Washington Grain Commisson creating Endowed Chair in Weed Science at WSU

Washington Ag Today January 17, 2010 The Washington Grain Commission is moving ahead on another endowed chair at Washington State University. Commissioner Hal Johnson’s motion to use 1.5 million dollars in commission funds to create an endowed chair in weed science was approved at the group’s meeting last week.

Johnson: “Weeds are an ever present menace and we need struggle now with resistance problems and we just need some scientists on board, a chair there that will dedicate himself to helping the wheat growers in the state of Washington deal with the new weeds and of course the old perennial favorites goat grass and cheat grass and see if we can‘t keep at least one step ahead of them.”

The chair in weed science would not be in addition to the position Joe Yenish held, which WSU was going to fill, but a replacement for it.

Johnson: “What we felt was that we wanted to supplement that position a little bit and indicate that we feel this is a very important thing to have at staff at WSU.”

The job description to replace Yenish was expected to include less Extension work, something the Grain Commission did not want to see. By providing WSU with 1.5 million dollars for an endowed chair the commission is in a position to negotiate on that issue. All the details of the new endowed chair must still be worked out with Washington State University.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.