FILE- In this April 27, 2005, file photo, Joe Parsons, chef at Columbia Empire Farms in Sherwood, Ore., holds out hazelnuts at the farm.
Rick Bowmer / AP
Ecologists at the University of Oregon have been awarded a grant to test what they hope is a win for conservation and a win for hazelnut farmers.
The $2 million federal grant allows the UO team to expand their research into improving soil health and climate resilience in hazelnut groves by planting native wildflowers with added crushed basalt under the trees. The funding is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Grants Program, through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Environmental Studies Professor Lauren Hallett said five years of refining the seed mix has shown the method may be more effective than traditional, bare dirt orchards.
“The ice storm and the heat dome were both really, really challenging and .... I was impressed to see the cover crops coming through just fine,” said Hallett. ”Having plants on the ground helps to mitigate some of that effect by keeping the ground cooler.”
Hallett said there’s promise that the practice will better equip farmers as the climate warms. A blanket of native flowers can increase water retention and help retain the microbiome in the soil.
Happily, she said, the roots of the plants also prevent nuts from getting plugged into wet, winter soil, which can be a problem for bare-dirt hazelnut farms.
Hallett said over the next five years, her team will run experiments on 20 Willamette Valley farms with various soil types, to optimize the practice for a range of locations.
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