It is generally recognized that plants are genetically adapted to the prevailing climate. Planting stock is often moved across environmental gradients with little knowledge of the ecological risks. For long-lived species (e.g., forest trees) this introduces risks of increased mortality, lowered potential growth rates, and increased susceptibility to insects and diseases. Thus mistakes in seed transfer in forest regeneration programs can be costly. Seedwhere is a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool designed to assist in making nursery stock and seed transfer decisions for forest regeneration activities over environmental gradients. Given a suitable database, Seedwhere maps out the similarity of a chosen location to the rest of the region of interest. The location could be a potential seed collection or planting area.
The program is based on the underlying premise that populations of plant species can become genetically differentiated through adaptations to local environmental conditions, of which climate is a major component. Forest regeneration can therefore be at risk if the environmental conditions where seed is used are dissimilar from the conditions at the point of its origin. Biologically sound forestry practices suggest that tree species should be planted in conditions suited to their genetically inherited environmental responses. This means trying to match species gene complexes to their optimum soil and climatic conditions.