May 9-11 Meeting Launches Climate Change Project
Monday, May 9 2011 to Wednesday, May 11
Location: Idaho Commons
Written by Bill Loftus
MOSCOW, Idaho – Scientists and farmers
from Idaho, Washington and Oregon will gather on the University of Idaho
campus May 9 to 12 for the official launch of the $20 million,
five-year project to study the effects of climate change on the region.
The
project, Regional Approaches to Climate Change in Pacific Northwest
Agriculture, is led by Sanford Eigenbrode, an entomologist in the
University of Idaho's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. It is
the largest competitive grant in the institution’s history.
Eigenbrode
will provide a public presentation and overview about the project
Monday at 3:30 p.m. followed by a reception and poster session at 4:30
p.m. in the University of Idaho Commons Clearwater and Whitewater rooms.
"Most
importantly, we want to share the vision for the project with the
academic and the civic community," Eigenbrode said. The meeting will
feature an exhibit displaying 57 posters showing research by project
scientists and others.
The poster session will focus on research that applies to climate variability and agriculture in the region.
Much
of the meeting will be focused on business aspects of the project,
ranging from communicating with different audiences to using new
research tools and methods.
The project team includes some 30
scientists from the University of Idaho, Washington State University,
Oregon State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
Research will focus on how climate change may affect wheat and barley
production, which generated $1.5 billion in sales in the three states in
2009.
"The meeting will provide background on two critical pieces of
cross-cutting technology that the project will rely on," Eigenbrode
said.
"One is the application of new GIS tools for climate research
and the other is an introduction to all of the economic frameworks that
we'll be using," he said. "These are two pieces that are so important
and integrated in the project we wanted to educate ourselves on those."
The
farmers attending serve on the project's stakeholder advisory
committee. "That component is critical for project execution and will
set the pattern for stakeholder interactions," Eigenbrode said.
Learn more about the grant and the research team online:
reacchpna.uidaho.edu/reacchpna.