Letter from the Director

We are pleased to bring you the 2002 Annual Report of the Washington State University Agricultural Research Center (ARC). This report highlights research activities conducted by the faculty, staff and students affiliated with the Agricultural Research Center. Projects described in this document were funded in part by federal funds made available to the Agricultural Research Center under Land Grant legislation: the Hatch Act of 1887, McIntire-Stennis Funds (1962) and Animal Health Funds. In this document, we detail the breadth and depth of the projects of the ARC and list the peer-reviewed publications resulting from the work of faculty and staff. Also included in the 2002 Annual Report are plant variety releases, patents, updates on USDA Special Grants, and a summary of financial data associated with the ARC.

Scholarly accomplishments of the ARC faculty and staff impact the lives and work of the
citizens of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, and the nation. Many of the projects incorporate aspects of both basic and applied research and integrated research and extension and are
directed toward state and national goals. Our portfolio includes projects as diverse as
studies of wildlife populations, the effect of forest fires on communities, elucidation
of metabolic pathways in pine trees, potatoes resistant to late blight, culture of wine grapes,
improving human nutrition, wheat breeding and the growth of beef cattle.

The year 2002 was challenging. We have again experienced downsizing and restructuring
in the ARC and within the university. As a result, the ARC continues to focus even more sharply
on goals expressed in our strategic plan and on the historic focus of the ARC, the food system.
In the face of reduced state support, faculty members have once again captured increased
levels of external grant support. ARC faculty members continue to be successful in the national competitive granting programs including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes
of Health, the Department of Defense, the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants
Program, and other federal programs. Our initiatives to Congress have also yielded several new Special Grants including one on organic and sustainable agriculture and one on the development
of perennial wheat. Commodity commissions continue to be generous in their support of our programs.

We look forward to increasing efforts in plant and animal biotechnology, value-added agriculture,
safe food, viticulture and enology, organic agriculture and agricultural biosecurity.