INSTYTUT DENDROLOGII

Abstract: Modern forest selection programs concern natural and protected populations of trees characterized by a great genetic variability and also production stands frequently deformed by human activity. In the latter, artificial regeneration is prevailing. Forest nurseries working in the organizational structures of State Forests can guarantee the proper provenance (genotype)of seeds and the quality of seedlings obtained from them. The condition, however, is a close uniformity in the conservation of forest gene resources, and selection breeding of forest trees. The success of the program depends also on the development of modern infrastructure for forest nurseries and applied technologies. The latter task was the field of activity of Professor Bolesław Suszka, Ph.D., and his many-year research and organizational and didactic activity in Poland and abroad. The methods in long-term storage and their pretreatment in case of dormant seeds, developed by Professor Suszka, created the theoretical and practical basis for the conservation of forest gene resources not only in Poland.

Additional key words: selection programs, forest seed science nurseries, gene banks