Puyallup rec booklet lo

Washington State University

Puyallup Research

Extension Center

Solutions for the Region; Programs for it’s People.

“But our ultimate challenge is figuring out a way to effectively accommodate the 1.5 million people coming—by addressing stormwater runoff, maintaining working forests and farms, restoring habitat and developing differently— or we lose our chance to save Puget Sound.”

William Ruckelshaus

The Puget Sound Region The Puyallup Center, located in the heart of the 16,000 square mile Puget Sound basin, was once in the center of agricultural production and is now circled by rapidly growing urban environments. The region is:

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Home to the two-thirds of the state’s 6.4 million population that live in 115 cities and towns in 12 counties around the Puget Sound.

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One of the fastest growing areas in the country for population and economic development.

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Expected to grow by another 1.5 million individuals over the next 20 years.

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Heavily forested with significant areas of farm land.

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2,500 miles of shoreline with 14 rivers that flow into the Sound.

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The Puyallup Center and the Puget Sound Region Restoring and protecting the Puget Sound has become one of the top public policy and funding priorities for state and federal agencies. The Puyallup Center connects the research, extension, and teaching expertise of Washington State University to the region as it:

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Continues the opportunity for targeted agricultural work;

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Confronts and provides solutions to the emerging issues of natural resource quality and management, sustainable communities, and human development; and

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Expands the scientific inquiry of faculty to now address a variety of critical questions facing the region.

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Inside the Center The Puyallup Center hosts a variety of WSU research and extension programs. Faculty are members of Entomology (3), Plant Pathology (1), Crop and Soil Sciences (3), Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (3), Natural Resource Sciences (1), Animal Sciences (1) and College of Pharmacy (1).

Support personel include twenty administrative professionals with responsibilities in research, program development, leadership, and administrative management; forty-four full-time research technicians, maintenance and administrative support staff; and 50 to 60 time slip employees (winter); 75 in the summer.

Center of Operations •

WSU Extension State 4-H Youth Development Office.

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WSU Extension statewide Food $ense nutrition and diabetes education programs.

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Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources (CSANR).

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Urban IPM and Pesticide Safety Training Program.

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College of Veterinary Medicine’s Avian Health and Food Safety Laboratory.

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Center for Distance and Professional Education (CDPE), a non-CAHNRS/ Extension conference support program.

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NW Extension director’s office.

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WSU Small Farms Program.

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WSU Extension Family Programs.

Vision Bridging the past to the future, providing research, instruction and outreach services through an inter­ disciplinary approach for the development of ecologically sound, socially responsible, and economically viable communities.

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Land and Facilities The Puyallup Center covers 310 acres with over 56,000 sq. ft. of research and laboratory buildings.

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A highly skilled maintenance staff keeps buildings that are primarily older and aging serviceable and useful for research, teaching and extension programs. Newer buildings include the Allmendinger Center (1985), a greenhouse (1997), and a new 1,000 sq. ft. Urban IPM Structural Pest Training building (2006).

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A molecular laboratory with the latest molecular analytical equipment was developed in 2007.

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Outdated poultry and dairy structures were completely remodeled to create the salmon toxicology lab (2004) and a state-of-the-art Sudden Oak Death bio-containment lab (2006).

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The main campus totals 160 acres with 25 acres of buildings, grounds and roads, 25 acres of forested land, 15 acres of wetlands, and about 95 acres of plot lands.

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The R.L. Goss Research Farm, located five miles to the east of the main Puyallup campus, is 150 acres, bounded on the north by the Puyallup River which is a major salmon river. There are 10 acres of woods and wetlands.

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Economic and Societal Impacts a hub for research-based information about pest management practices.

Research and extension programs at the Puyallup Center have produced policy changes, transferred technology to successful commercial products, and created vital agricultural information databases and communications.

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Population methodologies for EPA and endangered species.

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Biosolids management guidelines for the State.

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New biosolilds potting mix for City of Tacoma.

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Commercial product development of struvite.

Technology Transfers •

Fast-growing, climate resilient trees.

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Biofuel feedstock development.

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New genetic selection for Christmas trees.

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73 million plants from new strawberry and raspberry cultivars.

Drought-resistant grasses for Audubon certification for new U.S. Open golf course.

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800,000 youth and adults reached through Food $ense and Diabetes programs.

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Operation Military Kids helps youth across the United States.

Disease and Infection •

The Avian Health and Food Safety Lab provides avian influenza testing of birds, poultry and waterfowl.

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Team working to understand and control P. ramorum, with the potential to save millions of dollars in losses to NW forest products and nursery industries.

Information and Communication •

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Development of a National Livestock and Poultry Learning Center.

Washington State Pest Management Resource Service (WSPRS) serves as

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Land Grant Universities in Urban Areas: The Question of Research and Engagement Urban areas in the West are faced with the challenges of growth rather than the “revitalization” challenge of our older industrial cities.

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Growth and its environmental, social, and economic consequences permeate local politics, social structures, and public policy formation.

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Protecting salmon enters the policy framework of almost every unit of government in the State of Washington.

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Washington’s newest agency, the Puget Sound Partnership, is charged with protecting and cleaning up the Puget Sound “Region”.

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Most municipalities from Eugene, Oregon to Victoria, British Columbia have adopted some form of sustainability declaration.

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Land Grant Universities in Urban Areas: The Research and Extension Center Solution Progress towards sustainable communities will require interdisciplinary approaches formed by scholars from a broad spectrum of academic disciplines.

Recent assessments of urban stakeholders confirm their desire to access the research of their land grant university.1 Research and extension centers should connect university resources to urban areas through high-quality applied research, non-formal education, and access to credit programs.

Facilitating access to research should be a key function of any urban R&E Center.

Applied research and engaged scholarship are integral to the success of an urban R&E Center.

The R&E Center should be positioned as the front door to the university­—the gateway to research and education.

1 Extension in the Urban West, Western Extension Directors Association, July 2008.

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Working Models: The Urban Center as a Solution The role of land grant universities in urban areas is an emerging issue for national associations (NASULGC) and universities in every state and territory. Traditional agricultural studies have shifted to incorporate new questions that challenge old models of study.

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Rutgers University’s ECOCOMPLEX—established in 2001—is an urban agricultural and research center working on water resources, solid waste management, renewable energy, and agriculture.

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In 2005, Texas A&M shifted from a traditional research and extension center model to establish the Urban Solutions Center with programs on pervious pavement, new plant materials, green building, and water.

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University of Minnesota’s Urban Research and Outreach Center (UROC) will open in 2009 for new and existing research, outreach and engagement activities related to North Minneapolis.

Stakeholders for these new centers include community and industry partners from all segments of the human experience.

Models for land grant urban centers are relatively new and in only a few parts of the country. In the Puget Sound region, the Puyallup Center is creating a new urban model, embedded in the issues of its community, that serves to provide a process and example for other land grant universities in the future.

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Programs for the Future The environment around the Puyallup Center has changed dramatically over the past 20 years and Center programs have a strong history of adaptation. The urbanization pressures in the region are creating some of the world’s most critical emerging issues resulting from human-induced environmental change. These are issues that will take unforeseen twists if, as projected, climate change continues, creating more opportunities for research and outreach solutions.

Significant federal, regional and local resources are available for faculty to address many new issues. A partial list includes: •

Agriculture in the urban environment supporting the local food movement

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Managing or creating value from the waste stream

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Study and control of invasive and exotic plant pathogens

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Comprehensive actions to improve human health

Water quality and supply impacting natural resources, endangered species, planning and growth policies

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New urban landscapes driven by water resources

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Creation of youth development programs

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Clean technology

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Green infrastructure

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Research Research Labs, Admin Offices and Classrooms Environmental Education Programs Graduate Student Housing Facility Services Future Collaborative Research

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Proposed for Sale

Building the Vision

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s the Puget Sound region grows, Washington State University

is addressing emerging needs of urban communities through

the application of research-based science from the investment at the

Puyallup Center. Confronting natural resources and environmental challenges, the state legislature has created initiatives and guidance to correct and restore environmental balance in the Puget Sound while providing strong quality of life and economic benefits to its residents.

A key for the Puyallup Center’s future will be to identify those problems and opportunities that build on the human, fiscal, and facilities asset base at Puyallup. This will be done in combination with the expertise available more broadly across CAHNRS and Extension as well as from new partnerships with research faculty in engineering, health services, design, water resources, and education. Choosing new interdisciplinary issues carefully, the Center will build research, teaching, and outreach capacity, strengthening successful competition for resources through excellence and quality providing programs for the region and solutions for its people.

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Images Cover: Top Entrance sign to the WSU Puyallup Center; Center Kalkus Hall, the main laboratory and office facility; Bottom left Native vegetation at the Center; Bottom right State-of-the-art greenhouses.

Inside front cover: A Washington State ferry crosses the Puget Sound. Photo by snowflake5 (www.sxc.hu).

Page 1: Bottom left The WSU Puyallup Experiment Station first established in 1894; Right Urban development in Tacoma, WA, four miles from the Center.

Page 2: Puyallup Center Director Jon Newkirk conducts a monthly Center meeting.

Page 3: Bottom left Andy Bary, Senior Scientific Assistant, works with compost professionals at the annual Compost Facility Operator’s Training Class; right New homes built on farmlands.

Page 4: Incoming Director John Stark, Professor, gives county Extension faculty a tour of the Salmon Ecotoxicology Laboratory.

Page 5: Fonda Gutierrez, Microbiologist, in the Avian Health and Food Safety Laboratory.

Page 6: Faculty and staff meet to discuss the upcoming CSREES review. (From left) Vernene Scheurer, Information Systems Manager; Cindy Armstrong, CSANR Assistant Director, Budget and Finance; Katie Coats, Research Scientist; Catherine Daniels, Pesticide Coordinator/Extension Specialist and Professional Services Center Manager.

Page 7: Bottom left Barri Herman, Weyerhaeuser Senior Program Manager of Short Rotation Plantations and WSU Puyallup Research Scientist Jon Johnson in the free-standing greenhouses at the Center; right Droughtresistant trees for urban streets in research plots.

Page 8: (From left) Juana Royster, WSU King County Extension community health specialist, and Sue Butkus, WSU Puyallup Extension Specialist and Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, talk with clients about managing diabetes, part of a diabetes education pilot study.

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Page 10: Gary Chastagner, Professor of Plant Pathology, and research assistants inspect wood samples for Phytophthora ramorum (Sudden Oak Death).

Page 11: Equipment in the new molecular research lab.

Page 12: Craig Cogger, Soil Scientist (right) and Jenny Elizalde (left)use a chlorophyll meter to assess nitrogen availability in sweet corn from cover crops.

Page 13: Bottom left Conference class attendees enjoy a sunny day on the lawn outside the Allmendinger Conference Center; Right Low impact Development (LID) landscape design surrounds a Puget Sound building.

Page 14: LID stormwater management techniques at work in a Puget Sound neighborhood.

Page 15: Student members of the Operations Military Kids program participate in outside activities.

Page 16: Workgroup meets to discuss new $1 million Department of Ecology stormwater retrofit construction and research project at the Center. (From left) Members shown include: Peg Staehli, principal, SvR Design; Kathy Gwilym, Engineer, SvR Design; Dory Clausnitzer, WSU Puyallup Facilities Operations Manger; Curtis Hinman, Pierce County WSU Extension Faculty and Low Impact Development Specialist; Nate Cormier, SvR Senior Landscape Architect.

Page 17: Stormwater drain receiving oils and other runoff that travels directly into Puget Sound. Stormwater is a leading source of pollution to the Puget Sound.

Page 18: The WSU Puyallup Planning Map is the basis for the WSU Puyallup Long-Range Strategic and Capital Investment Plan currently under development. Proceeds from the land designated “Proposed for Sale” will be invested at the Puyallup Center.

Inside back cover: “World Class, Face to Face” took on a new meaning when world-renowned chefs from five Seattle restaurants joined other food professionals and writers for tasting sessions at the WSU Puyallup R.L. Goss Farm. Pat Moore, Professor, organized the event and showed new berry cultivars to the interested food professionals.

7612 Pioneer Way East • Puyallup, WA 98371-4998 • (253) 445 - 4500 • www.puyallup.wsu.edu Washington State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability, use of a trained guide dog or service animal by a disabled person, specially disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam era, recently separated veteran, and other protected veteran status in its administration of educational policies, programs or activities, or other University administered programs or employment.