Tracts of gene-enhanced trees could be growing in five years.

ACCORDING TO AN article in The Washington Post; commercial tracts of genetically enhanced trees are expected to be growing by 2005.

According to the article, in test plots in Israel, poplar trees grow so fast that they could well eliminate the need to log old-growth forests. In Canada, genetically altered fruit trees kill insects on contact without pesticide sprays and their apples stay fresher longer.

Within the past 10 years, about 130 outdoor tests of genetically modified trees -- more than half of them in the last three years -- have been approved by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which has primary responsibility for regulating bio-engineered trees in the United States.

Gene-altered trees follow on the heels of bio-engineered soybeans, cotton and similar crops -- research that has been going on for about 10 years. Now, universities and biotechnology companies are perfecting the practice of injecting genes into trees. Some of the trees currently growing contain genes from bacteria, chickens and humans.

While it may seem like a boon to the forestry industry, opponents fear the genetically altered trees could adversely affect the world's forests. For example, soil-dwelling fungi and microbes that are the foundation of the earth's food chain, depend on trees for sustenance. In addition, some fear that windblown pollen could spread the trees' altered DNA to related tree species, creating woody weeds with few practical uses.