the World, like shortage of raw materials, energy, global warming and sustainability. Scientific research for improving seed orchards and discussion for sharing experiences and progress are keys to that goal. This research group draws together those interested in research and management strategies concerning genetics of seed orchards, management of seed production, flowering, seed physiology and technology, injuries and protection, economics, seed dormancy, testing and storage; impact on seed orchards on ecosystems on landscapes and national level, and conservation.

State of Knowledge
Seed orchards are in much of the world the main supplier of forest generation material, and the use of seed orchard seed as well as their quality is continuously rising. They are much discussed on local levels, but less on international meetings. As they seldom are regarded as fancy futuristic research objects, their development draws rather little attention, and the development occurring is not well spread and discussed.

More information:

*Office holders _

* Proceedings (abstracts) of the conference 2012 __

* Proceedings (abstracts) of the conference 2009 __

*Literature about seed orchards _

*News about the working party and seed orchards the most actual news stands on this place, but not forever. Please, email news you want posted here to Dag Lindgren

*Links to seed orchard related activities __

*Evaluation of the participation of the meeting in Turkey May 2012___.

Compilation of participation at the three seed orchard conferences. As I do not have the participation list from Turkey I cannot evaluate it.

* How frequent are seed orchards discussed?

*Seed orchard PhD thesis are awarded by IUFRO! _

*Business meeting 090910  ___

* Notes from the first Business Meeting 070927 ___

*The WP has initiated a book about seed orchards, but it is highly uncertain if it will be pursued  .

       http://daglindgren.upsc.se/SeedOrchardResearchGroup/  :We were initially informed that we would become a research group. After all we were not, but to change the link took time (and means that old links will not work).

IUFRO Division 2 structure: http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-2/ , for statutes of IUFRO, go to membership first

*Historic about the formation of the seed orchard (2007-early 2008) Working Party  __

*History of the Seed Orchard Working Party since its formal formation (Oct 2008).__

A short popularized abstract of the thesis by Finnvid Prescher was presented at the combined conference and dissertation dinner. It is suggested it is used at future Seed Orchard meeting dinners. It may become the official hymn of the WP.

This web: Managed by Dag Lindgren on behalf of the WP and is more informative than the web on the IUFRO site. I retired formally Sept 09, but have updated this site. The university seems to allow me to run the web and the university email some additional years. It is uncertain how long or with what intensity this web will be managed or even if it remains, and this does not depend only on me, but also on support from my former employer. Excuse that the half-life of links is short and updating generally difficult, so a number of links do not work. I encourage the WP to find another place for the web. This site or parts of it may be copied to the new web, but that is not under my control. If that does not happen, this WP site will hopefully be reasonable well maintained till the meeting 2015. You are welcome to email about this web to Dag Lindgren. You may want to get news posted or improvements in text or structure or links or you may have literature to add. I will be so happy to hear from you. However to my disappointment I have not heard anything from anyone.

Last edit Dag Lindgren 14-09-05