The document discusses the importance of seedling quality for timber and bioenergy production. It notes that seedling quality impacts growth performance and wood properties. High quality seedlings are described as having desirable characteristics like disease resistance, robust stems, balanced shoot-root ratios, and genetic traits suited to the planting site. The document recommends selecting seedlings based on these traits to optimize reforestation and production of high quality wood and biomass.

1. The Importance of Seedlings Quality in Timber & Bio-energy Production. Fotis KiourtsisGeneral Directorate of Forests and Rural Affairs –D.A.M.TGeorgia ViglakiForester -Seedlings Specialist

2. One of the main issues thatthe forest sectoris facing is to achieve abalance between the demand for wood production and the need to preserve the sustainability and biodiversity of forest ecosystems.
The Importance of Seedlings quality in Timber & Bio-energy ProductionRed color=Forests cover area before 8.000 yearsGreen color = Forests cover area today

3. The purpose of the new approaches are to ensure more efficient management of ecosystems and implement intensive forestry that will increase timber yields.
To achieve this, we need to determine the macroeconomic potential of the various options available, including the use of biotechnology and genetics.

4. Since the quality of wood in any branch of forestry and also the solution of environmental problems are immediately connected with natural characteristics of forest, the key role in solution of the problems stated in the region has regulating of forest management.
In the field of forest management such problems should be solved, by :
defining the function of forests in a region,
the general line in all the forest branch,
substantiation of the amounts available and setting the kind of use,
providing the non-exhausting use and extended reproduction of trees,
maintaining forests as a landscape organizing and environment stabilizing factor.

5. The reduction of the forests natural regeneration capacity may be solved through forest certification, as described below:
a)Conservation of biodiversity and stabilization of the forests structure.
b)Hierarchy of timber production in the forest’s management process.
c)Organization and implementation of effective reforestation.
d)Maintenance or increase of forest productivity by introducing new items as and when they are required.
e)Prevention of the properties that reduce the basic parameters of the trees in seed production stands.

6. Reforestation is a ecological way to achieve a certain purpose, which can include
a)the production of wood, energy and other forest products (economic purpose),
b)the protection of the soil from erosion,
c)the regulation of flow of mountainous waters (water budget),
d)forest recreation and ecotourism &
e)the regulatory effect in the ecological balance of heavily disturbed ecosystems (industrial and urban).

7. The selection of the forest species of the future reforested stand is one of the most important silvicultural activities that define the future activities for the following decades.

8. The success of reforestation activities totally depends on the success or not of the species selection that will be used.

9. The basic requirements are:
•Be adapted to the ecological conditions of the area they will be planted in.
•To meet the requirements of the existing forestry objectives.
•The establishment and their further handling will be easy and without high costs.

10. The most important factors that may affect the quality of wood products are the following:

12. Wood species
Wood density
Sapwood& Heartwood
Earlywoodand Latewood
Wood Extracts& pH
Irregular wood structure
Fungi Disease
Variability
Shrinkage& Swelling
Fibre tensile strength

13. Also we must keep in mind that the Wood Industry is looking for:
•Cost savings
•Wood loss minimized
•Low cost transportation
•Standards achieve
•Eco-Labeling
•Stabilization of wood properties
•Availability of wood

14. The importance of seedlings quality in timber and bio-energy production based onthe literature is estimated according to the heredity of the characteristics of the wood structure (except shrinkage) and it was always higher than that on the characteristics of growth and shape.
This clearly indicatesthat seedlings with the appropriate morphological characteristics can significantly improve the growth performance and help support the development of reforestation oriented in tailor-made timber and bio-energyproduction.

15. •There is much debate as to what truly constitutes a quality seedling. Most people agree that a higher quality seedling is one that performs exceptionally well in the field when all other conditions are equal.
•No single attribute may be used to define seedling quality. Instead, multiple characteristics related to both morphology and physiology must be combined to determine if a seedling has the capacity to excel in the field (Rose et al. 1990; Puttonen1996).
•The range of characteristics useful for defining seedling quality varies somewhat between species.

16. It is important to evaluate the influence of factors such as
•the quality of the reforestation areas,
•the utilization of the genetic resources and
•the management of forest operations
with the environmentaleconomic criteria such as net present value of benefits (NPV) and thecorresponding flow annuities (EACF). The existing evaluations studies showed that the quality of the reforestation areas has the most influence and through validated quality seed production can generate an increase in the NPV up to 73%.

17. Some desirable parent tree characteristics are:
•healthy trees with a large, well developed crown
•for timber trees, a long, straight trunk with few branches
•wood quality, such as high density, or straightness of the grain
•for fodder trees, palatability and digestibility of foliage (leaves that animals like to eat and are easily converted into energy)
•fast growth rate
•low susceptibility to (or ability to quickly recover from) disease or insect attack.

18. High quality hardwood seedlings are selected when based on the initial height of the stem and the morphological type of the root system (stem heights 40-50 cm with a root system at least 40 cm long with rich and fine rootlets).
Reforestation based on seedlings with these morphological characteristics can significantly improve the growth performance and will help improve the reforestations that are focused on high quality wood production

19. In spruce plantations to evaluate the impact of certain factors such as the quality of the surfaces reforestation, the use of genetic resources and silvicultural manipulations were assessed in relation to production:
•planting seedlings from seed production standsincreased the height by 10%,
•planting seedlings from cuttings and hybridsincrease in height by 15%
•planting seedlings from varieties produced through embryogenesis from seed production stands and selected by using genetic markers increase the height by 20%

20. Wooddensity of Pine trees has the highest grand-mean of estimated heritability (0.63) among the six wood- qualitytraits, followed by microfibrilangle (0.61), spiral grain (0.55), fibre(tracheid) length (0.54), stiffness (0.50), and shrinkage (0.20).

21. Among the five growth and form traits for main softwood trees, branch cluster frequency had the highest heritability (0.35), followed by branch size (0.27), branch angle (0.25), diameter at breast height (0.23), and stem straightness (0.23).
This indicates there is considerable non-additive genetic variance that should be exploited in breeding and deployment programmesfor main softwood trees

22. Quality tree seedlings have the following characteristics:
•They are healthy, vigorously growing and free of diseases.
•They have a robust and woody (lignified) single stem free of deformities.
•Their stem is sturdy and has a large root collar diameter.
•Their crown is symmetrical and dense.
•They have a root system that is free of deformities.
•They have a dense root system with many fine, fibrous hairs with white root tips.
•They have a ‘balance’ between shoot and root mass.
•Their leaves have a healthy, dark green colour.
•They are accustomed to short periods without water.
•They are accustomed to full sunlight.

23. •If two trees are the same height and one has a larger diameter stem, then the latter is sturdier.
•A sturdy stem is less susceptible to transport and planting damage.
•Stem diameter is often related to root size. Plants with large diameter stems often have large root systems.
•Diameter is a better predictor of root size than plant height is.
•A ‘balanced’ seedling has a small to medium shoot system and a large root system.
•The shoot loses water through the leaves and the roots compensate for this loss by absorbing water and nutrients.
•‘Unbalanced’ plants have too many leaves and too few roots. Balance refers to the mass or dry weight of the shoot and root -NOT to their length.
3 cm3
9 cm3
18 cm3

24. Review of seedlings for biomass and energy sources purposes

25. Biomass is one
of the most important resources
for eco friendly
energy production.

26. The use of biomass is a common practice in developing countries, where it is the primary source of energy products, even more than 90% (e.g. Rwanda, Nepal, Tanzania, etc).

27. Globally the contribution of renewable energy reaches 13%, mainly from combustion of forest biomass and generation of hydro-electricity.
In the European Union, the contribution of renewable energy sources is around 6%, while the target of the European Commission was 12% until 2010.

28. The main raw materials resources for bio- energy purpose in Greece are the following:
•Residue of crops, timber, livestock and agro- industry.
•Energy plants: In Greece over the past decades many species have been tested. The most important are:
Sorghum bicolor
Brassicanapus
Kenaf(Hibiscus cannabinus)
Arundodonax
The wild artichoke (Cynaracardunculus)
Eucalyptus species (Eucalyptus globulus, E. camaldulensis)
Mischanthussinensisx giganteus
Robiniapseudoacacia
Several poplar and willow species (Populussp. και Salixsp.), etc.

29. The establishment of a bioenergy purpose stand, creates many complicated questions such as:
Which type of forest management study and which standards will be used on this purpose?
Does the biomass for a bioenergy purpose allow the use of bark, branches, leaves and wood or only wood will be used?
Does the biomass for a bioenergy purpose requires higher lignin content?
Is biomass burning a single use?
How will be change the species with rotation method?
Which is the necessary technical and financial support for harvest and transporting of biomass with a low cost?
Which are the forest plants characteristics that will be used on this purpose?

30. •The forest bioenergy plantation will have more trees per acre, possibly 1,000 to 2,000,and shorter rotations.
•For hardwood species that resprout (coppice) after harvest, the rotation lengths can be 18 to 36 months.

31. Methods of reforestation that optimizes land use and resources by growing trees specified for multiple end products on the same stands is the future trend . Benefits of using these methodsinclude the following:
Keeping lands profitable in all kinds of timber markets.
Allowing planting of advanced genetics across more stands.
Targeting resources on valuable crop trees, saving money and decreasing impact onthe environment.
Allowing for high-efficiency thinning.
Making accounting possible on the expected function of each stand component.

32. •One type of forest plantation takes both traditional and bioenergy concepts to a non conventional system.
•This utilizes one row of wide spacing (3m) high-value genetics for saw timber (lumber) while the adjoining row is tightly spaced for bioenergy (1m).
•This system will work with loblolly pine with a bioenergy harvest at six to eight years and a saw timber final harvest at 18 to 22 years, allowing forest landowners to increase the possibility of positive cash flow in the first years, capturing new markets for bioenergy and retaining existing markets for saw timber. 3μ3μ1μ

33. Quality tree seedlings for bioenergy purpose have the following characteristics:
high density
higher lignin content
Fast growth trees
Thinner bark layer
a dilute foliage

34. Finally the new EU Framework program focuses on increasing the contribution of renewable energy, and forest biomass production by using high value seedlings. This is a real challenge for forest sector.

35. References
1. Mayfield, C.; C. Smith; B. Lattimore. 2007. Conserving Biodiversity in Forest Bioenergy Production Systems. Pages 261–266.
2. Wood quality in artificially inclined 1-year-old trees ofEucalyptus regnans—differences in tension wood and opposite wood properties ,ShaktiS. Chauhan, John C.F. Walker , School of Forestry, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 2011, 41(5): 930-937, 10.1139/x11-016
3. Forestry ChronicleVolume 85, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 571-582 Benefits of using genetically improved white spruce in Quebec: The forest landowner's view point Gélinas, N.,Petrinovic, P.J.F.,Beaulieu, J.
4. Forestry ChronicleVolume 85, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 558-570 Profitability of genetically improved white spruce plantations in Quebec: The owner's point of view Gélinas, N.,Petrinovic, P.J.F.,Beaulieu, J.
5.New Zealand Journal of Forestry ScienceVolume 38, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 56-87 ,Breeding forwoodqualityand profit in Pinusradiata: A review of genetic parameter estimates and implications for breeding and deployment( Conference Paper ) Wu, H.X.a,Ivković, M.a,Gapare, W.J.a,Matheson, A.C.a,Baltunis, B.S.a,Powell, M.B.,McRae,
6.International Journal of BiotechnologyVolume 9, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 415-435 The value of forest biotechnology: A cost modellingstudy with loblolly pine and kraftlinerboard in the southeastern USA Peter, G.F.and others
7. FlexStand™ System Guidehow to plant and manage forestsfor improved economic, environmentaland social benefits. 2008 ArborGen, LLC

36. 8. A Giant Step-up for Increasing Timber Value on Your Land Jeff Wright and Phil Dougherty ,USA FOREST LANDOWNER MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
9.BIOMASS MAGAZINE 08/009 Filling a Need: Forest Plantations for Bioenergy in the Southern US WOODY BIOMASS By RonaldsGonzalez, Dr. Jeff Wright and Dr. Daniel Saloni
10. Forest Certification: Great Expectations And Sober Reality By V.TsvetkovPEFC Newsletter, December 2001
11. Williams, R.D. and S.H. Hanks. 1976 (slightly revised 1994). Hardwood nursery guide. USDA Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 473, 78 p.
12. Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center North Central Research Station ,USDA Forest Service ,Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University 9/03 Nursery Production of Hardwood Seedlings ,Douglass F. Jacobs, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University
13.Lykidis, Ch., Grigoriou, A., 2004. The influence of steam-recovering conditions on the quality of recycled particle boards.Presented at the international Conference for “Management of Recovered Wood Recycling, Bio Energy and other Options” 22-24. April, 2004. Thessaloniki, Greece. Proceedings: 317-326.
14. Grigoriou, A., 2006. Wood based panels products. Production Technology, Properties and Uses.2nd edition. Thessaloniki.