Feedback by RICHARD WHITTET, CEH

The conference organisers did a fantastic job of creating an interesting and balanced programme of speakers.  The content and quality of talks given generated much discussion, which continued throughout the week, especially during the field trip to several of south Iceland’s woodlands and other tourist attractions.  This field trip culminated in a visit to an impressive Sitka spruce forest which offered an excellent opportunity for informal discussion over hakarl and brennivin.  I gained some valuable feedback on my talk, "Challenges to evolution oriented forest management in Great Britain",  and poster during the course of the conference.

On the first day of the summer school, students took it in turns to lead discussions on an array of topics related to forest genetics.  This was an effective way to exchange ideas and experiences.  Discussions were interspersed with very informative lectures given by Sally Aitken from UBC.  On the final day, we had an introduction to the software package “ASReml” from Gunnar Jansson from Skogforsk, which is a powerful tool for analysis of phenotypic traits of forest trees.  

A spectacular view of Aurora borealis on our final night at the hotel rounded off the event very nicely.

I am very grateful to EVOLTREE for providing me with a conference grant to attend the conference and summer school.  It was a very worthwhile and enjoyable experience and it was good to meet and speak with other researchers.