Red alder is the predominant commercial hardwood species of the Pacific Northwest. It is an early successional species that rapidly regenerates following fire or clearcutting and normally precedes the establishment of the historically preferred Douglas-fir. As such, past conifer forestry management practices were designed to speed the transition to Douglas-fir through alder eradication efforts. Consequently, today there is a critical shortage of quality alder logs at the same time the species has become highly prized in domestic and international hardwood furniture, cabinetry, and specialty product markets. Accordingly, red alder plantations are now the leading strategy to forestall the supply shortage of quality saw logs because of favorable rates of financial return in addition to their unique contribution to overall ecosystem function. The success of an alder plantation industry is contingent upon elite, well-adapted planting stock, capable of improved yields and wood quality. GreenWood Resources proposes an alder genetic improvement program that replicates its highly successful and integrated hybrid poplar genetic improvement and plantation management programs. Phase II results will lead to improved alder varieties capable of high yields, reduced risk of spring frost injury, increased site adaptability and improved wood quality. Our work will lead directly to development of GreenWood Resources' red alder nursery business. This is a necessary and important prelude to GreenWood's development of a short-rotation, high-yield alder tree farm investment fund. This fund will secure the Pacific Northwest's red alder sawmilling, lumber, furniture, door, cabinetry, and specialty products industries. OBJECTIVES: The goal is to develop improved alder planting stock to optimize an alder plantation program that will improve the supply of quality alder logs for the Pacific Northwest's hardwood sawmilling industry. Controlled inter-specific hybridization and varietal selection and propagation will encompass four project objectives that will resolve specific questions necessary for commercializing the improvement strategy: I. Inter-specific red alder hybridization. The objective is to determine the value of first generation hybrids of multiple inter-specific taxa as candidates for short-rotation plantation operations. Inherent technical questions are: a. Do one or more hybrid taxa exhibit heterosis of yield and/or wood quality b. What is the extent of within-family segregation c. Can complementary traits be combined within hybrid taxa to widen the range of site adaptability d. Are reciprocal crossing effects important (i.e. maternal inheritance) II. Recurrent red alder breeding. The objective is to create a population of the 2nd generation of red alder bred from superior 1st generation varieties and to evaluate the magnitude of genetic gain. Inherent technical questions are: a. How is genetic variation expressed in the 2nd generation What is the proportion of additive and non-additive variation b. How much varietal variation is there within families III. Establishment of red alder and white alder breeding populations. The objective is to establish base populations of the two cornerstone, native species in order to establish a long-term intra- and inter-specific improvement program for breeding zones of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon region coinciding with two plantation development zones. IV. Vegetative propagation. The objective is to refine the success of the Phase I macro- and micro-propagation work for the establishment of varietal progeny trials as well as to multiply elite selections to quantities sufficient to initiate commercial deployment. Key underlining questions are: a. Can Phase I propagation success be increased in Phase II by beginning earlier in the year and with closer control on cutting quality b. How much variation among hybrid taxa is there in adventitious rooting and survival APPROACH: A range of intra- and inter-specific hybrid taxa will be created by controlled pollination under greenhouse conditions using the grafted scion approach. This will be followed by replicated field testing of the materials using both seedling- and varietal-based progeny tests. Phase II work will also include a refinement of the vegetative propagation techniques evaluated during Phase I. These will include hardwood and succulent macro-cutting propagation and ex vitro greenhouse rooting of in vitro produced micro-cuttings. Experimentation will assess the effect of phyto-hormones and the method of Frankia inoculation. The vegetative propagation method will be tailored to the needs of producing varietal stock for progeny trials as well as the mass propagation of elite varietal selections. PROGRESS: 2011/09 TO 2012/08 OUTPUTS: A total of 1,112 seedlings of 14 Alnus rubra x A. glutinosa, two A. glutinosa x A. rubra, seven A. rubra x A. acuminata, and seven A. rubra x A. nepalensis families were propagated for a 2013 field experiment. Three and one-half acres have been leased in Columbia County, Oregon for the 2013 field trial as well as a 2014 trial of A. rubra x A. rhombifolia hybrids. The site is being prepared and a deer exclusion fence has been erected. Seed was collected from 11 of 16 A. rubra x A. rhombifolia crosses attempted during Phase I. Three thousand one hundred seedlings from 11 A. rubra x A. rhombifolia and reciprocal families have been propagated. Ten genotypes of each family have been randomly selected and transplanted to one gallon pots to grow to a size sufficient to clone each genotype for the 2014 field trial. The 16 A. rubra and A. rhombifolia parents used in the reciprocal mating design have been successfully cloned by grafting multiple scions from the parental ortets onto seedling understock of the same species. Grafted scions grew during 2011, entered dormancy, and flushed in 2012 as first-stage ramets. Succulent greenwood cuttings were collected and second-stage ramets now being rooted in containers. We will re-propagate the cloned parental genotypes as third-stage ramets using tertiary greenwood cuttings from the second-stage ramets in April of 2013 coincident with the cloning of their hybrid offspring. Clonal ramets of both parents and offspring will be represented in the 2014 field trial. Reproductive cuttings were collected from 20 elite A. rubra clones and used in attempting 46 2nd generation crosses. (Relatedness among the 20 1st generation selections limited the number of attempted crosses.) Seed strobili have been successfully produced for 28 of the attempted crosses. Twenty genotypes per each of 21 local A. rubra and A. rhombifolia open-pollinated seedlots are being propagated for a 2013 breeding arboretum for future exploratory hybridizations between the two species. The orchard site is being prepared at the Westport Tree Improvement Center. A factorial study was established to improve the process of greenwood macro-cutting propagation that involves two replications of a factorial combination of two levels of Frankia inoculation, two levels of phyto-hormone application, and five Alnus taxa. Stock plants of two genotypes of each of four Alnus taxa were grown in large pots for the production of greenwood shoots that were subsequently introduced into in vitro multiplication at a contract propagation laboratory. Succulent greenwood shoots were provided on three separate dates in January, April, and June 2012. Cuttings were initiated directly into in vitro culture. The first shipment of micro-cuttings has been received for greenhouse rooting trials. GreenWood Resources hosted the annual meeting of the Washington Hardwoods Commission with a field tour of SBIR alder hybridization and clonal propagation projects and clonal field trials. PARTICIPANTS: 1. HallTree Biomass - Dr. Richard B. Hall, Ames Iowa. Project consultant on alder hybridization, genetic evaluation, and vegetative propagation. 2. Microplant Nurseries - Gayle Suttle, Gervais, Oregon. Contract laboratory providing in vitro propagation services. TARGET AUDIENCES: 1. Washington Hardwoods Commission 2. Oregon and Washington Alder mills 3. Washington Farm Forestry Association PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: 1. Clonal propagation of 110 seedling genotypes of 11 A. rubra x A. rhombifolia and reciprocal families moved to 2013. 2. Hybridization of the A. rubra x A. glutinosa backcross generation reduced in number of crosses due to lack of breeding stock. We are substituting crosses between A. rhombifoloa and A. glutinosa. 3. Controlled crossing of additional second generation red alder families that failed to produce seed in 2012 will take place in 2013. IMPACT: 2011/09 TO 2012/08 We made the following observations during the hybridization of A. rubra and A. rhombifolia: 1. There was no apparent difference in the yield of pollen between the two species. Nor was there any apparent difference in pollen viability; 2. Scion wood of the A. rhombifolia parents was appreciably smaller than the scion wood of the A. rubra parents. Nonetheless, we did not experience any difference in grafting success. (We grafted scion wood of each species on to seedling understock of the same species.); 3. A. rubra fruits were larger than the fruits of A. rhombifolia. Perhaps as a consequence, hybrid seed produced by the A. rubra parents was noticeably larger than hybrid seed collected from the A. rhombifolia parents; 4. Seed production of the A. rubra females exceeded the production of the A. rhombifolia females by nearly five fold; 5. Germination percentage and germination energy did not appear to differ between the two species. We have successfully produced developing strobili for the majority of the second generation A. rubra crosses. Nearly all of the failed crosses result from the fact that the understock had begun to grow at the time the grafts were made in May, a consequence of a January ice storm and the subsequent late collection of scion wood in March. We observed adventitious rooting from first-order branches (layering) on trees growing in our 2009 A. glutinosa trial. This may indicate a good opportunity for adventitious rooting - and thereby clonal propagation - from detached hardwood macro-cuttings. Moreover, we will devise a method to initiate layering in a high-density nursery bed. The layered branches would be removed to make hardwood cuttings that can be replanted to complete the cloning process. This vegetative propagation technique if successful will allow cost-effective field rooting of small diameter hardwood macro-cuttings. Our ongoing attempts at clonal propagation by greenwood macro-cuttings and in vitro produced micro-cuttings have shown that: 1. The rooting and vigor of macro-cuttings is enhanced when the Frankia symbiont is directly introduced by pipetting a crushed nodule slurry in to planting containers compared with mixing forest soil with the horticultural soil used in filling the containers and 2. The A. rubra x A. glutinosa taxon initiates callus and proliferates in vitro shoots more rapidly than other alder species or inter-specific hybrid taxa.
