Tree
Breeding
in the
USDA
Forest
Service
Keith Woeste
Dana Nelson
Paul Berrang
Randy Johnson
Brad St. Clair
Mary Francis
Mahalovich
Andrew Groover
Charles Michler
Don Reimenschneider
Jennifer Koch
Barbara Crane
Richard Sniezko
Tom Blush
Vicky Erickson
Marilyn Buford
US Forest Service plant
breeding programs function
to meet the needs of federal
land management agencies,
state and tribal nursery
programs, and private land
owners and businesses. In
the past, breeding objectives
centered on improving
productivity, wood quality and
disease resistance in forest
trees. More recently,
breeding for disease and
pest resistance has become
more important as we combat
diseases and pests that
threaten US forests. Our
genetics and tree breeding
programs are critical
components of developing
innovative forest
management opportunities to
meet the Nation’s needs.
These programs provide
foundation material for
research in the areas of
biotechnology, genomics,
disease resistance, and
traditional population and
quantitative genetics. In
turn, these results are
incorporated into our
breeding programs and
others around the world.
US Forest Service plant
breeding programs involve
Research & Development,
National Forest System, and
State & Private Forestry.
Much of our work is
conducted in collaboration
with federal, university,
industry, state, tribal and
NGO partners.
Background image courtesy http://smallfarms.wsu.edu/crops/images/
White pine female strobili.
Breeding for resistance to white
pine blister rust is an important
objective of the Northern Region
and Inland Empire Tree
Improvement Cooperatives.
Screening eastern white pine for
resistance to blister rust.
Overcoming graft incompatibility was an important step
in the development of clonal Douglas-fir seed orchards.
Collecting butternut
scion wood
Breeding Port-Orford-cedar in a
containerized seed orchard at Dorena
Genetic Resource Center (breeding for
Phytophthora lateralis resistance).
Tree genetics research on red pine was initiated at the Lake
States Forest Experiment Station. Work on this project began
in 1927 with seed collections from individual trees, groups of
trees, or stands throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and
Michigan. Photograph is a seed collection expedition to Itasca
State Park, MN.
Evaluating PA black cherry
selections for breeding
The U.S. Forest Service Region 5 (California) Genetic Resources
Program has begun second-generation breeding, testing, and
selection in ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir in cooperation with
the North Sierra Tree Improvement Association.
Gene and enhancer trap for poplar
at the Institute of Forest Genetics.
Field testing sugar pine for white pine blister rust
resistance at USDA Forest Service's Happy Camp
site.
Screening beech for
resistance to Beech bark
disease
Fusiform rust symptoms
2nd generation Loblolly
pine seed orchard in
Mississippi.
White pine blister rust (wpbr) causes high levels of mortality in many of our native
white pine species. Four regional programs (R1, R5, R6 and R9), involving four pine
host species (Sugar, Western white, Easterm white, Whitebark) are active in breeding for
resistance to the non-native, invasive pathogen wpbr. In addition, investigations on
genetic resistance of the five other North American white pine species has begun.
2nd Generation Shortleaf
pine seed orchard in
Arkansas
Research at Southern Institute of Forest Genetics (SIFG)
includes structural genomics using genetic mapping and
molecular cytogenetics, development of molecular breeding
methods, host/pest interaction genetics, quantitative genetics of
ecologic and economic traits, population genetics of small
and/or fragmented populations, trait ideotype identification and
characterization, and quantitative trait dissection and mapping.