clone inland empire tree

Founded in 1968, the Inland Empire Tree Improvement Cooperative (IETIC) is a diverse group of 19 organizations in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana who have joined together to apply classical plant breeding techniques to important native conifer species for the purpose of producing genetically improved tree seed for commercial reforestation and ecosystem restoration. Since the IETIC's first progeny tests were established in 1974 , more than 120 field tests have been established with more than one million seedlings. While serving primarily as a "proving" grounds for the thousands of parent tree selections that have been made in the woods, these tests also server an important function as gene archives.