CONCLUSION The majority of wood property traits were found to be under moderate or high genetic control. The acoustic tools were found to give fair estimations of MOE in Eucalyptus dunnii, and measurement of shrinkage on cores gave a fair prediction of Tangential shrinkage in boards. Work is continuing on the analysis of the data and the study is still waiting for results to be finalised for: Wood Anatomy; Wood Chemistry; Log End Splitting and Sawmill Grade Recovery traits. The Tree Improvement Group is working to calculate economic thresholds for each of the traits with the long term aim of producing deployment material where every stem planted will have the potential to be an economic stem. In 2005 the Forests NSW Tree Improvement Group in collaboration with Southern Cross University will commence a project to assess their E. pilularis Breeding Population for wood quality traits. It is envisaged that this project will destructively sample over 1800 stems on two sites. GENETIC PARAMETERS OF WOOD PROPERTIES IN A 9 YEAR OLD E. dunnii PROGENY TRIAL IN NSW, AUSTRALIA Michael Henson 1 , Steve Boyton 1 , Martin Davies 2 , Bill Joe 3 , Bandara Kangane 4 Tim Murphy 2 , Graeme Palmer 2 & Jerry Vanclay 2 1 Forests NSW, PO Box J19, Coffs Harbour Jetty, NSW 2450, Australia 2 Sustainable Forestry Programme, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia 3 Forests NSW, PO Box 100, Beecroft, NSW 2119, Australia 4 School of Resources, Environment & Society, ANU, Canberra 0200, Australia INTRODUCTION Eucalyptus dunnii Maiden (Dunn’s white gum) is a relatively new, but increasingly important plantation species in eastern Australia. Almost 9,000 ha of E. dunnii plantation has been established in NSW (33% of the total plantation estate), and it remains one of the favoured species for planting, with some 40% of current plantings in north-east NSW and south-east Queensland using this species. Although it forms a crucial component of the long-term supply to the sawlog industry, this emerging resource remains relatively untried by the solid wood industry. METHODS The Boambee Progeny trial was established in February 1995 as a joint trial between CSIRO and Forests NSW. It consists of 219 open pollinated families of E. dunnii from 14 provenances (see map). The trial was originally established at 1388sph but was thinned to 694sph at 40 months. The trial has had various assessments for growth and wood properties, including a pulp wood quality assessment in 2003. In February 2004 an extensive wood properties assessment (destructive and non-destructive) was conducted on 181 trees from 47 families with a total of 70+ traits assessed or calculated. A summary of results from this assessment is presented below. ANALYSIS Heritabilities and genetic correlations were calculated using an individual tree model in ASREML; for growth and form traits provenance was included in the model as a fixed effect; and for the wood property traits provenance was excluded from the model. The heritability calculations assumed that the open pollinated progeny are unrelated. A summary of the mean, coefficient of variation and heritability for important economic traits is listed below. RESULTS Location of E. dunnii provenances included in trial Primary Industries Trading, NSW FORESTS NSW - TREE IMPROVEMENT PEDIGREE TREES PRODUCING THE PLANTATIONS OF TOMORROW Growth Traits Grain Traits Stability Traits Structural & Acoustic Traits Acoustic Tool Phenotypic Correlation Genetic Correlation Fakopp 0.653 0.963 (0.225) Director 0.680 0.999 WoodSpec 0.935 0.794 (0.241) Phenotypic Correlation Genetic Correlation Tangential Shrinkage 0.480 0.996 (0.130) Correlations between Predict MOE and Actual Clearwood MOE Correlation for Tangential Shrinkage Assessed using a Core and Board Age (months) Trait n Mean CV h 2 (SE) DBH 39 DBH (cm)* 4355 9.95 26% 0.225 (0.047) 75 DBH (cm)* 2053 18.90 23% 0.480 (0.090) 102 DBH (cm) 2032 21.69 25% 0.403 (0.084) HEIGHT 39 Height (m)* 4346 11.38 20% 0.285 (0.059) 75 Height (m)* 2052 22.06 17% 0.600 (0.012) 102 Height (m) 2031 26.41 19% 0.468 (0.091) VOLUME 39 Volume (m3)* 4346 0.036 63% 0.214 (0.047) 75 Volume (m3)* 2051 0.24 50% 0.418 (0.087) 102 Volume (m3) 2031 0.37 54% 0.302 (0.077) FORM 75 Straightness (1bad-6best)* 4345 3.52 28% 0.190 (0.044) 102 Straightness (1bad-6best) 1974 3.76 37% 0.403 (0.084) Age (months) Trait n Mean CV h 2 (SE) SPIRAL GRAIN 108 Spiral 179 97.0 15% 0.999 INTERLOCKING GRAIN 108 Amplitude (mm) 181 6.0 42% 0.632 (0.311) 108 Wavelength (mm) 181 4.0 29% 0 108 Cycles 181 3.6 34% 0.052 (0.262) Age (months) Trait n Mean CV h 2 (SE) STRAIN 108 Strain Gauge (µε) 217 899 27% 0.520 (0.269) SHRINKAGE 75 Tangential from Core* 244 0.10 45% 0.872 (0.322) 102 Tangential from Core # 214 2.91 19% 0.993 (0.302) 108 Tangential (%) 179 11.7 18% 0.695 (0.311) 108 Radial (%) 180 3.1 19% 0.562 (0.305) 108 Heartwood Long. (%) 176 0.3 35% 0 108 Sapwood Long. (%) 176 0.2 50% 0 COLLAPSE & CHECKING 108 Internal Checking 179 13.6 32% 0.018 (0.252) 108 Collapse 179 3.3 35% 0.050 (0.252) Age (months) Trait n Mean CV h 2 (SE) DENSITY 102 Pilodyn 6J (mm) 2031 12.36 13% 0.510 (0.085) 108 Green Density (kg/m 3 ) 176 1099.8 3% 0.922 (0.338) 75 Basic Density (kg/m 3 ) 249 466 7% 0.479 (0.352) 108 Basic Density (kg/m 3 ) 179 514 8% 0.303 (0.286) STRUCTURAL 108 Janka Hardness (kN) 177 5.2 24% 0.277 (0.287) 108 MOR (MPa) 176 110.9 14% 0.515 (0.320) 108 MOE (MPa) 176 16466 13% 0.263 (0.296) ACOUSTICS (Predicted MOE) 108 WoodSpec MOE (MPa) 176 20158 15% 0.179 (0.285) 108 Director MOE (MPa) 176 15122 11% 0.617 (0.319) 108 Fakop MOE (MPa) 176 13173 13% 0.416 (0.300) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was funded by Forests NSW and Southern Cross University through Collaborative Research Grant 50415-30535. Thanks are due to Shakti Chauchan and Paul Fuller (University of Canterbury) for their help and advice on the wood quality assessments. Thanks are also due to Ian Johnson (DPI Science and Research), Roger Arnold and Chris Harwood (CSIRO F&FP) for their involvement in the establishment and earlier assessment of the trial. * Denotes data collected in collaboration with CSIRO F&FP # Denotes data collected in collaboration with CSIRO F&FP, funded by FWPRDC Boambee E. dunnii progeny trial Assessing interlocking grain Cutting discs with a chainsaw guide Measuring taper over and under bark Director acoustic tool Laboratory analysis of wood samples