Connection: Researching Genetics

Although no genetically modified trees have found their way into commercial operations in the Northwest, scientists here are doing some testing.

Washington State University research scientist Jon Johnson is working with scientists in Oregon on growing poplars resistant to the herbicide Roundup and poplars with the Bt gene for insect resistance.

“But none of these are actually commercially released,” he said.

During the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle last winter, Johnson’s lab in Puyallup, Wash., was vandalized by people claiming they wanted to damage genetically modified poplars. Most of what he had there, however, were hybridized poplars. They do grow faster than most trees, but aren’t modified with genes from other organisms, he said.

The group ended up damaging conventional raspberry plants instead of the trees, Johnson said. They pulled them out of their pots and stepped on their root balls.

The genetically modified test trees in the Northwest are cut down before they flower, so they aren’t allowed to propagate, Johnson said.

Before they can be released for commercial use, the trees will have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.