About the Center
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Our Mission | Partnerships | R & E at OSU. | Our Location
The North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) combines the research and Extension or outreach activities of Oregon State University to serve the needs of the region’s agricultural industries. NWREC researchers and Extension faculty focus their work and programming on our most important local agricultural commodities including: nurseries, berries, fresh market vegetables and seed production, and Christmas trees. In addition, two special programs at NWREC cut across these four commodity areas—small farms and specialty crop registrations.
Oregon produces more than 130 commercially important farm commodities, of which 90 are estimated to generate $1 million in gross sales receipts. Because of Oregon’s varied soils and a climate ranging from rain forest to high desert, agricultural scientists face a variety of challenges throughout the state. The location of the 13 university experiment stations and research centers provides a unique opportunity to implement current research designed to solve local problems.
Agriculture is Oregon’s leading industry. The largest segment of the agricultural industry is the nursery sector—predominantly located in the North Willamette Valley. About one-third of Oregon’s total $4.8 billion farm gate value income comes from farm operations within a 40-mile radius of NWREC. Most of the state’s food processors are also located within the radius.History
The Center was made possible by a $50,000 appropriation by the 1957 Legislature and became a reality when Clackamas County leased 52 acres of fertile Willamette Valley farmland to the University. In 1965, the county purchased an adjacent 107 acres. In 1987, the legislature provided $310,000 for additional office and laboratory space. OSU Extension Service district horticulture agents were transferred to the Center, allowing them to work alongside their research counterparts and considerably expanding service to the agricultural community.
Facilities
The Center's main building includes laboratories, offices, and group meeting rooms for both faculty and agricultural organizations. Each office contains a computer networked both in-house and directly to campus servers. Staff can access E-mail, the Internet, library catalogs, and CD-ROM databases without leaving their desks. An ornamental display garden and a wide assortment of trees and shrubs greet visitors as they approach the parking area. Greenhouses, containerized nursery areas, equipment storage buildings, a farmhouse and three barns, and numerous experimental plantings of berries, grapes, vegetables, and nursery crops complete the Center's resources.
Administration
Mike Bondi was appointed the Interim Director for the North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) on January 1, 2011. Bondi is serving in this role until OSU determines it statewide reorganization plan that will consolidate the administration of its county Extension offices and several of the agricultural experiment stations around the state.
Bondi has been an Extension Forestry Agent in Oregon since 1978. His education program has served family woodland owners, professional foresters, loggers and Christmas Tree growers in Clackamas County for the past 26 years. Bondi is well-known as the creator of the Clackamas Tree School—a one-day landowner education program that has been bringing together 500-600 participants each year for more than 20 years. Also, Bondi formed the non-profit corporation, Forests Forever, Inc., that owns and manages the Hopkins Demonstration Forest, a 140-acre tree farm, near Beavercreek. This all-volunteer organization engages thousands of people each year in forest-based education and recreational activities.
Bondi has been the Staff Chair administrator for all OSU Extension programs in Clackamas County since 1999. The County Extension office is located in Oregon City. During 2007 and 2008 Bondi led an effort to form the Clackamas County Extension and 4-H Service District that voters approved in November 2008. The District provides a permanent and secure budget source for the Extension Service each year in the county.
During the Interim Director assignment, Bondi devotes 40% of his time to administration at the Extension office, 40% on administration at NWREC, and 20% to manage his forestry and Christmas tree programs.
Our Mission
Our mission is to conduct horticultural crops research and to extend new knowledge to the horticultural industries and communities, particularly in the Willamette Valley. The location, just 20 miles south of Portland, provides growers with convenient access to research findings and Extension Service educational programs. Research is aimed at producing better quality crops at lower costs, and with reduced environmental impact. Often the quality or form of a product must be changed to meet the demands of domestic or foreign customers. Growers must change varieties and learn to grow what the market demands. Agriculture is Oregon's leading industry. Farming and its support industries account for 11% of the employment in the Portland metropolitan area. We seek to keep agriculture healthy and growing. Because of the highly competitive nature of farming, other regions will try to gain a larger share of the Oregon market. This means we must continue to test and adapt new crops and production systems to keep Oregon competitive.
Partnerships
Faculty at the Center work closely with advisory boards and grower organizations to identify production and management needs in the industry. We often conduct cooperative projects with scientists from the OSU campus, other Centers, and other universities. OSU graduate students conduct research at the Center. Growers in the North Willamette area contribute materials and allow use of their land and facilities for specialized studies. Among those contributing to programs at the Center are the Oregon Strawberry Commission, Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission, Oregon Blueberry Commission, Oregon Processed Vegetable Commission, Oregon Association of Nurserymen, and the Oregon Fresh Market Growers Association. The counties of Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Polk, Washington, Multnomah, and Columbia contribute funding to our extension programs. Clackamas County provides the land.
Research and Extension in the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences
The Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station was organized July 1, 1888 and housed at Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis. AES now consists of campus-based facilities as well as 10 branches in all the major climatic and cropping regions of the state. More than 400 scientists conduct AES-sponsored research in the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, Home Economics and Education, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine. AES conducts research and provides demonstrations in the agricultural, biological, social, and environmental sciences that contribute to the economic, environmental, and social health of Oregonians. It works with citizens to:
- ensure stable, productive agriculture through wise use of natural resources;
- protect crops and domestic animals from insects, diseases, and other hazards;
- improve efficiency of agricultural production;
- develop new agricultural products and processes, protect consumers, and enhance quality of Oregon's food products;
- promote community development, both urban and rural;
- protect and improve the environment and quality of living;
- assist developing countries to promote trade and alleviate world hunger.
The Extension Service is the primary outreach and extended education arm of the University. Extension agents are located in all of Oregon's 36 counties, on campus, and in Research and Extension Centers across the state.
Our Location
Visitors are welcome at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center. To find NWREC from I-5 southbound, take Exit 282B (Charbonneau District). I-5 northbound travelers should take Exit 282 (Canby). NWREC is located 1 mile east of I-5, along the right (south side) of Miley Road. See the map picture for the location of NWREC relative to I-5, Aurora, and Wilsonville.