Selective Breeding

[Larix]

I ask the reader to evaluate the legitimacy of the view that current practices in tree breeding programs are potentially damaging to forests. Has this all been resolved to everyone's satisfaction in the past? John Muir : Naturalist. Speaking of the environment, "When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe." Scientists at the University of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland (Matthias Held & Sergio Rasmann) discovered that the ability to secrete the natural substance E-beta-caryophyllene from corn roots was accidentally bred out during selective breeding to increase corn yields. E-beta-caryophyllene attracts nematodes which kill corn root worm, devastating predator of N.American corn crops. In many jurisdictions forest tree seed orchards use the same selective breeding techniques in tree improvement programs. With the forgoing in mind I ask, "What guarantee do we have that a natural resistance is not being bred out of forests in our effort to breed the phenotypically perfect saw log?" Should we be concerned with the potential genetic contamination pollen from bred trees will cause to surrounding natural forests? Given the lengthy life cycle of trees it will be extremely difficult to correct any breeding mistakes that occur and the mistake may lay dormant many decades before the right environmental trigger makes it apparent.