Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Provide information with a focus on the decisions made. As an alternative, provide an attachment of your meeting minutes. The inaugural meeting of WERA 1016 "Adaptation, Quality and Management of Sustainable Cellulosic Biofuel Crops in the West" was conducted from June 20-22, 2011 and was hosted by Steve Fransen and Hal Collins at WSU-Prosser in Prosser, WA. In addition to research reports and discussions, we toured various bioenergy labs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA and viewed various bioenergy crops growing in small and field test plots at Columbia Basin College in Pasco and at the WSU-Prosser station. Bioenergy and biofuel discussions were scheduled the day before and after the all-day field tour. A complete agenda of the meeting is provided as appendix A. A complete listing of WERA 1016 members and participants of the June, 2011 meeting is provided. Nearly all members of WERA 1016 were able to attend, which produced a great deal of discussion and understanding of the current state of affairs in biofuel research and Extension programming in the west. This also provided opportunities to collaboratively develop small and large teams within the region for competitive national grants. Ralph Cavalieri presented the update from the Western Directors and what he sees as the future for many issues facing our group and the budget crisis that will surely impact future grant programs. The tour was the highlight for every participant. We started the tour with our member Tim Woodward at CBC at Pasco where he is developing switchgrass for the irrigated western region and non-lodging alfalfa also for biofuel. Next stop was at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. Our member Dan Howe arranged for the group to tour the various labs starting with development and testing of catylists through conversion of biomass in a large-scale gasifier. We ended the tour back at Prosser where members Steve Fransen and Hal Collins showed a 10 acre irrigated switchgrass study to measure WUE of switchgrass to corn and sweet sorghum. This was followed by small plots dating back to 2002, the first switchgrass plots grown at Prosser. A BBQ that evening allowed members to visit and reflect on the enormous task at hand when introducing new approaches from old and new crops for biofuel and biomass. The meeting ended after the third morning of meetings and discussion. New officers elected for the next years are: Chair - Marisol Berti; Vice-Chair - Glenn Shewmaker; Secretary - Steve Sparrow. It was agreed that Steve Fransen will continue to work with the new committee and assist in coordination of WERA 1016 efforts to develop collaborative grants. The next meeting will be hosted by Dr. Berti in North Dakota in 2012. Meeting ended about noon on June 22, 2011. Agenda for this meeting appears in the attachment for Meeting Minutes following.

Two accomplishments can be highlighted in this report. First, this meeting provided an opportunity for members to share their interests in modern dryland or irrigated biofuel crops grown in the western region. This will lead to greater cooperation in research and Extension projects and grants in the future. Secondly, members of this WERA group have submitted a USDA Foundational grant to promote a Western Region Biofuel Conference that is scheduled for late March, 2012 in Reno, NV. This is the first of other grants focusing on oil seed and cellulosic biofuel grants aimed at production and conversion to assist in meeting the national RFS2 biofuel goals.

None to report.