Development of salt tolerant clonal trees in Australia

More than one billion hectares, or 7.6% of the world's land, consists of salt affected soils (1). Much of this area is naturally occurring saltland, such as mangrove forests, internally draining basins, and floodplains. However, an increasing proportion of land is becoming saline as the result of agricultural practices. In Western Australia about 12 million hectares of land has been classified as salt-affected, of which about 650,000 ha (5 4 %) is induced salinity as a result of artificially high watertables, or as scalds caused by wind and water erosion (4). Saltland forestry is one of the many strategies proposed for making productive use of salt affected soils. Planting trees is an attractive option because of the primary benefits of salinity control and land reclamation and the secondary benefits of wood products, livestock shelter, windbreaks, and ecological habitat construction