From: Ramsfield, Tod
<tod.ramsfield@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca<mailto:tod.ramsfield@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca>>
Sent: Thursday, May 4, 2023 1:05 AM
Dear All,
Division 5 and Division 7 have come together to develop technical session T2.6 for the
upcoming IUFRO World Congress.
The title of the session is "Ensuring healthy trees for high quality wood
products" and the objective of the session is to encourage collaboration between
specialists in wood science and forest health.
Session description:
The production of high quality forest products is directly reliant upon desired raw
material quality, i.e.
disease-free, clear wood harvested from healthy trees. When stems are infected by forest
pathogens,
end products can be compromised by inferior wood, or the production cycle suffers
unacceptably high
levels of waste creation. Infection of non-merchantable parts of the tree, such as
foliage, result in
decreased overall productivity, leading to increased rotation length and an extended
period between
planting and harvest. For these reasons, forest pathologists in Division 7 and wood
scientists in
Division 5 have come together in this session to discuss how to optimize wood production
for the future
forest products. Topics that will be discussed include canker pathogens of commercial
species and
the assessment of defect, non-destructive testing to detect heart rot within commercially
important
trees, the effects of foliar pathogens on growth and how to mitigate losses, assessment of
degrade,
industrial processes to optimize production from inferior wood, and the planting of
resilient forests
that can withstand the anticipated effects of climate change and stress. We have suggested
a diverse
group of speakers from both divisions that are able to examine this issue from different
perspectives
but are united in their desire to optimize forest productivity.
If this session is relevant to your work, we hope that you will consider submitting an
abstract.
Best regards, Tod Ramsfield, Pekka Saranpaa, and Isabel Munck, session organizers.