National Academy of Science – Forest Genome

This is from a recent meeting at the National Academies of Science in Washington. I am trying to participate in public discussions I think important and deploying the tools of biotechnology to help our forest ecosystems adapt to climate change, invasive pests and rapid change in general is important. The good news is that they let you talk. I think I did okay, although I saw lots of things to work on. Unfortunately, I doubt I will improve too much. Hard to break the habit of a lifetime. I had intended to talk about the general benefits of biotechnology in forestry and even wrote short notes. I thought better of that after listening to all those scientists who knew thousands of times more than I could say. So I went with my own experience, less elegant but more from the heart. What the proceedings lacked was actual forest landowners, so I tried to share that viewpoint.

My talk starts about 2:30 into the video.