An account is given of large-scale trials of the use of saline water for the trickle irrigation of forest trees in the desert areas of Abu Dhabi, in eastern Arabia. Water of salinities up to an equivalent of 16,000 ppm have been used on Casuarine glauca and Eucalyptus camaldulensis. Growth rates ranged from 1.7 m in 7 years on salinities of 16,000 ppm to 10–12 m in 8 years on salinities of 2000–2500 ppm. Trickle irrigation appears to allow the use of more saline water than can be used with other systems, perhaps because plant roots are not subject to the fluctuations in moisture stress that occur under all other systems.