Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Based on lumber prices, Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) is at times the highest prized forest tree species in Canada and with a yearly export of more than $ 770 million in 2006. T. plicata lumber is regarded as durable and rot resistant and therefore highly priced for special outdoor applications such as decking, furniture, roof and wall shingles. The rot resistance of trees and the related durability of generated lumber is primarily attributed to high levels of tropolones, antimicrobial compounds that accumulate in the heartwood. Tropolones purified from heartwood are also used in the medical/natural medicine/cosmetic market primarily in Asia because of their strong antimicrobial properties. Although rot resistance is a key trademark for T. plicata lumber, there is considerable variation for this trait in second-growth trees, and a significant portion of cut trees are culled because of considerable internal rot. There is also a similar variation in lumber durability. The genetic stock used for T. plicata production in Canada is produced by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and range, our major partner in this project. These genetic stocks are in turn used for seed production primarily by our industrial partner Western Forest Products Inc and TimberWest Inc. Currently, generational breeding for heartwood rot resistance in T. plicata is not practical as tropolones accumulate in heartwood at quantifiable levels after > 15 years. However, several technical advances now enable research to develop markers for early prediction of tropolone content with the aim of enabling breeding for rot resistance in Western redcedar, a trademark of Canadian value-added forest products industry.