Local Conferences Consider Genetically Altered Trees

Two events focusing on the promise and perils of genetically modified trees will take place in the Raleigh area this week.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University is holding a forum titled “Landscapes, Genomics and Transgenic Conifer Forests.” Researchers working in the biotech field dominate the agenda, but there is one session Thursday afternoon on community perspectives that includes biotech watchdogs Neil Carman of the Sierra Club, Alyx Perry of the Asheville-based Southern Forests Network, Kathy Jo Wetter of the ETC Group, Jane Preyer with the North Carolina office of Environmental Defense and Anne Petermann of the Global Justice Ecology Project, a Vermont-based nonprofit that has called on the United Nations to ban genetically modified trees.

Also this week, the Institute of Forest Biotechnology – which is housed at the N.C. Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park – is hosting a conference titled “New Century, New Trees: Biotechnology as a Tool for Forestry in North America.” That event takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday; for details, e-mail Susan McCord.