Hello, Phil Forsline asked me to contact you about a talk he is presenting at Leach Botanical Garden soon that would be of interest to your organization and members.
Janice Jenkins Education Coordinator, Leach Botanical Garden.

Genetic Treasures From the Apple’s Ancestral Home
October 25, 6:30-8:00pm
Location: Leach Botanical Garden Manor House
Registration required. $8 nonmember/$6 LGF member
www.leachgarden.org 503-823-1671

Phil Forsline is the recently retired curator of the United States Department of Agriculture's Plant Genetics Resources Unit, which is located on the Geneva, NY campus of Cornell University. Phil will discuss his expeditions to Kazakhstan (the apple's center of genetic diversity), Russia and China, to collect wild apple material for conservation, evaluation, and distribution to geneticists and breeders throughout the world. Results of Forsline's work promises many benefits, most importantly disease and insect resistance which could revolutionize the apple industry. If you have read “The Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan or viewed the documentary about the book on PBS (http://watch.opb.org/video/1283872815/), then you are already familiar with Forsline’s work.

FOr those of you who don't know, I believe that the Leach garden is in the far Eastern suburbs of SE Portland.

John S
PDX OR

The phone number listed is not always attended so I went there and registered myself. I'll email one of my friends who is a member of the fruit club in Seattle.

I find the online quality in the map to be poor and possibly hard for any from Seattle or the airport. So the following set of directions will apply to them.

-From Seattle you take the I-205 southbound ramp before the city of Vancouver.
(miss that one then take highway 14 east to I-205 in Vancouver, or highway 84 east to I-205 in Portland)
-Southbound on I-205 watch for exit 17 "Foster road" exit from once you are in Portland and the area just south of the highway 84 interchange. (exit numbers get higher the further south along I-205 you are)
-Eastbound on Foster road will require you to be on the right hand lane of I-205 and come to the proper stop for Foster road, then turn east to the left, now go about 2.5 miles east to 122nd avenue and turn right.
-A winding drive through a forested area to Johnson creek and only half a mile and a bridge. At that point parking and the garden are right next to the bridge and an easy stop to miss if your not looking out for the bridge as a landmark.

There was a very interesting presentation put on by Phil. It exceeded my expectations because the slide show was very well thought out and informative. Ideas on breeding were brought up and how groups can compete in new markets for things like small candy apples to lessen children's dependency on sweet candy etc. Many apples are very large to begin with but I got the impression that mainly only the disease selections are advancing.

The biggest dis-appointment was the lack of time to ask anything. I would imagine the next channel for asking questions is to get on a volunteer list in Corvallis and then, if lucky, be taken on a tour by the right person. Can't remember the name of the expert lady to know who in Corvallis and I didn't write names of books recommended by Phil either. Anyone?

I was interested in going but I had parent teacher conferences, so I couldn't.
John S
PDX OR