The final day of the WSU Congressional and Legislative Staff Tour wrapped up Wednesday at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, which highlighted how the Center has positioned itself as leader in research on green stormwater infrastructure, aquaculture and aquatic toxicology, food safety, plant pathology, and small fruit breeding.
Tour participants saw innovative research into permeable pavements that can help filter pollutants out of rainwater before it returns to the region’s abundance of streams and rivers that house salmon. The group then visited the aquaculture lab located at the Center, where researchers use aquatic organisms as model systems, especially Pacific salmonids due to their unique physiology, life history, and economic importance. Scientists there are, among other things, researching a replacement for a chemical used by tire manufacturers to promote durability that WSU and UW researchers have discovered yields another chemical – 6PPD Quinone – that is flushed into waterways during rain events and is lethal to some salmon populations.
The visit also featured quick stops to see a variety of research projects being conducted by scientists at the Center, including breeding for red raspberry – a Pacific Northwest specialty – as well as disease prevention efforts for trees with sudden oak death.
Guests from local WSU teams also took time to visit with the group, including WSU’s Extension Specialist for the cranberry and shellfish industries in the state located in Long Beach and the director of the Ruckelshaus Center, a joint effort of Washington State University and the University of Washington created to foster collaborative public policy conversations in the state and greater Pacific Northwest.
With recent attention to the H5N1 virus, or avian influenza, tour participants had a chance to visit the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab’s (WADDL) regional lab based at the Puyallup Center that focuses on avian health and food safety. The tour included seeing the lab’s facilities where WADDL is testing samples for industry partners in the state and actively monitoring for outbreaks.
Finally, tour participants viewed a long-term soil health research plot in Puyallup, having already seen a notably different plot in Mount Vernon. In Puyallup, researcher Doug Collins is comparing results using several reduced till strategies to limit soil disruption. He is also using goats to feed on cover crops grown not for harvest but strictly to nurture the soil. Introducing animal agriculture to the use of cover crops could enhance profitability for growers while plots of land are being held back from growing crops to be sold.
