Displaying items by tag: scott schlarbaum

One of the goals behind a recent partnership among UTIA and state agencies is the promotion of heartier food species such as this oak. The new five-year agreement between the UTIA Tree Improvement Program, the Tennessee Division of Forestry and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency focuses on developing locally adapted and genetically improved seed for future Tennessee forests.  Allison Mains/UTIA

UTIA Tree Improvement Program and state agencies work together to protect and conserve the state’s forest resources

Katie Donaldson is a communications specialist for the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources.

KNOXVILLE — A new, five-year agreement establishes how the state of Tennessee and a program in the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture will study and produce tree seedlings to promote the protection and conservation of Tennessee forests.

The UTIA Tree Improvement Program (UT-TIP), the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry (TDF) and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) partnered on the agreement.

“Honoring our land-grant mission, we are excited about this partnership to responsibly research, develop, manage and conserve forest resources across the great state of Tennessee,” said Keith Carver, UTIA senior vice chancellor and senior vice president.

UT-TIP manages numerous seed orchards in East, Middle and West Tennessee with help from state and federal partners. It uses the orchards to provide the East Tennessee Nursery with locally adapted and genetically improved seed. 

This white oak (Quercus alba) in Burlington, N.J. is known as the Keeler Oak. It is an estimated 300 years old and is emblematic of the role these massive trees can play in the forest and beyond. The white oak is a highly valuable tree, both economically and ecologically. Its seedling survival rate is declining, but University of Tennessee researchers joined others to map the species’ DNA.  Wikipedia Commons

New research involving University of Tennessee describes the genome of the mighty white oak

Patricia McDaniels is news and information manager for the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

KNOXVILLE — Highly valued economically, ecologically and culturally, the white oak (Quercus alba) is a keystone forest species and is one of the most abundant trees across much of eastern North America. It also faces declining seedling recruitment in many parts of its range.

In a paper published in New Phytologist, researchers representing the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Indiana University, the University of Kentucky, the U.S. Forest Service and several more institutions described for the first time the species’ complex genome, providing insights into fundamental questions about plant evolution, tree breeding and genetic improvement efforts that could help forest managers plan for and address future forest resources.

Lead authors of the paper Meg Staton, associate professor of bioinformatics and computational genomics in the UT Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, and Drew Larson, National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University, coordinated with colleagues across the nation in academia, the U.S. Forest Service, state forests and industry to obtain genetic sequence data representative of the species.

Also central to the effort were Seth DeBolt, professor of horticulture and director of the James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits at the University of Kentucky, and Dana Nelson of the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station and director of the Forest Health Research and Education Center at the University of Kentucky.

White oak barrels are lifeblood to the bourbon industry because the color and much of the whiskey’s flavor derive from the charred wood in which it is aged.

Tennessee Tree Improvement Program director Scott Schlarbaum stands among a collection of grafted and cloned native trees at the program’s grafting facility off Alcoa Highway. Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

2-minute video on hemlock genetic diversity conservation added to this article on September 2, 2021

UT Tree Improvement Program prepares for its greatest grafting season yet

“What you have here is the future of Tennessee forests,” said Scott Schlarbaum, a professor and director of the University of Tennessee Tree Improvement Program.

You can tell from a chuckle he thinks his statement might sound hyperbolic and a bit dramatic, but it’s really not.

He gestured across an unassuming but important UT facility just off Alcoa Highway tucked within the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center that will be the main base for a historic tree-grafting effort that will commence this winter. 

The goal: Create trees with high-quality genetic traits ranging from wildlife and habitat qualities to timber value.

Heavy traffic hissed down the nearby highway as it passed by the modest understock yard, greenhouse, raised beds and small house containing offices used as the main grafting facility for the UT Tree Improvement Program (TIP). At least 50,000 vehicles pass by the site every day but most drivers and passengers are oblivious to the existence of this small but important outpost of forest conservation skirted by a Knox County greenway.

The Tree Improvement Program was first established in 1959. It survives as a notable exception to the cost-cutting of such projects in other states at both university and government levels.

“These days we tend to look only at the short term. UT did not.”

Beginning in January, Schlarbaum, director of the program since 1983, will oversee grafting efforts on some 3,600 trees. Last year, during which TIP efforts were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, about 2,000 trees were grafted.

“We are gearing up for our biggest grafting year ever. That’s a huge deal,” Schlarbaum said.