Most research in the last few decades has focused on the development of new strategies to control biological attack and the means to quantify this. Comparatively little work has been done to examine the effect that treated timber might have on its surrounding environment. This presentation will describe a methodology that attempts to detect any changes which might occur in the soil microflora following the introduction of timber treated with a number of chemical agents containing organic active ingredients (a.i.). It was also the purpose to isolate organisms that can break down organic a.i.. A technique was developed to determine whether the presence and nature of a timber preservative influenced the size and composition of a microbial population that colonised timber when buried in soil. Samples of treated timber were incubated in a solution eluted from soil that contained a diverse, viable microbial population. After incubation, the size and composition of the microflora both in the eluate and adhering to the timber was examined.

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