Wildfires & Winegrapes

Increasing wildfires, increasing smoke damage to winegrapes. There’s the problem, but what is the answer? To help us get there, the West Coast Smoke Exposure Task Force has now launched a new website designed to help growers, winemakers, and vintners with the latest research on the impacts of wildfire smoke.

Vicky Scharlau, former Executive Director of the Washington Wine Industry Foundation, says it’s a West Coast team effort…

“ARS, the Agricultural Research Service, and the university researchers from WSU, OSU, and the University of California at Davis have all worked together with the industry to identify what we know, what don’t we know, what we need to know, and what are those critical, mitigating components that we need to be able to know more about so that we can help growers, but also vintners that are impacted by smoke.”

Right now a big part is getting the word out, like we’re doing here…

“Then, of course, we’ve got a link to research, the USDA-ARS research, and what they’re doing, the vineyards risk management research, sensory research, and then winery mitigation research.”

Head to www.wcsetf.org to check the site out yourself! And a big thank you to Ag Information Network team member Bob Larson for sharing that interview.