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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