The latest issue of Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Science, focuses on the management of Fusarium circinatum in South African pine nurseries and plantations. The fungus causes serious disease of seedlings and mature trees of the two main pine species planted in commercial forestry in South Africa. The publication of this special issue of Southern Forests is a unique and remarkable achievement that captures research emanating from ongoing collaborations between the Tree Protection Cooperative Programme (TPCP) in FABI, the Institute for Commercial Forestry Research (ICFR), and two industry partners, Sappi and York Timbers. There were also international contributions by three co-authors from the University of California Davis and North Carolina State University.

Southern Forests publishes scientific articles in forest science and management of commercial and natural forests in the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics. The journal's ISI rating has consistently been improving over the past few years to 0.521 in 2013. The journal particularly encourages contributions from South America, Africa and tropical/subtropical Australasia and Asia. It is a publication of the Southern African Institute of Forestry (SAIF).  

Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Science

Volume 76, Issue 3, 2014

Contents of special issue on Fusarium circinatum

Morris AR (2014). Editorial. Responding to Fusarium circinatum in South Africa. Southern Forests 76: iii-iii.

Jones NB, Ford CM, Light ME, Nadel RL, Greyling I, Fourie G, Wingfield MJ, Morris AR (2014). Effect on nursery and field performance of Pinus patula seedlings after inoculation with Fusarium circinatum. Southern Forests 76: 125-136.

Fourie G, Wingfield MJ, Wingfield BD, Jones NB, Morris AR, Steenkamp ET (2014). Culture-independent detection and quantification of Fusarium circinatum in a pine-producing seedling nursery. Southern Forests 76: 137-143.

Nel A, Hodge GR, Mongwaketsi KE, Kanzler A (2014). Genetic parameters for Fusarium circinatum tolerance within openpollinated families of Pinus patula tested at screening facilities in South Africa and the USA. Southern Forests 76: 145-150.

Mitchell RG, Wingfield MJ, Steenkamp ET, Roux J, Verryn S, Coutinho TA (2014). Comparison of the tolerance of Pinus patula seedlings and established trees to infection by Fusarium circinatum. Southern Forests 76: 151-159.

Swett CL, Porter B, Fourie G, Steenkamp ET, Gordon TR, Wingfield MJ (2014). Association of the pitch canker pathogen Fusarium circinatum with grass hosts in commercial pine production areas of South Africa. Southern Forests 76: 161-166.

Ford CM, Jones NB, Chirwa PWC (2014). Pinus patula and pine hybrid hedge productivity in South Africa: a comparison between two vegetative propagation systems exposed to natural infection by Fusarium circinatum. Southern Forests 76: 167-175.

Morris AR, Fourie G, Greyling I, Steenkamp ET, Jones NB (2014). Re-use of seedling containers and Fusarium circinatum association with asymptomatic Pinus patula planting stock. Southern Forests 76: 161-166. 76: 177-187.