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AG E X WI LL AM ET WILLAMETTE VALLEY AG EXPO SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE TE PO VA LL EY THE NOVE MBE R 3, Wil Ag lamette of g Expo: 1 Valley row th 7 years 2 Page FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2017 2017 VOLUME 90, NUMBER 44 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 A COLLEGE DIVIDED WSU faculty group, administration split over how research is managed at CAHNRS By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press P ULLMAN, Wash. — In response to complaints from a faculty group that commodity commissions exercise an outsize in- fl uence over research, the head of Washington State University’s ag- ricultural college has defended the school’s direction, saying that as a land grant institution its role is helping stakeholders solve prob- lems. At the same time, researchers should have the freedom to study a problem however they want, but that research must be scientifi cally sound and verifi able, said Ron Mit- telhammer, dean of the WSU Col- lege of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. “We are there to report objective outcomes, regardless of their popu- larity,” he said. But a faculty group believes ac- ademic freedom has taken a back- seat to stakeholder interests. Donna Potts, WSU chapter president of the American Association of Uni- versity Professors and an English professor, told the Capital Press she has received complaints from 30 CAHNRS faculty members who say college administrators pay too much attention to stakeholder in- terests and ignore researchers’ aca- demic freedom. CAHNRS has 588 faculty and non-faculty post-doc- toral researchers. Turn to RESEARCH, Page 12 CAHNRS extramural research funding sources, FY2015 (Total budget for FY2015: More than $82 million) State: 7% Commissions: 9% “I think they do feel industry is calling all the shots (and) shared governance has been compromised.” Donna Potts, WSU chapter president of the American Association of University Professors Industry, foundations, other: 9% “They’d say, ‘This is what we want you to do,’ and if you don’t do what they want you to do, of course you’re setting yourself up for not getting any funding.” Federal: 75% Source: College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, WSU Nnadozie Oraguzie, a former WSU sweet cherry breeder Alan Kenaga/Capital Press TOP PHOTO: Ron Mittelhammer, dean of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University (in background). While academic freedom is important for researchers, so are the interests of commodity commissions, which provide much of the funding for research projects, he said. Lawsuits remain on hold until Dec. 1, pending Trump administration review Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument expansion Area in detail Original monument boundary Newly expanded boundary Medford 238 JACKSON 99 140 K LA M AT H Aspen Lake 5 Ashland By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Range Averages are calculated from measurements taken from 1981 to 2010. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts a cool and wet win- ter for northern tier states that include, Oregon, Washington and Idaho east to the Dakotas. The rest of the lower 48 states will have warmer and drier weather this winter, according to NOAA. Julie Koeberle,hydrologist with the NRCS snow survey offi ce in Portland, said the La Nina pattern forecast for this winter usually correlates with a good snow year in northern tier states. “Overall it’s good news for most of the state and the Pacifi c Northwest,” she said. The pattern often doesn’t hold for parts of Southern Oregon, however. The Owyhee and Lake County basins, in South- east Oregon, are the only ones with less than average precip- itation so far this water year, according to NRCS. Cascade It’s early in the season, but the winter snowpack, which determines irrigation water availability for many Pacifi c Northwest producers, is off to a good start. The USDA’s Natural Re- sources Conservation Service said the snowpack is build- ing, especially in the North- ern Cascades and the Central and Northern Rockies. Some of the agency’s automated Snow Telemetry, or SNO- TEL, stations in those regions recorded more than 2 feet of snow at the end of October. Much of that came from the cold “atmospheric river” that fl owed across the Northwest the weekend of Oct. 21-22, bringing heavy rain and snow before giving way to a stretch run of sunny fall days. As a result, reservoirs are fi lling and the precipitation in most river basins is well above normal for this time of year. In Oregon, precipitation was measured at more than 100 percent of average in 11 of 13 basins. The Willamette basin stood at 176 percent of aver- age, and the Hood, Sandy and Lower Deschutes region mea- sured 186 percent of average. The numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, however, because they mea- sure and compare only from Oct. 1, the start of the water year for statistical purposes. N Capital Press 66 Groups representing Or- egon counties and timber companies want to resume litigation against the federal government’s expansion of the Cascade-Sisikiyou Na- tional Monument. However, a federal judge is delaying proceedings in the two lawsuits until Dec. 1 to give the Trump adminis- tration more time to consider scaling back the monument’s size. The monument’s bound- CASCADE- SISKIYOU NAT’L MON. 10 miles Ore. Calif. yo Siski u M . tns r Capital Press i ve By ERIC MORTENSON Counties, timber group want to resume Cascade-Siskiyou litigation R th So far, so good for PNW snowpack 5 Kl a m a Ore. Calif. Alan Kenaga/Capital Press aries were increased from about 66,000 acres to 114,000 acres in the waning days of the Obama admin- istration, angering livestock producers and timber com- panies that rely on the public land for grazing and logging. Most logging is prohibit- ed within the monument and the designation also has the potential for grazing restric- tions. Turn to TIMBER, Page 12
