INTERNATIONAL RESISTANCE -TESTING OF WHITE PINES 293 



FLOOR DISCUSSION 



(Also covering the preceding paper by Robert I. Callaham) 



CALLAHAM: I'll start the discussion by addressing some remarks to 

 Dr. Gerhold, who presented the other paper involved in this discussion. 

 I can't speak for FAO , but from my association with them I do know their 

 modus operandi, and their limitations. I think I can say with assurance 

 that it will be impossible for them to provide the type of resistance 

 breeding specialist you propose. The FAO has just reviewed their 1970-71 

 budget, and funds for the third (tree-breeding, or forest geneticist) 

 officer in their Section were not provided. They should establish this 

 sort of overall position before adding or working on a specific problem 

 like you suggest. Such specialist positions have low priority at present. 

 They would seem to be impossible to finance within the decade. So I 

 think you'll have to look elsewhere than FAO. I agree that there is need 

 for such a coordinating specialist, but I feel his support will have to 

 come from the generosity of a government, individual organization, or 

 foundation that may consider the problem sufficiently important. Helmuth 

 Barner has received support for his working group's tree seed collection 

 activities from the Karlsberg Foundation. Perhaps the support you need 

 could be provided by a foundation. In another vein, I don't think we are 

 ever going to get other than local support for travel to committee 

 meetings. In a cooperative program participating organizations must go 

 all the way in supporting and obtaining the Objectives of their people. 

 If this were part of a U.S.D.A. program, travel funding for U.S.D.A. 

 people might be possible. Internationally we lack an organization to 

 support travel. Lastly, I want to make the point that under certain 

 circumstances FAO can bank pooled monies and pay in foreign currencies. 

 For instance, A has expertise and facilities wanted for testing, or 

 materials wanted for exchange, but cannot finance their operation, or 

 collection. B, C and D are willing to pay for the testing or collection 

 work. B, C and D can give their money to FAO in order to accomplish their 

 goal. International complications disappear. 



HAG MAN : Another possibly important source of support is the as yet 

 unmentioned European Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) . Recently it 

 has been reorganized and has been able to raise a lot of money from 

 various governmental sources. Also, recently EPPO has shown quite an 

 interest in forest plants, particularly in respect to plant protection 

 laws affecting forest material in international trade. Possibly the 

 approach to EPPO might be that the laws on important diseases of trees 

 cannot be strictly applied without intimate knowledge of the diseases 

 coming from places like international test facilities. Their head office 

 is in Paris. They are cooperating with FAO but are independent as far 

 as their money is concerned. Perhaps Mr. Gremmen or someone else knows 

 more about them than I do. 



BORLAUG: There's another group of vehicles, perhaps not useful for 

 forest trees, but you might be interested in how they handle and coordinate 

 their work in agricultural crops. Going back 20 years to when the 

 international rust nurseries were first established, in these nurseries 

 we brought together not only parental types, but any materials breeders 

 in cooperating countries wanted to evaluate in other countries. This 

 project has continued. Results of the international tests are compiled 

 by U.S.D.A. and circulated to all collaborators. If you use them wisely 

 you can pick up another gene to add to the pool with which you're concerned 

 in a given geographic region of the world. Later we attempted to make the 



