Achievements in Forest Tree Genetic Improvement in Australia and New Zealand 4: Tree Improvement for Low-Rainfall Farm Forestry (Report‪)‬

Introduction In recent decades there has been a growing awareness of widescale environmental problems such as dryland salinity, and the need to ameliorate this by planting deep-rooted perennial vegetation in the low-rainfall regions of southern Australia (Stirzaker et al. 2002). The aim of so-called commercial environmental forestry plantations is to generate two income streams for growers: an income imputed to the environmental benefits of plantations through, for example, salinity or carbon credits for trees that control dryland salinity and/or sequester carbon, and a commercial return from the sale of timber or other forest products (Nambiar and Ferguson 2005). Genetic improvement is expected to enhance commercial product yield and quality, bringing plantations closer to overall financial viability. In addition to genetic improvement, improved silviculture, environmental service payments, and optimised harvesting, transport and processing will all be needed for low-rainfall plantations to approach profitability and attract investment (Harwood et al. 2005).