Integrating research and outreach education from UMass Amherst
Hilary Sandler, extension professor, and director of UMass Cranberry Station, explains challenges to cranberry growers during climate change while interviewed on a national TV news segment. Warmer weather and record rainfall caused by climate change are making the berries grow more slowly.
Hillary Sandler, extension professor and director of the UMass Cranberry Station, is quoted in a story examining the ways that growers are trying to make cranberries more resilient to climate change.
A $7.75 million project to expand and modernize the UMass Amherst Cranberry Station, an important research facility for the commonwealth’s cranberry industry, was celebrated Oct. 22 with a construction celebration event at the station in East Wareham, Mass.
In a video segment about the cranberry industry in Massachusetts, Hilary Sandler director of the UMass Cranberry Station, shows how the station conducts research on fertilizers, pest management, weed control and other areas that help growers. (WCVB [Boston], 1/4/21; News Office assistance)
Christine Hatch, geosciences, writes about her work restoring a wetland in Plymouth. (Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/28/20)
Christine Hatch, geosciences, writes about her work restoring a wetland in Plymouth. (Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/28/20)
Katherine Ghantous and Peter Jeranyama from UMass Amherst Cranberry Station are interviewed. Ghantous says because winters are becoming less cold, a time is approaching when the cold temperatures needed each winter to successfully grow cranberries “may be hard to hit.” (National Geographic, 11/25/20)
Katherine Ghantous, a research associate at the UMass Amherst Cranberry Station, is quoted in an article exploring the effects climate change is having on the Massachusetts cranberry crop. She says, "It’s more than just the money or the fruit. It’s part of who Massachusetts is.” (The Washington Post, 11/18/20)
This year, the work at UMass Cranberry Station got a huge boost in the form of $5.75 million in state support to expand their labs at and modernize the facility. “It’s really momentous. It’s going to be a game-changer for us and for the industry,” said Director of the Cranberry Station Hilary Sandler. (Wareham Weekly 9/30/20)
UMass Cranberry Station Director Hilary Sandler comments on recent state funds dedicated to modernize facilities that will help with the growing need for research and support for cranberry growers. (CapeCodTimes 8/27/20)
The state of Massachusetts has granted $5.75 million to the UMass Cranberry Station in Wareham in an effort to promote the cranberry industry. (CapeCod.com, 8/27/20; News Office release)
Plummeting cranberry prices and the country's ongoing trade wars have America's cranberry industry eyeing a possible new savior: solar power. Some cranberry farmers in Massachusetts are proposing to build solar panels above the bogs they harvest each fall.
Cranberry farmers buried under a glut of the tart fruit are seeking permission for a radical way to dig themselves out: destroying millions of pounds of their crops. "Overproduction is the bane and has been for cranberries in the last few years, and consequently we’re not getting much money for our crops,” said Jack Angley, owner of Flax Pond Farms in Carver, and Chair of Board of Public Overseers [BOPO] for UMass Extension.