Implications of research on lodgepole pine introduction in interior Alaska.

Abstract

Growth, winter injury, and mortality were evaluated for 12-year-old trees of 11 subarctic lodgepole pine provenances and a jack pine provenance at Fairbanks, Alaska. Provenances from northeast British Columbia grew more than 0.003 cubic meter of wood per tree annually from 9 to 12 years after outplanting. The species sustained snow damage and winter injury, however, and could be at high risk in long-term management on severe sites in Alaska. Provenance x site interactions were not significant for mortality, tree height, and volume after the same stock grew for 10 seasons at Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon.

Height and environmental injury of 3-year-old seedlings from 18 subarctic lodgepole pine and a jack pine x lodgepole pine swarm from Fort Nelson River, British Columbia, were evaluated at two sites in the interior and one site in south-central Alaska. Seedlings from high-altitude provenances grew more slowly and sustained less environmental injury after outplanting than seedlings from low-altitude provenances. More seedlings of the jack pine x lodgepole pine provenance sustained injury, but they grew taller than seedlings of the lodgepole pine provenances in the nursery and after two growing seasons in the field. Additional research is necessary to identify and determine growth and yield of superior jack, lodgepole, and jack pine x lodgepole pine provenances for a wide range of sites in Alaska.

Citation

Alden, John N. 1988. Implications of research on lodgepole pine introduction in interior Alaska. Res. Pap. PNW-RP-402. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 24 p