Growing Trust: Scientific Credibility in Forest Genetics
The credibility of ArborGen is strongly connected to the quality of its science. Developing new genetic families of trees is a long-term investment – often taking more than a decade – and the decisions made early in the process impact whether the results will hold up in the woods.
At ArborGen, making sure our research and development efforts are aligned in the right direction is critical to our success, as well as our customers’ success. Each year, we put a significant effort into breeding, testing, and selecting new genetic families of loblolly and slash pine.
Our success comes not just from our internal Product Development efforts, but also from collaboration and participation in more than 10 cooperative programs across the southeastern United States. We work with university faculty and researchers to help ensure we are moving in the right direction.
Why Do We Invest in a Scientific Process?
In my graduate training, there was a strong emphasis on statistics, experimental design, and making sure the experiment being conducted was set up to address the question at hand.
We were often reminded that studies can sometimes try to answer too many questions at once, resulting in data that doesn’t lead to clear, practical decisions. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career in forestry.
At ArborGen, we focus on designing research that produces clear, reliable data that can be used to guide real-world decisions.
The Long-Term Investment Behind Forest Genetics
It takes about 12 years to generate a genetic data set for a population of pine trees.
This process includes:
- Selecting the parents of the population
- Designing a breeding plan
- Making pollinations to produce seed
- Growing seedlings and planting field trials
- Managing trials for several years until measurement
- Analyzing the data and interpreting the results
The design of these trials is essential. We need the right number of test sites and replications per site so we can trust the analysis. How well we manage the field trials to maintain a uniform environment also has a big impact.
It’s a big investment to do genetic development for any species, and it takes a long time for forest trees. The strength of our data comes from this replication across environments as well as time.
Building Confidence Through Replication and Testing
New families are tested, at a minimum, over multiple years and across 3 to 5 locations per year within a region.
By the time a parent tree is used for commercial production, many parents have hundreds to thousands of observations in the field.
We consult with expert faculty and statisticians to review our breeding and testing plans, as well as our statistical analyses. Making sure there is rigor in our approach helps ensure we can identify the best new genetic families and produce them with confidence for our customers.
Partnering with Experts Makes Us Better
Being transparent with data and ideas helps us grow, learn, and improve.
While there is some data we do not share publicly due to the resources required to develop it, we do collaborate with university faculty and graduate students on research projects that contribute to both industry knowledge and education.
The core of our data comes from university research programs. ArborGen, and its predecessors, have been active members in cooperative research since the 1950s, building a strong legacy of quality research and genetic development.
Practicing good science is essential to our success in developing new genetic families of loblolly pine.
Collaborating with Academic Research Partners
Collaborating in academic research continues to strengthen our program and improve how we develop and evaluate forest genetics.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked closely with faculty and graduate students through the Tree Improvement Program at NC State University, focusing on genomic analysis in loblolly pine. This work has helped improve the accuracy of within-family selection and our ability to predict important traits like disease resistance.
We’ve also partnered with the University of Florida to better understand genetic resistance to pitch canker in southern pine species, an important factor in long-term tree health and timber performance.
More recently, we’ve installed a new experiment in collaboration with the Southern Pine Plantation Health Cooperative at the University of Georgia to evaluate the incidence of brown spot needle blight.
These efforts go beyond our core cooperative programs and help ensure that the genetics we bring to market are not only well-tested, but backed by credible, peer-reviewed research.
For those interested in the research behind this work, you can explore a few of the studies that have contributed to these advancements:
Trusting a Process That Works
At ArborGen, we believe it is important to share our methodology in tree breeding and development.
We regularly seek feedback from advisors and academic partners, which helps strengthen our approach and provides additional confidence in our results.
Statistical results are important, but for many people, seeing is believing.
That’s why we host field days throughout the year – giving customers and foresters the opportunity to visit trials and see the performance of our genetics firsthand. This helps reinforce that our data aligns with real-world outcomes.
Using Data in the Right Context
Credibility also depends on how data is used.
We have extensive data on many genetic families, but that does not mean it can be applied universally. For example, a family with strong performance data in the Coastal region may not perform the same in drier environments like Texas.
Similarly, using data from Virginia or North Carolina to make decisions for Louisiana or Arkansas can lead to inaccurate comparisons.
Using data within the appropriate regional context is essential to making sound forestry decisions.
Why This Matters for Landowners
Anyone managing forestland should have confidence in their planting stock.
A seedling may look strong coming out of the nursery, but what matters most is whether it has the genetic potential to meet your long-term management goals and deliver strong timber performance.
When evaluating genetics, consider:
- Does your seedling provider have people with the proper training and expertise?
- Do they test their genetics both independently and through cooperative programs?
- Do they make recommendations based on experimental data and provide performance information for your region?
The Bottom Line
Practicing good science is essential to developing reliable forest genetics.
At ArborGen, our approach is built on long-term investment, rigorous testing, collaboration, and real-world validation.
This process allows us to provide genetics that customers can trust – because they are backed by data, tested across environments, and proven in the field.
Patrick Cumbie, PhD - Vice President of Product Development at ArborGen
Patrick is the Vice President of Product Development at ArborGen. He has been involved in forest research and development for 23 years and has largely focused on planning and implementing accelerated breeding programs in loblolly pine. Before joining ArborGen in 2010, Patrick was a research forester for Weyerhaeuser Company and worked for the Cooperative Tree Improvement Program at NC State University. In his current role, Patrick manages product development activities in the US and Brazil, including breeding, seed production, and genomics. He received his PhD in Forestry from NC State University and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources.
