January 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Author, scientist inspired by Martian spud research
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
File photo
Phil Nolte, a retired potato seed pathologist who writes science fiction novels, speaks prior to his retirement from University of Idaho
during a tour of potato research plots at the UI’s Aberdeen Research & Extension Center. Nolte has offered an assessment of the science
behind potato production on Mars included in the book and movie “The Martian” and is intrigued by proposed research to test potato
production in a simulated Martian environment.
File photo
Phil Nolte holds several science fiction novels.
have to travel much farther
to reach spuds on Mars, and
researchers will have to find
contingencies for extreme
temperature fluctuations.
According to a press
release, the joint research
project aims to “raise
awareness of the incredi-
ble resilience of potatoes”
and should demonstrate that
farming is possible in the
most challenging of envi-
ronments on Earth. The re-
searchers also believe the
project will provide valu-
able insight into production
possibilities in the face of
climate change.
Soil from the Pampas de
La Joya Desert in Peru will
be used to simulate Martian
dirt, and the atmosphere
will be manipulated in a lab-
oratory to have 95 percent
carbon dioxide, as on Mars.
“We need people to un-
derstand that if we can grow
potatoes in extreme condi-
tions like those on Mars,
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By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
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208-466-8913 (FAX)
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Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Chris Schnepf, University of Idaho Extension area educator in forestry, talks about his work outside
the UI Extension office in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Schnepf provides experienced foresters and first-time
small forest landowners with the information they need.
Schnepf works with log-
gers and forest owners to de-
termine how their needs can
influence UI research. Log-
gers in particular are looking
for more efficient and sus-
tainable timber management
methods, he said.
Al Kyle in Athol, Idaho, is
part of the master forest stew-
ards program, designed by
Schnepf so that experienced
foresters can advise newcom-
ers.
“He’s a personable person
— he’s interested in the peo-
ple and helping them to really
manage what they have better
all the time so we can improve
the health of the forests all
Chris Schnepf
Occupation: Area Extension
Educator-Forester
Hometown: LeMars, Iowa
Current location: Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho
Age: 54
Family: Married, three
children
Website: http://www.uidaho.
edu/extension/forestry
over the state,” Kyle said of
Schnepf. “He’s effective. He’s
been a real asset to the forest
community.”
Janet Benoit in Carey-
wood, Idaho, is also a master
forest steward.
“I think he has had quite
an impact with those people
who actually want to learn
something about their prop-
erty,” Benoit said. “He makes
certain he is hitting what they
think they need to learn.”
Schnepf enjoys the reac-
tions from people who are
“grateful to learn something
new about something they
were struggling with.”
“I work with so many
people who just love to learn
about this stuff,” he said. “You
get energized by that. It’s a
real high satisfaction job.”
This story first appeared
Jan. 30, 2015.
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COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho
— When forest owners in the
Idaho Panhandle began notic-
ing an increase in the snow-
shoe hare population, Chris
Schnepf went looking for an
expert.
When he couldn’t find one,
Schnepf put in the time to re-
search the hare compared to
other possible causes of dam-
age to young trees and shrubs,
grasses and other plants.
Schnepf hasn’t gotten a lot of
calls about damage yet, but
said the hare population goes
through a nine- or 10-year cy-
cle.
It’s all in a day’s work for
Schnepf, University of Idaho
Extension educator for for-
estry in the Idaho Panhandle.
He’s worked for the extension
service since 1988.
Schnepf speaks to a broad
audience that includes fam-
ily forest owners, who own
roughly 40 percent of the
forest land in the panhandle;
loggers; and professional for-
esters.
“My goal is to give them
enough forest ecological liter-
acy to make decisions that are
going to help them meet their
goals in their forest,” he said.
Working in the forest is not
the main job for most family
forest owners. Schnepf es-
timated only a few dozen in
the region earn the majority
of their income from logging.
Some are also farmers.
“Most (family forest own-
ers) have very little training
on their forests, even simple
things like tree identifica-
tion,” he said. “It’s very dif-
ferent from cereal producers,
where you have people who
have been growing a crop
most of their lives and do a
fair amount of management
activity every year. A lot of
our time is spent giving peo-
ple a basic literacy on forestry
and forest ecology.”
MOUN
Y
T
CK
IN
A
Forester teaches tree owners management
we can save lives on Earth,”
Joel Ranck, an International
Potato Center spokesman,
said in the press release.
In Weir’s story, stranded
NASA astronaut Mark Wat-
ney plants spuds, originally
packed for a holiday meal,
using his own excrement as
fertilizer.
Nolte’s major criticism
of the science in the book is
that spuds would either have
to be treated with a sprout
inhibitor, which would hin-
der growth, or they would
break dormancy much too
soon during the roughly
RO
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho
— As a retired potato seed
pathologist who also writes
science fiction novels, Phil
Nolte will pay close atten-
tion when NASA and the
International Potato Center
seek to prove the plausibil-
ity of growing potatoes on
Mars.
The experiment could
help validate a central theme
in one of Nolte’s favorite
books, “The Martian,” by
Andy Weir, which brought
the concept of raising spuds
on the Red Planet to the
world’s consciousness.
Nolte, who retired in
early 2015 from Universi-
ty of Idaho and released his
fourth novel, “The Deimos
Artifact,” on Dec. 15, under-
stands authors must some-
times stretch the truth for the
sake of a good story. With a
few plot tweaks, Nolte be-
lieves the crop production
system described in “The
Martian,” now a major mo-
tion picture, could be made
“good enough.”
Stretching the truth,
however, won’t be an op-
tion when a team of scien-
tists seeks to raise potatoes
in Peru, in conditions sim-
ulating the growing envi-
ronment of a hypothetical
climate-controlled dome on
Mars.
Without artistic license
at their disposal, Nolte has
no idea if the simulation
will succeed, but he sees
value in the effort.
“I’m one of those people
who at least hopes we man-
age to colonize other places
besides just the planet we’re
on now,” Nolte said. “A first
step to try to make things
like that happen is to try
to create environments like
this and see how your food
source would do.”
Nolte said sunlight would
10-month journey to Mars.
Furthermore, Watney imme-
diately replanted the seed tu-
bers he raised, though Nolte
notes potato seed requires
a dormancy period before
sprouting.
To fix the discrepancies,
Nolte suggests the author
could have explained the
presence of the potatoes as
part of a science experiment,
perhaps proposed by a ma-
jor chemical manufacturer
testing a new sprout inhibi-
tor. Watney could then break
dormancy in both the initial
seed supply and the seed
saved for replanting with a
chemical included for the
company’s experiment.
Nolte noted seed pota-
to certification programs in
Idaho and other major spud
states use chemicals, such
as gibberillic acid or rindite,
to induce sprouting of seeds
harvested during fall and
planted shortly thereafter in
winter trial plots in warmer
climates. Nolte has also read
reviews by critics who doubt
Watney could have produced
enough “fertilizer.”
However, Nolte approves
of the author’s choice of
using a potato as the astro-
naut’s staple food.
“The potato is short a
couple of amino acids from
being a perfect food,” Nolte
said, noting researchers tried
several years ago to intro-
duce those missing amino
acids to the potato through
biotechnology.
Nolte acknowledges he
may be nitpicking, but he
believes attention to detail
is the key to helping readers
suspend their disbelief. He’s
sold roughly 13,000 copies
of his first three space od-
ysseys. Coincidentally, his
latest book is named after a
moon of Mars.