priority areas of science. This includes the cherry program.” Grace explained. Greg Norton, president of the Okanagan Kootenay Cherry Growers’ Association, said, “Frank should be replaced. Cheryl is very well qualified, but the program is still down one full- time position. Fruit breeding scientists need lots of on-the-job training. You can’t just hire one straight out of school.”
Retirement of research scientists who are not being replaced at PARC and other federal research centres worries many types of producers. “It’s not just the cherry growers who are concerned about vacancies. So are producers of many other commodities right across the country,” Norton said. At this year’s annual meeting of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association, David Geen, retired physician and vice- president of the cherry growers’ association, expressed concern about the gradual erosion of PARC programs.
According to Geen, only about one- quarter of the researchers who have retired in the past three or four years have been replaced, and more are due to retire within the next few years. Geen also mentioned the impact of Sholberg not being replaced and the importance of his contributions to the control of powdery mildew.
“These attritions do not bode well for long-term success of the cherry industry,” said Geen, who encourages the industry and PARC to cooperate on ways to accomplish the most practical work.
In an attempt to draw attention of federal politicians to the deleterious impact of the current policy, representatives of the cherry growers’ association met with Alex Atamanenko, MP for BC Southern Interior, and Stockwell Day, MP Okanagan Coquihalla.
They plan to meet with federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz. Last December a group of fruit growers discussed the situation with Grace.
“All of our research programs at the centre are constantly changing,” Grace said. “Funding levels change, personnel change and we have to be adaptive. Unfortunately, we can’t go out and immediately replace scientist of the calibre of Drs. Kappel and Sholberg, but we are beginning a process of renewal.”
Part of that renewal involves recognition of the need to ensure
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continuity of knowledge and changes in technical staff prompted by upcoming retirements.
“Richard MacDonald is an incredible
repository of knowledge on cherry germplasm and history of the program,” Hampson said, referring to the senior technician whose tenure at PARC predates Kappel’s leadership of the cherry program. For years MacDonald and Kappel have walked the rows of hundreds of new seedlings each morning, selecting the most promising dozen to be planted under varying conditions in growers’ orchards.
Richard MacDonald
In 2009 Kappel and MacDonald were part of a team from PARC and PICO to receive a Federal Partners in Technology Transfer award for excellence.
The award recognizes the successful transfer of technology from a Canadian federal research organization leading to significant public good or economic impact.
The development of late-ripening varieties is widely acknowledged as having resurrected the province’s cherry industry.
Recently Chris Pagliocchini was hired as MacDonald’s eventual replacement.
It’s anticipated several years will be needed before Pagliocchini will be capable of taking over.
Chris Pagliocchini
Pagliocchini, who continues to help on the family’s Summerland orchard, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from UBCO in 2009.
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