Founded in 1968, the Inland Empire Tree Improvement Cooperative (IETIC) is a diverse group of 19 organizations in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana who have joined together to apply classical plant breeding techniques to important native conifer species for the purpose of producing genetically improved tree seed for commercial reforestation and ecosystem restoration.

Since the IETIC's first progeny tests were established in 1974, more than 120 field tests have been established with more than one million seedlings. While serving primarily as a "proving" grounds for the thousands of parent tree selections that have been made in the woods, these tests also server an important function as gene archives.

Members have access to IETIC genetic materials and can clone top ranking trees through grafting, a technique used for centuries in agriculture and horticulture. A branch tip from the selected tree is "grafted" onto a seedling rootstock to produce a new tree. These grafted trees are then planted together and managed for cone and seed production. Seeds produced in these "seed orchards" are germinated and grown to provide seedlings for reforestation and ecosystem restoration.

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ietic/