By Island County Extension Agent, Donald B. Meehan
SUPER COTTONWOOD TREES AVAILABLE
For the past several years Super Cottonwood trees, bred in a joint effort between Washington State University and University of Washington scientists, have been grown profitably on 100,000 acres of western Washington land that might be considered marginal for most other agricultural commodities.
Dr. Paul Heilman, Forest Soils Scientist at WSU's Western Washington Research and Extension Center, described phenomenal growth in the hybrid cottonwoods that has captured the attention of paper and plywood manufactures as well as the federal Department of Energy.
In a presentation to the Western Washington Horticultural Association Heilman described six-year-old trees stretched to 60 feet with growth rings an inch or more in width. The hybrids have done so well in research sites that yield goals expected by 1990 were exceeded three years ago.
Along with his associate, Dr. Stettle, a geneticist at the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources, Heilman has been studying the hybrid trees since 1971.
Joining Heilman in the presentation given in Olympia, Guy Cellier, U.W. Forest Economist, outlined a recent study that makes the tree appear to have interest as a farm commodity as well as a source of energy.
It was grant support from the U.S. Department of Energy since 1978 that spurred the program by Heilman and Stettler.
Now, according to the study by Cellier, because there is land, climate and prospects for a profitable market in western Washington, the future of the hybrid cottonwood appears promising.
"The pulp and paper industry in the northwest is valued as a $4.5-billion business annually and is very cost-sensitive," Cellier said.
At the present time, the role of timber harvest on private forest lands greatly exceeds tree growth on those lands. In the public sector, Cellier said, because of many reasons, including wilderness legislation, tree growing areas will be withdrawn from production. Consequently the supply of pulp chips in the PNW is expected to decline.
Cellier foresees a time when the pulp mills will have to compete with the saw-log markets for their raw materials. At that time, Cellier said, the wood chips from the Super Cottonwood will become more valuable.
A Crown Zellerbach Corporation representative, Don Rice, another speaker on the program, described his company's investigations into the hybrid cottonwoods and said Crown-Z planted 100 acres of the trees in 1983. With the planting they are doing this year, their planting of hybrids will exceed 3900 acres. Tests by Crown-Zellerbach show the wood to be good for paper products. They will use the wood they are growing in nearby Crown-Z pulp mills.
Rice and Heilman both stressed in their presentations that growing the super tree takes the same kind of attention other farm commodities do, including stock maintenance, site preparation, planting and growing care, fertilization, transportation and harvesting.
Heilman said a further refinement in the tree in making it less likely to be damaged by animals could come if the scientists can get genetic help from a Japanese species that is less appetizing to rodents and rabbits.
Clones of the hybrid cottonwood are soon to be available here in Island County through the Soil Conservation District. The genetic material available will only be cuttings, not rooted trees. Information about site preparation and planting methods will accompany the trees. Call 678-4708 at the Island County Soil Conservation Office for help in ordering.
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