The impact of test-tube trees on the woods

Unlike altered crops such as soybean and wheat, genetically engineered trees are surrounded by their wild cousins.

One worry is that the seeds of the experimental trees will take root amid wild populations, changing the aesthetics of the woods. But scientists caution that doesn't mean a slow incursion of the new breed: Trees, the ultimate survivalists, will express only those genes that are necessary for their longevity. "When they escape, the [new genetic material] may act differently or it may not express at all," says Jim Hemrick, a tree-genetics expert at the University of Georgia in Athens.

That's small comfort to critics, who say industry representatives seem more concerned with addressing public-relations issues - key to approval of the technology for commercial use - than confronting the ethical side of tampering with the lungs of the world. Many were outraged when scientists began keeping the locations of their experimental groves secret, in response to activists' attacks on genetically engineered plots in Oregon a few years ago.

Conservation and recycling of paper products, these environmentalists say, are the safest routes to protecting forests.

"Regardless of all the problems with agri-crops, [tree geneticists are] saying, let's do this with trees, which live for hundreds of years. What are they thinking?" asks Anne Petermann, codirector of the Global Justice Ecology Project in Hinesburg, Vt.

Aside from the potential environmental impact, the trees could also have an impact on commercial uses of the wood.

If some of the softer trees, bred for pulp production, were to show up on timber lands, for instance, saw mills could cut them unwittingly for use as lumber, then find out they're too soft to be turned into usable boards.

But perhaps a more essential question is this: Who owns the trees, and who can claim the products of engineered seeds that drift into the wild? As companies produce the trees and use their products, they want to make sure that drifting seeds don't get used by other interests. Already, more than 100 "gene drift" lawsuits have been brought over various farm crops by companies such as Monsanto, and a similar phenomenon is expected with engineered trees.

"This brings up the issue of intellectual property rights of life forms, and that gets into a whole other can of worms," says Brad Hash, a board member at the Native Forest Network in Missoula, Mont. "You could have loggers and private landowners who would not have ownership to the organisms on their own property."

To opponents of the engineered trees, it's not just the world's forests, but the marvel and culture surrounding them, that hang in the balance - and many on both sides are recommending caution.

"It's good to be conservative," says Mr. Hemrick at the University of Georgia. "It's good to have people reminding us that a worst-case scenario could happen. But it's fairly unrealistic that we'll get a disaster."

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