Threatened Forests Cannot Move, So Scientists Are Relocating Their Genes

Trees can't walk to a better place as climate worsens. So scientists are relocating helpful genes instead

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In a field in Vancouver, across the road from a row of tidy white townhomes, roughly 500 bushy Sitka spruce trees climbed toward the sun. On a spring day in 2013 the trees, triangle-shaped with tightly packed, deep-green needles, were crammed shoulder to shoulder—or, in some cases, shoulder to waist. Although the spruces were all planted at the same time, seven years earlier, their height varied like primary school children assembled for a group photograph.

The smallest trees, around two feet tall, hailed from Kodiak Island, Alaska; the tallest, at nearly seven feet, originated in Oregon. Height was not the only visible difference. The spruces from Alaska produced buds a full three months earlier—an entire season—than those from Oregon. The Alaska trees also stayed green and healthy no matter how low the temperature dropped.

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