TreeLines

Jason Watson is the US Sales Director.

Jason has been a crucial member of the ArborGen Team for 13 years. Before becoming the Director of U.S. Sales five years ago, he was the Reforestation Advisor in South Carolina for eight years. Jason is a forester and a forest landowner who has been in the industry for over 25 years.

For years, planting the best loblolly pine genetics, namely MCP® seedlings, has been reserved for the best sites or highest site indices. Although this has long been a very reliable method for maximizing yield on the most productive sites, the factors that necessitated this premise no longer exist.

In McKeand et al. (2006), the authors describe creating the highest value by using the most genetically improved seedlings on the best sites. While that was the most practical advice at the time, this was 20 years ago when the dominant seedlings sold were OPs, either as orchard mixes or as individual families. MCP seedlings were in their infancy of deployment and kept strictly for industry lands. Rarely were MCP families available to the general public.

Genetics technology has grown exponentially ever since, with MCP seedlings now in abundance and available to all landowners on a broader array of sites. While it’s true the best MCP families will produce higher yields on the best sites, there are now additional factors to consider when thinking about MCP deployment.

Open Pollinated. A combination of sawtimber and pulpwood tons.

Forest products and timber markets have evolved drastically. As we witness mill closures in the pulp and paper sector, the collective industry is hard at work to find new uses for small trees and stems that can’t be used for chip-n-saw and sawtimber (i.e., trees with defects such as excessive sweep, disease, or low forks).

Meanwhile, sawmills continue to make investments across the U.S. South. Likewise, landowners are reforesting in a much more intentional way by planting MCP seedlings to increase the probability of producing chip-n-saw and sawtimber. With tree quality, or lack of defects, more important than ever, planting MCP seedlings to enhance solid wood production generates a higher ROI regardless of whether planting on a site index of 74 or 68. Fusiform rust or low forks can occur on any site quality, and it is still best to plant seedlings that create more value due to better tree quality.

A tree with a defect that makes it pulpwood on a higher site quality is still normally less valuable than a sawtimber tree grown on a lower site quality. As we’ve mentioned before, if the price is right, you can send a sawtimber tree to the pulp mill, but the reverse is never true.

For similar subject matter, refer t0 Blake Sherry’s TreeLines article in the 2nd edition of March 2025.

McKeand, S.E., Abt, R., Allen, H., Li, B., and Catts, G. (2006). What are the best loblolly pine genotypes worth to landowners? Journal of Forestry. 104(7): 352-358.