Seed Orchard Management Strategies for Deployment of Intensively Selected Loblolly Pine Families in the Southern US

Operational family block planting with loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) was begun by Weyerhaeuser Company in the mid-1970's (Gladstone 1981) and has been one of the most significant forest management decisions made with southern pines. After more than 30 years, planting of individual open-pollinated families, and more recently full-sib families and clones, has become standard practice in the southern United States. In the early 2000's, 59% of the loblolly pine plantations were established as single open-pollinated (OP) family blocks (McKeand et al. 2003). About 80% of the regeneration on company lands was with OP families, and 48% of seedlings used for market sales were as OP families. Fourteen companies used family blocks for deployment of loblolly pine. On average, a company deployed 47 different families on its own land, but there was tremendous variation in the number of families deployed in a region, ranging from as few as 4 to as many as 90. Although these survey results have not been updated since 2002, the percentage of plantations established with individual families as opposed to seed orchard mixes has increased. Companies sell very few mixed seedlots, and state agencies have begun to sell individual OP families. We believe that about 75% of the loblolly pine plantations are now established as