NESTLED in a tree breeding hub on the outskirts of Mount Gambier, a team of experts has begun a two-year research program to potentially increase wood quality for the region’s saw-milling industry.
Forest and Wood Products Australia Limited has co-funded Southern Tree Breeding Association and its industry collaborators to undertake the innovative research.
Headquartered in Mount Gambier, the association undertakes cutting-edge breeding and research for the forestry industry.
By improving genetic selection for wood quality factors such as timber stiffness, it could result in increases in returns of hundreds of dollars per hectare for plantation growers.
The researchers will exploit emerging tools to measure wood quality non-destructively on young standing trees in radiata and southern pines and will test tens of thousands of trees across many field trials.
Traditionally, tree genetics programs have been mostly about growth, form and tree health, with only a subset of trees assessed for wood quality properties such as timber stiffness, which have been more expensive to test.
However, the technology for testing wood quality traits on a large scale without destroying trees is advancing and becoming more cost-effective.
Southern Tree Breeding Association general manager Dr Tony McRae said the commercial impacts of improving wood quality genetics in breeding could be significant if the technology could be applied to young trees on a large scale.
He said the timing was right with a wave of new generation genetic material coming on line.
“Wood quality is a major determinant of economic value in softwood plantations,” Dr McRae said.
“We will be sampling lots of trees over the next two years in genetic trials spread everywhere so we can get the data.
“A one unit (GPa) increase in timber stiffness for radiata pine is estimated to be worth on average almost $570 extra in net present value per hectare to an integrated enterprise growing and processing structural timber.”
The data collected will be incorporated into the industry-wide TREEPLAN evaluations for radiata and southern pines.
