Category: Genetics

Forest Health Research and Education Center

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
Sometimes it seems as if the forests of the eastern U.S. are losing the battle with invasive insects and pathogens – emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid, Asian longhorned beetles, spongy moth, chestnut blight, sudden oak death, thousand cankers disease, laurel wilt – the list goes on and on. Scientists and land managers continue to…  More 

Fulbright Grant Funds Three-Month U.S. Visit by Portuguese Researcher

by Teresa Jackson, SRS Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives  • 
To help keep the European chestnut from suffering the same plight as the American chestnut, Portuguese scientist and Fulbright grant recipient Rita Costa recently spent three months working at the U.S. Forest Service Southern Institute of Forest Genetics (SIFG) in Saucier, Mississippi, and the Forest Health Research and Education Center (FHC), Department of Forestry, at the University of Kentucky.…  More 

Where the Not-So-Mighty Chestnut Still Grows

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
A recent study by U.S. Forest Service, university, and state agency researchers provides baseline information on contemporary populations of American chestnut needed to support restoration of the tree to the forests it once dominated. Biologist Harmony Dalgleish from the College of William and Mary served as lead author on the research published in the journal…  More 

The Harrison Experimental Forest

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Located in the lower Coastal Plain in southeastern Mississippi, the Harrison Experimental Forest (Harrison) was established on the Desoto National Forest in 1934. By that time, vast stands of southern pines, mostly longleaf pine, had been cut from the estimated 31 million acres that made up the southern Coastal Plain forest. Located just north of…  More 

Faces of Innovation: Chuck Burdine at the Southern Institute of Forest Genetics

by Teresa Jackson, SRS Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives  • 
  Charles “Chuck” Burdine is a biologist with the Southern Research Station’s (SRS) Southern Institute of Forest Genetics (the Institute) located on the Harrison Experimental Forest (HEF), in Saucier, Mississippi. Chuck started his Forest Service career in December 1999 in the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) while still earning an Associate degree in forestry at Jones…  More 

Genetics to Support Healthier Pine Forests in the South

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
Fusiform rust, caused by the fungus Cronartium quercum f. sp. fusiforme, is one of the most serious diseases affecting loblolly and slash pines in the southeastern U.S. and causes an estimated $28 million in damages every year. As the primary source of pulpwood and saw timber for the U.S. forest industry, the economic importance of loblolly…  More 

American Chestnut, Past and Future

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
The Silvics of American Chestnut , a general technical report (GTR) available from the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), describes the habitat, life history, special uses, genetics, and restoration of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata). The publication is the result of collaboration between G. Geoff Wang, the lead author, his colleagues at Clemson University, and…  More 

Shortleaf Pine: The Future Requires Fire

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery  • 
Shortleaf and loblolly pine are closely related and have always hybridized occasionally. “However, hybrids are now so common that they may threaten shortleaf pine’s existence as a genetically distinct species,” says U.S. Forest Service scientist Dana Nelson. “Our study is the first to show that fire helps maintain genetic distinctions between shortleaf and loblolly pine.”…  More 

Genetic Studies Reveal a Tree’s History to Ensure its Future

by Stephanie Worley Firley  • 
It can reach heights of 200 feet and live 500 years, and occupies landscapes across the western United States. Some say its bark has an unforgettable smell resembling vanilla or even cinnamon, and this tree is one tough cookie. It grows in a variety of soils and climates and survives fires that consume other species.…  More 

Fusiform Rust Never Sleeps

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Fusiform rust, a fungal disease caused by Cronartium quercum f. sp. fusiforme, is the most damaging disease of slash and loblolly pines in the southeastern United States. There are currently over 60.3 million acres of slash and loblolly pine timberland in the Southeast, some of the most productive forests in the world. Forest managers rely…  More