Dr. Jay Brunner picks up a clear plastic bag of fruit tree leaves infested with leafroller caterpillars. The leaves were brought in by growers, samples of leafrollers from their orchards.
Brunner smiles as he explains how they will be tested for resistance in order to find the correct control strategy. He obviously enjoys the work, saying normally a graduate student would do it, but he likes to be involved, too.
Brunner is Director and Professor at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee. He has been selected as the Apple Citizen of the Year for the 2015 Apple Blossom Festival.
“It was a great surprise and a great honor,” he says of being selected. He adds that when you look at who has been chosen in the past, “it’s an honor to be included in a group of people like that.”
• Read the full story published by the Basin Business Journal.
• Learn more about the work done at WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center at http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu.