LONG BEACH, Wash. – Cranberries are everywhere. From juice, to dehydrated “craisins,” to the table at Christmas, the red berry has become a traditional part of American life. Helping maintain that tradition is part of research at Washington State University’s Research and Extension Unit in Long Beach where, about 1½ miles from the Pacific Ocean, 10 acres of cranberry bogs sit in recessed plots of fertile ground.
Leading the charge to study everything from variety development to pest management is WSU Extension Professor Kim Patten. He’s been at the site for more than 20 years and believes the research unit is key to the survival of the industry.
“We’re a critical component to making sure that they stay vital and sustainable for the next century. (Cranberries have) been farmed here for over a hundred years and we want to keep them going,” said Patten. Sustainability, as Patten describes, is about figuring out which varieties of cranberries are best for the West Coast and how to increase yields, both of which are factors in staying competitive. But there’s another aspect: the workers and making a living.
“The industry is also a very old industry,” he said. “The average grower age is 65 or so. Keeping new generations of young farmers in there is important; in order to do that, you have to make it profitable and sustainable.”
Patten’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Robert Whannell has been farming cranberries in the area for decades. He believes the research conducted on weeds that can infiltrate the cranberry bogs has been critical to success. “The registration of new herbicides and pesticides that Dr. Patten has been workingon has been a real benefit to the industry,” Whannell said. “Not only here, but down in southern Oregon and as far north as British Columbia.”
Patten remains optimistic that, as time goes by, new ways of controlling pests will continue to be developed at the research and extension center.
“Doing research on cranberries is like a puzzle,” he said. “You’re trying to solve this complicated problem of how to get more from what you’re doing, how to make the farmers more productive, how to farm more sustainably. I think it’s a great challenge. It’s very enjoyable.”
To learn more about cranberry research at the Washington State University Long Beach Research and Extension Unit, click here
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Contact: Kim Patten, Extension Professor, 360-642-2031, pattenk@wsu.edu