Project Director
Dr. Douglas B. Walsh is the Integrated Pest Management Coordinator for Washington State, a Professor in WSU’s Department of Entomology, and the director of the Environmental and Agricultural Entomology Laboratory at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, Washington. He functions as the overall coordinator and director of this project and directs the activities relating to arthropod management.
Entomology
Dr. James Barbour is the IPM Entomologist in both hops and mint for the University of Idaho. His work in arthropod pests of the two subject crops in Idaho provides additional perspective on that state’s microclimatic differences from Washington and Oregon. He is conducting efficacy studies on reduced-risk pesticides including pheromone-based pest management in California prionus. He works closely with hop growers throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Weed Science
Dr. Rick Boydston, co-Project Director, is a Research Weed Scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS). He has a strong track record of integrated weed management and a distinguished history of interdisciplinary collaboration with other pest management and allied agronomic disciplines. The weed management component of this project follows protocols he has established in other crops including alfalfa grown for seed.
Plant Pathology
Dr. David H. Gent, co-Project Director, is a Research Plant Pathologist with the USDA-ARS Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit in Corvallis, Oregon. His research interests focus on spatial and temporal dynamics of powdery mildew and downy mildew, design and implementation of integrated pest management systems, and systems optimization for multiple production goals. He has extensive experience in hop disease processes and brings an important perspective to the project from Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Dr. Gary Grove is Director of The Washington Agricultural Weather Network (AgWeatherNet). His extensive experience in disease modeling and integrated disease management has made him a leader in plant pathology in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a Professor of Plant Pathology with WSU and brings a wealth of powdery mildew control experience to the project. Grove has pledged the resources of AgWeatherNet to this project and co-directs the project’s plant pathology components with Dr. Gent.
Irrigation Engineering
Dr. R. Troy Peters, co-Project Director, is an Irrigation Engineer and an Assistant Professor with the Department of Biosystems Engineering at WSU. His proven ability to construct and monitor complex water delivery mechanisms is a key part of our overall strategy for inducing abiotic stress in the subject crops. Dr. Peters directed the construction and implementation of the deficit irrigation systems in both the experimental-scale and commercial-scale plots in both mint and hops.
Food Science
Dr. Carolyn Ross is a Sensory Scientist with the WSU School of Food Science in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Her research combines sensory analysis with analytical chemistry techniques to identify and describe changes in flavor and odor profiles. Her sensory laboratory facilities and expertise in training evaluation panelists are being utilized to evaluate qualitative changes in finished products made from the subject crops after imposing biotic and abiotic stresses.
Dr. Stephen Kenny is an Agronomist with the WSU Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. His program focuses on plant breeding and genetics and the chemistry and physiology of hops. He works extensively with hop cultivar development. For this project, Dr. Kenny's laboratory conducts the alpha and beta constituent analysis of our subject hop varieties under the various imposed stresses, utilizing high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and other methodologies.
Economics
Dr. Thomas Marsh is an Agricultural Economist in the WSU School of Economic Sciences. He has extensive experience in the economics of pest control, grain supply and marketing (including malt barley), as well as consumer demand. His skills and experience with Pacific Northwest crops complement those of Dr. Gallardo (below). The two economists and their respective graduate students are working closely together on the economic aspects of this project.
Dr. Karina Gallardo is also Agricultural Economist with WSU. Her experience in consumer demand studies and export markets and her position as Agricultural Economist for Specialty Crops at WSU make her ideally suited to this project. Her studies on spearmint were among the first publications for this project. Dr. Gallardo also serves as the economist on another SCRI-funded project “Enhancing Biological Control to Stabilize Western Orchard IPM Systems."
Sociology
Dr. Jennifer Sherman, Assistant Professor of Sociology with WSU, brings a background in rural sociology to the project. She is using her proven qualitative research methodologies to assess impacts of market upheaval in the subject crops on the individuals, families, and communities involved with their production and distribution. Her team has conducted interviews with individuals in the Yakima Valley and Willamette Valley and conducted ethnographic studies in both regions.
Communication
Sally O’Neal is a Research and Extension Outreach Specialist for WSU. She is responsible for the overall educational outreach component of the project, including preparing information based on the physical and social scientists’ research, analysis, and recommendations. Her work includes the development and maintenance of this website, support materials for face-to-face communications (field days, workshops, industry meetings), and other printed and electronic materials.
Transdisciplinary
- entomology
- plant pathology
- weed science
- irrigation engineering
- food science
- economics
- sociology
- communications
Multi-State
- Washington
- Oregon
- Idaho
Multi-Institution
- WSU
- OSU
- U of I
- USDA-ARS
Advisory Board
- Rod Christensen, Executive Director, Washington Mint Commission
- Tim Van Klinken, Mint Grower, Wycoff Farms
- Mark Morris, Mint Buyer/Distributor, A.M. Todd Corp. and IPM Chair for the Mint Industry Research Council
- Ann George, Administrator, Washington Hop Commission, Hop Growers of America
- Nancy Frketich, Administrator, Oregon Hop Commission
- Reggie Brulotte, Hop Grower, Brulotte Farms
- Charles Matt, General Manager Watertown Hops Co., a Division of MillerCoors, LLC
- Mike Kahn, Associate Director, WSU Agricultural Research Center
- Erik Johansen, Pesticide Registration Program Coordinator, Washington State Department of Agriculture
- Keith Dorschner, Program Manager, IR-4
- John Brown, Professor and Former Chair, Department of Entomology, Washington State University
- Jane M. Thomas, Pesticide Notification Network Coordinator/ Comment Coordination for Western IPM Center, Washington State University
A project of Washington State University in cooperation with
Washington State IPM Coordinator, WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research & Extension Center, Prosser WA 99350, 509-786-9287