Apr 4, 2017

Castagnoli named Mid-Columbia Ag Research Center director

Steve Castagnoli, horticulturist and expert in tree fruit production, is the new director of Oregon State University’s Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center (MCAREC) in Hood River.

Castagnoli, who joined Oregon State University in 1992, has been an Extension faculty member at MCAREC for almost 17 years, conducting outreach and applied research in pear horticulture and integrated pest management.

He has worked with pear, apple and wine grape growers in Hood River and Wasco counties in Oregon and Skamania and Klickitat counties in Washington. He’s also covered other farm crops in Hood River County.

MCAREC, which has operated for more than 80 years, is a combined facility of OSU Extension and Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. Its scientists conduct research and outreach programs that help fruit growers in north-central Oregon and south-central Washington operate profitably and sustainably.

Castagnoli will oversee 11 research and administrative employees and several temporary employees during the growing season, and will direct operations on the station’s 55-acre experimental farm south of Hood River.

Tree fruits, particularly pears and cherries, are a mainstay of the economy in the heavily agricultural mid-Columbia area. Hood River County’s harvest of pears, sweet cherries and apples brought in about $108 million in sales in 2012, according to estimates from Castagnoli and other Extension researchers, while in neighboring Wasco County, sweet cherries brought in an average $64 million between 2011 and 2015. About one-third of the region’s harvest is exported, Castagnoli said.

In his new role, Castagnoli intends to build on MCAREC’s long history of research that helps growers produce high-quality fruit, reduce pest damage, lower overhead costs and stay in business in a volatile global market.

Castagnoli said his first priority as director is to refill two of MCAREC’s currently vacant research positions (one for an entomologist; the other for a horticulturist) as budgets permit. “These research programs continue to be critical to the industry,” he said, “and I want to rebuild them so we can continue to address their needs.”

With a full research staff, he said, the center will be better able to tackle existing challenges and those on the horizon. Two key concerns of growers right now are developing integrated pest management strategies for emerging pests such as spotted-wing drosophila, and making orchards less labor-intensive.