Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
WSU Skagit Extension and Northwest REC outline staffing changes, new hires and plant‑growth facility plan
Loading...
Summary
At a quarterly update Oct. 6, WSU Skagit County Extension and the Northwest Research and Extension Center described staffing losses tied to SNAP‑Ed funding cuts, hiring plans, a suite of research projects and a multi‑phase plant growth facility project funded in part by local donors and county economic development funds.
WSU Skagit County Extension Director Don McMorin and Tatum Weed, acting director of WSU Northwest Research and Extension Center (NREC), briefed Skagit County commissioners Oct. 6 on programs, staffing and capital projects.
McMorin said the office has 20 staff but will lose four positions after the state and federal decision to discontinue a SNAP‑Ed supplemental grant. "They did decide to close out SnapEdge, which is a supplemental nutrition program... we're gonna be losing 4 staff," McMorin said, and added several staff had found other employment. He described a continuing programmatic focus on farm stress and suicide prevention and a local outreach program he called Pizza for Producers, a mobile pizza oven used as a prompt for conversations and peer support among farmers.
McMorin highlighted new and returning programs: a restored forestry program recognizing that "three quarters of the land mass in Skagit County is forestry," and a schedule of workshops (seed workshop, potato and berry workshops, a tractor safety course run evenings in May). He also described travel and outreach funded by a USDA Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance grant that places the local office as a regional resource covering multiple states and territories.
Tatum Weed said NREC is growing its research capacity. She announced two new faculty hires, including a horticultural weed scientist set to start Jan. 1, 2026, and summarized ongoing research across berry and potato pathology, entomology, small‑fruit horticulture, vegetable and cider apple horticulture, soil health and irrigation studies. Weed said NREC supports eight current faculty with two additional hires pending, about 160 acres of research land and a substantial graduate student cohort.
A major capital item is the NREC plant growth facility (Wylie Head House) project. Weed described a three‑part Phase 2 program: site work (Phase 2a), greenhouse installation (2b) and full system fit‑out and commissioning (Phase 2c). She said funding is in place through county economic development board support, private donations and WSU matching and that Phase 2a/2b work would be bid imminently with a target to complete those two phases by June 30, 2026 and finish full commissioning by June 2027.
Why it matters: Extension and NREC provide research, training and direct services that support regional agriculture, forest management and public health programs. The loss of SNAP‑Ed staff reduces local nutrition education capacity, while the plant growth facility and added faculty aim to expand applied research capacity for key crops.
Next steps: Extension will continue scheduled workshops and outreach; NREC will proceed to bid Phase 2 of the plant growth facility and onboard new faculty in 2026.
