Innovation
and Implementation
Harry Carlson looks back at
years of problem solving
By JILL AHO
H&N Staff Writer
April 12, 2009
 |
|
H&N photo by Jill Aho Harry
Carlson is retiring as
director of the University
of California Intermountain
Research and Extension
Center after 25 years.
|
Harry Carlson is moving
stuff out of his office as someone else
is moving in.
Carlson, 60, has been the
director of the University of California
Intermountain Research and Extension
Center in Tulelake for 25 of his 33-year
career at the University of California.
During his time, he has
helped oversee innovation and
implementation of several agricultural
improvements, and participated in
research that affects how farmers in the
Basin do their jobs. Although young for
a retiree, Carlson said he seems to have
less free time now than he did while
working.
“I tell all my friends,
‘Farm advisers are like cars, they’re
judged by the mileage, not the model
year,’ ” he said.
The extension service
works to facilitate a two-way
information flow between producers and
researchers. Carlson helped both
introduce new technologies to farmers
and direct research to solve problems in
the field.
“Most of the real
innovations have come in direct response
to new problems and commodities,”
Carlson said.
Solving problems
The extension office and
the other eight like it have worked to
solve pest- and disease-related
problems, such as the Columbia root knot
nematode, which threatened the potato
industry.
The extension center also
was instrumental in introducing
producers to sugar beet cultivation,
although Carlson said with the loss of
sugar refineries in California, that
commodity isn’t as profitable as it once
was. Additionally, water issues, which
plague Basin farmers, have been a focus
of research at the extension.
“That’s been steady
progress,” Carlson said. “Even as early
as 1992, the university became rapidly
engaged in the scientific debate over
water use.”
Carlson recalled how the
research at the extension office changed
overnight to focus on developing
scientific data about water use in
agriculture. He hopes water use issues
will be sufficiently resolved in the
next 10 years.
“I think that’s an
example of how quickly cooperative
extensions can be responsive to new
issues,” he said.
Carlson said right now
much research is focused on developing
new crop varieties that will keep Basin
farmers competitive in the marketplace.
The extension center is making strides
in white rot in onions, he said, and he
anticipates having a solution to the
problem that decimates infected fields
within five years.
“It’s the most serious
onion disease in the world,” he said.
Looking to the future,
Carlson said he believes biotechnology
will play a larger part in development
of new crop varieties. He also thinks
that public education and scientific
research into genetically-modified
products will help bring about a better
understanding of what these sort
innovations will mean for the future of
food production.
“Typically, technology
and breakthroughs will be driven by the
marketplace,” he said. “Currently, there
is a movement by knowledgeable consumers
that appreciate having locally grown
foods.”
That could drive local
producers to diversify to satisfy
customer demand, he said.
Plans for the
future
Carlson and his wife plan
to continue living in the Tulelake area,
and he has gotten tremendous
satisfaction from working outdoors and
seeing tangible results from his
research.
“I moved to Tulelake
because I believed it was the job in the
University of California,” he said. “I
still believe that today.”
Side Bar
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