-Caveat Lector-
---------- Forwarded message --
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) July 17
Trees that never flower herald a silent spring
Oliver Tickell and Charles Clover report that GM forests will be
devoid of all animal and insect life
By OLIVER TICKELL AND CHARLES CLOVER
"TERMINATOR" trees, genetically engineered never to flower, could
ensure a silent spring in the forests of the future. Such trees will
grow faster than before, but will be devoid of the bees, butterflies,
moths, birds and squirrels which depend on pollen, seed and nectar,
scientists said yesterday.
Under plans set out by the biotechnology company Monsanto and New
Zealand's Forest Research Agency, the sterile plantations will be
engineered to secrete toxic chemicals through their leaves to kill
caterpillars and other leaf-eating insects and to resist herbicides,
allowing ground flora to be eliminated easily. Scientists from companies
and regulatory bodies, such as English Nature, agree that before GM
trees can be allowed to grow in the open, they must be made sterile to
prevent the contamination of wild species with modified DNA. But
environmental groups believe that sterile trees will bring a
second "silent spring". The first, in Rachel Carson's book of that name,
described the advent of synthetic pesticides, such as DDT.
Scientists meeting at the Oxford University Museum this week
for an international symposium sponsored by Shell and Monsanto
are working on improving the value of trees, by making them grow
faster or by producing lignin-free timber to reduce the use of
chemicals and energy used in paper-making. They claim that GM
trees will have benefits. David Duncan of Monsanto said:
"Increasing the productivity of tree plantations safely and
sustainably will help meet the world's wood needs without
increasing pressure on native forests. "
Dr Amy Brunner of Oregon State University is working on ways to
prevent flowering in black cottonwood and is being sponsored by
interested companies, including Shell and Monsanto, and the US
Department of Energy. She said: "You could argue that non-
flowering trees would limit wildlife, but these trees are
intended only for specialised plantations. We do not want them
to replace native forests, but to be planted on bare marginal
land of no agricultural value."
Dr Jeff Skinner, also of Oregon State University, said that
exotic trees could be prevented from growing in places where
they did not belong. His work, also on black cottonwood,
involves attaching a poison-promoting gene to a "promoter" gene
responsible for stimulating flowering so that every time a
flower cell began to form it poisoned itself and died.
But ecologists are horrified. George McGavin, curator of
Entomology at Oxford University Museum, said: "If you replace
vast tracts of natural forest with flowerless trees there will
be a serious effect on the richness and abundance of insects.
"If you put insect resistance in the leaves as well you will
end up with nothing but booklice and earwigs. We are talking
about vast tracts of land covered with plants that do not
support animal life as a sterile means of culturing wood tissue.
That is a pretty unattractive vision of the future and one I
want no part of."
Friends of the Earth says that scientists will have little
power to determine how their technology is applied in practice.
Sarah Tyack, of Friends of the Earth, said: "The idea that
intensively-managed plantations take pressure off natural
forests is a myth. What is happening is that natural forest
is being cleared to make way for intensive plantations. GM trees
will accelerate that process." Hanna Scrase, of the Forestry
Stewardship Council, the leading global certification body,
said: "Our position is simple. We do not allow GM trees."
Martin Mathers of the World Wide Fund for Nature said: "These
trees will support even lower levels of biodiversity than
conifer monocultures. At least Sitka spruce has nectar and cones
that support insects, red squirrels, cross-bills and other
birds."
The private forestry industry is also uneasy about GM trees.
Len Yull, chairman of the Timber Growers' Association, said: "I
have yet to see anyone put a convincing case that GM technology
would create a sufficiently superior product to achieve a real
market advantage, and these things are market and profit
driven."
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