SRC To Run Forestry Studies At Research Farm

SRC To Run Forestry Studies At Research Farm

Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 14:47

A new agreement will create opportunities for the Saskatchewan Research Council to do more in-depth scientific research in the province’s boreal forest.

The Saskatchewan Research Council has entered into a five-year partnership with the Conservation Learning Centre, located 18 km south of Prince Albert.

While the CLC is a working farm with a focus on agricultural research, the research council plans to use it as a field lab for research into forestry and forest ecology.

Research council vice-president Joe Muldoon says this new partnership gives SRC scientists the ability to conduct field trials more easily, because they will be able to grow trees and do practical studies, such as with the trees’ interaction with pesticides, or their ability to sequester carbon.

Some of the SRC’s plans include planting 10 acres of the newest hybrid poplar trees, and conducting what the SRC calls a “willow biomass trial” — namely, finding out if willow trees could be grown in short rotation as for use as an source of bio-energy.