By Juliet Rowan

A Rotorua company is using technology to produce radiata pine able to
capture up to double the amount of carbon of existing trees.
Forest Genetics is also able to produce the trees more quickly than
conventional methods, giving the forestry industry an opportunity to rapidly
expand plantations of sustainable trees.

The company has more than 50 field trials of radiata pine varieties
nationwide and others overseas, all involving selecting trees with the best
genetic material.

Usually, it takes up to eight years to grow trees mature enough for
scientists to see desirable characteristics such as increased timber
strength, disease resistance and carbon-capturing ability.

But by this time, the optimum time for propagating the trees from cuttings
has passed, and they are too old.

Now, Forest Genetics has developed a way to propagate radiata pine with
desirable attributes using cryo-preservation (freezing) technology licensed
from Canadian company CellFor.

Forest Genetics founders and tree-breeding scientists Mike and Sue Carson
said the cryo technology gave the breakthrough they needed to produce
radiata pine with strong timber and good carbon-capturing ability.

"For the forest grower, this means he gets a double whammy," Dr Mike Carson
said.

"Plantation forests [of these trees] are one of the ways we can start to
deal with greenhouse gases."

To produce the most desirable radiata pine, tissue samples from all
varieties under field trial are taken and placed in long-term storage using
cryo-preservation.

Liquid nitrogen is used to freeze the samples which keeps the tissue
juvenile and enables it to be extracted four to six years later, once the
trials have established the best production varieties.

The tissue of the extracted varieties is then grown in a laboratory, where
it can be replicated into thousands of little trees, which become "mother
plants".

These mother plants are planted in a production nursery where they produce
cuttings, which are planted in a nursery or greenhouse containers.

Once the cuttings reach the required size, they are planted on forest land.

All the trees are cloned to become new production varieties, but are not
genetically engineered.

"There's no GE," Dr Sue Carson said. "Essentially it's a result of crossing
the best with the best."

She said some varieties were showing the ability to capture double the
amount of carbon of existing stands of radiata pine, although typically one
of the improved varieties could capture 25 per cent more carbon than the
next best option for new plantations.

"It's because it grows really fast and it has really high wood density."

The company sold its first improved radiata pine to local forest growers
last year, and expects to supply several million plants to both the New
Zealand and Australian markets within two years.

Forestry company Kaingaroa Timberlands and private investors have acquired
interests in the business
www.chechbiotech.org