Applied Forest Science was founded in 1985 to study the effects of forest nursery practices on seedling diseases. Our goal was to find cultural practices which could be used to control diseases or limit their impacts. The company was incorporated in 1989, becoming AFS - Applied Forest Science Limited.  Since then, the scope of the company has expanded to include work in other areas of forest protection. For example, research has been done on the efficacy of electron beam radiation to sanitize seedling growing containers, disease monitoring and assaying, site surveys and prescriptions, modeling and disease biology and epidemiology.  Resulting from our work on grey mould epidemiology, a Canadian company now produces ventilated Styroblocks®.  These ventilated seedling-growing containers reduce grey mould losses by allowing growers to regulate moisture and humidity within the seedling canopy. They are used throughout North America for greenhouse-grown conifer seedlings. Seed pathogen assays in British Columbia, Alberta and the Atlantic Maritime provinces have identified the importance of seed-borne pathogens and have helped form a basis for developing Seed Handling Guidelines to reduce the impact of seed-borne disease.