Objectives:

• To test the validity of patterns of geographic variation derived from the study of physiological and morphological variations among seedlings in two nurseries.
• To study the phenotypic stability of lodgepole pine provenances at two latitudes.
• To determine the effects of nursery source upon the survival and growth of 30 contorta provenances at two latitudes.

Experimental Design:

Treatments

Thirty provenances of lodgepole pine, ranging from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Yellowstone National Park are being tested. They were grown at two nurseries [(Red Rock (RR) and Cowichan Lake Experiment Station (CLES)].

Layout

• There are two blocks.
• Each block contains two plots, with each plot containing stock grown in one nursery.
• Within each plot are 30 lines, with provenances randomly assigned to the lines.
• Provenances are identified by labels at the start of each line.

History:

• 1971 Plantation establishment, and first assessments
• 1972 - 1979 Annual assessments
• 1980 - 1990 Assessments on five-year schedule
• 1998 - Plantation maintenance and District communication

Status: Active

Reports and Publications:

Ying, C.C., C.F. Thompson and L. Herring 1989. Geographic variation, nursery effects and early selection in lodgepole pine. Can. J. For. Res. 19: 823-841.

Rehfeldt G.E., C.C. Ying, D.L. Spittlehouse, and D.A. Hamilton. 1999. Genetic responses to climate in Pinus contorta: niche breadth, climate change, and reforestation. Ecol. Monogr. 69: 375-407

Rehfeldt, G.E. 2000. Genes Climate and Wood. Leslie L. Schaffer Lectureship in Forest Science, U.B.C. Vancouver, B.C. February 2, 2000.

Comments:

In addition to early growth assessments, other factors assessed between 1972 and 1980 included the differential damage cause by over-winter cold temperatures to the different provenances, and a relatively high incidence of pine "toppling" that occurred in this plantation.