Douglas fir is an important timber species in UK forestry and demand for high quality planting stock is increasing with the drive to diversify forests and particularly with the adoption of low impact silvicultural systems (CCF).
Despite this no seed orchards existed in the UK to supply improved Douglas fir seeds to the nursery sector. To date, nursery production has either used imported seed (historically from wild stands in British Columbia and Washington State) or more recently material from UK select stands and European seed orchards.
In order to address this supply gap, between 2021 and 2025 we successfully completed a large programme of work to identify and graft “Plus Trees” throughout the UK to create new seed orchards and build a full breeding population of 270 individuals. The best trees from the best stands have been selected from right across the UK to ensure a range of climatic and site conditions are represented; The grafted trees have now been dispatched to our members to create new seed orchards. These will act as a dual purpose resource; We expect to see improved seed coming from these orchards from around 2032 creating a supply chain of improved (qualified) UK-derived planting stock; The orchards will also act as a clonal archive and breeding resource.
The first phase of breeding work will involve progeny testing of half sibling seeds (produced from open pollinated orchards) and later move on to controlled pollinations using the best parents.
A further aspect of our ongoing Douglas fir programme is the collection data from existing Forest Research (FR) field trials. FR have two major trial sites from which they are collecting detailed data on growth and timber quality. The information will be used to update the recommendations made in FC Bulletin 129 -” Choice of Douglas fir seed origins for use in Great Britain” by Fletcher and Samuel, published in 2010.