OTTAWA - The federal government is spending upward of $20-million a year to
create genetically modified trees and says commercial plantations could be just
a decade away.
Critics say the research could lead to a nightmare vision of sterile forests,
while the government's own documents raise safety concerns about the
experiments.
The goal of field trials under way in Ste-Foy, Que., is to study "transgenic"
trees so the government can be fully informed if a timber company wants to plant
them in the future, says the program's chief researcher. The industry is
interested in genetically modifying trees to make them impervious to spruce
budworm, produce better quality wood or for other commercial benefits.
Briefing notes call the Quebec experimental forest a "carefully monitored secure
site."
But government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act include
warnings from staff scientists at the Canadian Forestry Service that it is
impossible currently to stop genetic material from experimental trees from being
blown on the wind to contaminate other trees.
"The development of transgenic trees has reached a critical juncture now that
scientific progress has brought their use in commercial plantations within
reach," says one document.
"Gene flow from genetically modified trees will occur unless they are strictly
made unable to reproduce," the document continues.
In other words, they must be genetically modified so they do not flower so that
further genetic-modification research can continue. The government is
researching "molecular containment technology" to prevent genetically-modified
tree material from getting into natural ecosystems, the government documents
say.
The research is safe because staff is carefully monitoring the trees planted in
three small fields and is under orders to cut them down if they show signs of
flowering, Ariane Plourde, research director of the facility, said in an
interview.
Another document includes a complaint that the staff at the Quebec facility has
lost track of material at least once: "the transportation of material to be
planted was not recorded in the trial log book."
Ms. Plourde said her staff has had to refine its log book procedures and is
keeping a close eye on the issue.
An environmental group says the government shouldn't be in the business of
growing genetically modified trees in the first place. If it succeeds, the
result will be sterile fields of trees that cannot reproduce, and if it fails by
allowing new and untested genes to get into existing ecosystems the consequences
are incalculable, said Rachel Plotkin, forests campaigner for Sierra Club of
Canada.
"The contamination of natural forests with GMO genes can be potentially
devastating to a whole ecosystem," she said in an interview. "On the other side,
if they can develop a tree that can't regenerate, it's a vision that really
isn't pretty, because we could have vast plantations of trees that don't have
seeds, don't have nuts, and don't have flowers. There'd be no food for wildlife.
It would be an eradication of biodiversity, this idea of forests without bees
buzzing about or birds coming to rest."
Ms. Plourde said it is possible that some areas could be designated for
transgenic forests while others are off limits to logging. Getting better yields
from transgenic trees would allow the government to protect larger areas of
natural growth, and that might be a worthwhile tradeoff, she said.
"I agree with these questions [from environmentalists] but please let us produce
those transgenics so I can study them. I can't study them just out of books."
The government documents, obtained by public interest researcher Ken Rubin, say
there are "superior" spruce trees in British Columbia and New Brunswick that
were cloned using non-GMO, "traditional" techniques but no commercial production
of GMO trees in Canada. They estimate commercial planting is 10 years away, with
25 years until the first harvest.
The funding comes in the form of about $18-million from Genome Canada, plus
millions more from the Canadian Forestry Service to cover salaries for
researchers on a number of projects related to spruce and poplar genetics.
Canada is the world's largest exporter of forest products and accounts for 10%
of global forest cover, the documents note.