Keepability of Pennsylvania versus West Coast Grown Douglas-Fir Christmas Trees: Genotypic Variation in Relation to Subfreezing Temperatures

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Kubiske ◽  
Marc D. Abrams ◽  
James C. Finley

Abstract Cut Douglas-fir Christmas trees grown in Pennsylvania from Rocky Mountain seed sources and coastal trees grown in the Pacific Northwest and shipped into Pennsylvania were compared for keepability. Following various cold treatments, the cut ends of trees were placed in water in an indoor display area. Coastal trees placed in a freezer at - 29°C for 24 h had 89 ± 5.1% (mean ± standard error) needle loss after one day of display, while Rocky Mountain origin trees exhibited only 3 ± 2.0% needle loss after 1 day and 50 ± 5.6% needle loss after 18 days. Coastal produced trees exposed to temperatures > - 12°C had 50 ± 9.8% needle loss at the end of the experiment, while Rocky Mountain trees ended with 22 ± 3.2% needle loss. Four additional treatments consisted of trees placed on an outdoor lot and periodically moved indoors to simulate Christmas tree market activity. Again, there was a significant difference between trees from coastal and Rocky Mountain sources, with 57.2 ± 4.3% and 11.8 ± 1.2% needle loss after 3 days, respectively. By the end of the 23 day experiment, the coastal trees were essentially devoid of needles, whereas Rocky Mountain trees had an average of only 20% needle loss. Coastal trees also exhibited a very noticeable loss of color and lustre. North. J. Appl. For. 7:86-89, June 1990.

1984 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
R.A. Jaynes ◽  
G.R. Stephens ◽  
J.F. Ahrens

Douglas fir, Pseudotsuga Menziesii (Mirb.) Franco, is a popular Christmas tree in the Northeast. In 1976 trees from 11 geographic sources ranging from British Columbia to southern Arizona and New Mexico were planted in a replicated design and managed as a commercial plantation. Information was also obtained on 10 seed sources grown on a commercial tree farm. All sources were hardy in the Connecticut plantings. In general, trees from southern Rocky Mountain sources were bluer, and grew faster than those from northern sources, but they were also more susceptible to attack by Cooley gall aphid, Adelges cooleyi (Gill), and rhabdocline needle cast fungus, Rhabdocline pseudotsugae (Syd.)


2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Bradley St. Clair ◽  
Glenn T Howe ◽  
Jennifer G Kling

Abstract The 1912 Douglas-Fir Heredity Study is one of the first studies undertaken by the US Forest Service, and one of the first forest genetics studies in North America. The study considers provenance variation of 120 parent trees from 13 seed sources planted at five test sites in the Pacific Northwest. The unique, long-term nature of the study makes it valuable to revisit and consider its biological and historical significance. This analysis considers how far climatically Douglas-fir populations may be moved without incurring unacceptable declines in growth and survival. Results indicate that Douglas-fir seed sources may be moved at least 2° C cooler or warmer and still retain good long-term survival and productivity. However, projected future climate change beyond 2° C may lead to lower survival and productivity. One option to address these concerns is assisted migration; however, if seed sources are moved beyond 2–3° C to a cooler climate in anticipation of warming, or from a more continental to a maritime climate, we are likely to see increased mortality and associated losses in productivity in the near-term. Lessons from this study include: (1) pay attention to good experimental design; we were able to overcome limitations from the design by using new statistical approaches; (2) maladaptation may take time to develop; poorer survival was not evident until more than two decades after planting; and (3) long-term studies may have value for addressing new, unforeseen issues in the future.


2001 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Chastagner

Douglas-fir are traditionally grown as Christmas trees in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Intermountain (IM) provenances of Douglas-fir are less likely to be injured after harvest by exposure to subfreezing temperatures than the coastal provenances. However, planting IM Douglas-fir in the coastal areas of the PNW is currently not recommended because of their high susceptibility to Rhabdocline needle cast. During a three-year period, needle cast severity was rated (0 to 100 scale) on trees in a replicated planting of IM Douglas-fir near Puyallup, WA. In 1997, needle cast ratings ranged from 0.8 to 70. Trees from the Cibola National Forest (NF) had significantly higher needle cast ratings (70.0) than trees from Carson NF (17.3), Coconino NF (15.7), Rio Grande NF (5.0), and Upper Clearwater, ID (0.8). Trees from the Apache NF (51.4), San Isabel NF (32.3), two collections representing the Lincoln NF (25.4-30.2), and the Santa Fe NF (21.3) had intermediate levels of needle cast. This study shows that certain sources of IM Douglas-fir can be grown in the PNW with minimal Rhabdocline needle cast problems. Applications of chlorothalonil also provided effective needle cast control on all but the most susceptible provenance. Accepted for publication 15 October 2001. Published 29 October 2001.


1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 546-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Von Rudloff ◽  
G. E. Rehfeldt

Quantitative terpene analysis of the leaf oils of 433 wild Douglas-fir trees from 87 northwestern localities, 66 wind-pollinated progenies of 4 trees from Idaho, 100 trees from 5 localities represented in a provenance trial, and 76 trees from four full-sib families of F1 intervarietal crosses allowed assessment of biosynthetic pathways, geographic variation, and modes of inheritance. Hypothetical biosynthetic pathways, derived from the cooccurrence of terpenes implied that the variation in 17 monoterpenes could be represented by three or four biogenetic pathways. As a result, geographic variation between the coastal and Rocky Mountain varieties can be described by the relative percentages of β-pinene, the terpinene–sabinene group of terpenes, the camphene group, and perhaps limonene. An abrupt reduction in the production of the camphene group occurs in going from interior to coastal populations. Moreover, patterns of segregation within four full-sib intervarietal hybrid families suggested that production of high relative percentages of the camphene group was governed by a single dominant gene. The dominant allele is characteristic of the Rocky Mountain variety, but isolated occurrences were also found on dry sites in coastal British Columbia. The recessive allele occurs far into the range of the Rocky Mountain variety. The coastal variety is characterized by the synthesis of relatively large amounts of β-pinene and the terpinene–sabinene group and their mode of inheritance is quantitative. Although concentrations of these terpenes decline towards the Rocky Mountains, genes controlling high amounts occur in populations of Idaho and western Montana. The variation in β-pinene and terpenes of the terpinene–sabinene group does not appear to be clinal. Trees with 5–10% ocimene are predominant in eastern Oregon. This terpene was found only in less than 1% amounts in trees from the coastal region and Montana and was practically absent in a provenance from Arizona. Hence it may serve to differentiate Rocky Mountain populations.


1957 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Gregson

Tick paralysis continues to be one of the most baffling and fascinating tickborne diseases in Canada. It was first reported in this country by Todd in 1912. Since then about 250 human cases, including 28 deaths, have been recorded from British Columbia. Outbreaks in cattle have affected up to 400 animals at a time, with losses in a herd as high as 65 head. Although the disease is most common in the Pacific northwest, where it is caused by the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni Stiles, it has lately been reported as far south as Florida and has been produced by Dermacentor variabilis Say, Amblyomma maculatum Koch, and A. americanum (L.) (Gregson, 1953). The symptoms include a gradual ascending symmetrical flaccid paralysis. Apparently only man, sheep, cattle, dogs, and buffalo (one known instance) are susceptible, but even these may not necessarily be paralysed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 398 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 281-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Slesak ◽  
Timothy B. Harrington ◽  
Anthony W. D’Amato

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1057-1070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda E Winter ◽  
Linda B Brubaker ◽  
Jerry F Franklin ◽  
Eric A Miller ◽  
Donald Q DeWitt

The history of canopy disturbances over the lifetime of an old-growth Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) stand in the western Cascade Range of southern Washington was reconstructed using tree-ring records of cross-dated samples from a 3.3-ha mapped plot. The reconstruction detected pulses in which many western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) synchronously experienced abrupt and sustained increases in ringwidth, i.e., "growth-increases", and focused on medium-sized or larger ([Formula: see text]0.8 ha) events. The results show that the stand experienced at least three canopy disturbances that each thinned, but did not clear, the canopy over areas [Formula: see text]0.8 ha, occurring approximately in the late 1500s, the 1760s, and the 1930s. None of these promoted regeneration of the shade-intolerant Douglas-fir, all of which established 1500–1521. The disturbances may have promoted regeneration of western hemlock, but their strongest effect on tree dynamics was to elicit western hemlock growth-increases. Canopy disturbances are known to create patchiness, or horizontal heterogeneity, an important characteristic of old-growth forests. This reconstructed history provides one model for restoration strategies to create horizontal heterogeneity in young Douglas-fir stands, for example, by suggesting sizes of areas to thin in variable-density thinnings.


Linguaculture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-59
Author(s):  
Irina Chirica

This paper surveys the most significant ways in which the American West has been viewed as a place and region. Starting with Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803, we follow the expansion of the West as a region throughout American history. Jefferson worked out a plan which involved the creation of territories which later became states, following a certain procedure. Inside the larger West, there are many Wests: the prairie states of the Midwest (also called the “Bread Basket” of America), the Rocky Mountain states, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and California. We analyze the myths and images associated with the west in American culture, and the influence of Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay dedicated to “the Frontier”. We discuss the New Historicism approach and the way in which it criticizes Tuner. Then we discuss the reflection of the West in the visual arts (the major landscape painters and in the work of the western movie director John Ford). We bring arguments to support the idea that the West is a construct of human experience and a cultural concept, more than a “place”.


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