June 2020 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER 9
NWREC
By MIKE BONDI
Busy spring season amid
health crisis
As days grew longer and the
warmer weather began to
take hold during April and
May, more and more agricultural
research and development
projects started to take shape at
OSU’s North Willamette Research
and Extension Center (NWREC), despite
being in the midst of the COV-
ID-19 global pandemic. Approximately
75 field, greenhouse and laboratory
research projects are now underway.
Some of these are ongoing,
multi-year projects; others are new
this year.
“It’s certainly been a crazy spring,”
said Mike Bondi, director at NWREC.
“We’ve never seen anything like what
we are all going through. But, we are
doing our best to keep our ongoing research
maintained and we are prioritizing
what to initiate this year.”
NWREC has 35 full-time research faculty
and program support staff. Due to
the COVID-19 crisis, NWREC has
been closed to the public since mid-
March. Also, the university has restricted
access to the center by their
faculty and staff. Everyone is supposed
to be working from home whenever
possible.
“Obviously, it’s not possible to do
much of our work from home — you
have to be here to get the ground prepared,
planting done, and field data
recorded,” Bondi said.
During the second half of March
and all of April, NWREC was allowing
about five to seven faculty and staff
per day to come to the center for their
projects. By May, that number has
grown to 10 to 15 on many days.
By June, an easing of restrictions
for faculty and staff coming to
NWREC each day are beginning to
loosen. Social distancing, extra sanitation
in public areas, and no congregating
are the current norms. Small
group meetings will be allowed in the
coming weeks, but all large public
events and gatherings have been canceled
for the summer — this includes
all field days for farmers and the annual
Community Open House held every
July.
“We just have to be prudent about
what we need to continue and what
we can skip this year in order to minimize
the risk to our faculty and staff
— and to our community,” Bondi said.
In May, NWREC released their latest
newsletter, Down on the Farm. Included
are nearly 20 stories about the
work happening at NWREC and in the
community supporting local farmers
during the COVID-19 crisis, and our
helping maintain the region’s agricultural
sector.
The newsletter is posted on
NWREC’s website at https://extension.oregonstate.edu/nwrec.
Business
� From Page 8
The program prioritized long-standing
businesses, those certified as Minority/Women
Business Enterprise
(M/WBE), Disadvantaged Business
Enterprise (DBE and ACDBE) or Service
Disabled Veteran (SDV), those
directly impacted by the governor’s
stay-at-home order and those that
have not received COVID-19 grant
funding from other sources.
“Completing a program of this
scale on a tight two-week timeline
Summer is here. Is the car ready?
was an incredible achievement by
our city to address a portion of the
dire, immediate need small businesses
are facing,” said Mayor Tim
Knapp. “We’ll continue to work as
partners with local businesses to aid
recovery efforts.”
A complete summary of the Small
Business COVID-19 Relief Grants
program, including eligibility criteria
and grant recipients, is available at
ci.Wilsonville.or.us/BusinessAssistance.
Community members can watch all
City Council meetings on cable (Comcast/Xfinity
Ch. 30, Frontier Ch. 32) or
on the city’s YouTube channel: ci.wilsonville.or.us/WilsonvilleTV.
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