CAHNRS Quarterly Reach Report – Winter 2025

Filling knowledge gaps in soil health, a team led by Deidre Griffin LaHue in the Department of Crops and Soil Sciences has sampled more than 1200 sites across Washington as of fall 2024, generated soil health reports for 300 farms, developed open-access software, and helped inform a new state incentive program. Increased adoption of soil-health practices can benefit rural communities and natural resources. Applications of biosolids from waste, for example, can reduce fertilizer costs by more than $13 per acre and increase yields by as much as $46 per acre.

Two recently completed research projects led by Lisa Shipley, professor in WSU’s School of the Environment, support efforts to conserve native wildlife in eastern and central Washington. Shipley’s team examined how native mammals and birds make use of vegetation on Conservation Reserve Program lands, agricultural land, and native shrub steppe in eastern Washington. This work highlighted the effectiveness of CRP in wildlife conservation and provide support for its continuation and expansion and can help guide prioritization of new CRP enrollments for benefit to wildlife.

Growers of spinach crops face increasing difficulty in managing destructive fungal diseases like Stemphylium leaf spot. Lindsey du Toit’s WSU Vegetable Seed Pathology (VSP) Program found that nearly all the Stemphylium leaf spot fungi attacking spinach in the southern U.S. are resistant to the main class of fungicides that growers were using. Scientists also identified spinach varieties with excellent resistance to the disease. The team’s work spurred grower practice changes that have reduced losses dramatically and allowed farmers to remain in the spinach business: 85% of growers surveyed in Texas in 2024 reported loss reductions ranging from 20 to 60%.

The Pacific Northwest is a national leader in production of red raspberries for the processed market. Wendy Hoashi-Erhardt’s Small Fruit Plant Breeding Program is developing new berry varieties with superior qualities: recent work led to gains for root rot tolerance, fruit quality, and machine harvestability. WSU is releasing three new raspberry cultivars for emerging horticultural, environmental, and economic challenges. The program also leads efforts to find the genetic basis of nematode resistance, as well as useful traits like fruit quality and yield.

Washington is the number-four most at-risk state for exotic pest introductions; early detection is paramount for reducing impacts and costs of invasive species. Faculty at WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center developed tools and delivered training in 2024 that support and expand invasive species detection and awareness. Center members helped develop an Emerald Ash Borer Emergency preparedness plan for use by counties and cities and co-created monitoring tools for a new turf pest, the European chafer. Faculty also developed and shared documentation and phenology on a newly introduced European Fire Ant and detailed the range expansion due to environmental resilience & adaptation of the California Fivespined bark beetle in Western Washington. Thanks to our work, first detectors show a knowledge gain in diagnosing new invasive species, as well as new awareness for invasive species tools, policy, and reporting. Five cities have adopted the invasive species playbook and three tribes have engaged in preparedness training.

Lack of affordable, high-speed broadband access in underserved communities limits our safety, education, and economic opportunities. Created in 2016 and with continuous support by WSU Stevens County Extension faculty, the Stevens County/Spokane Tribe Broadband Action Team (BAT) works to increase access, adoption, and awareness. In 2024, an original Stevens County BAT member organization received a $12 million grant from the Washington State Broadband Office to construct open access fiber infrastructure for high-speed internet to approximately 1,000 homes, 17 businesses, 50 farms, one food bank, and two fire district stations. These remote areas were unreachable at adequate Internet speed without middle-mile fiber. The BAT model was adopted by the Washington State Broadband Office as a community engagement best practice to solve local issues.