Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

July-August 2004 • Vol. 30, No. 4

SWREC assesses windstorm damage

HOPE ---The original headquarters building of the Fruit and Truck Branch Station here, built in 1928, is serving as temporary headquarters for the University of Arkansas’ Southwest Research and Extension Center (SWREC) while repairs are being made following damage from a windstorm that swept through a five-county area on June 2.

Damage at Southwest Research and Extension Center at Hope caused by winds of 80 to 100 miles per hour on June 2 included structural damage to the headquarters building, a greenhouse, two barns, a pickup and several outbuildings. About 35 large oaks were lost along with pine trees in a research project planted in the 1940s.

Dr. Mike Phillips, SWREC director, said the headquarters building will be out of service until late August at the earliest. Two large oak trees crashed into the structure during the storm.

The Center was without telephone service for two weeks after the storm, and it now has only three lines: the main number, (870) 777-9702; the Nematology Lab, 777-3765; and a fax line, 777-0963, which also is being used for an Internet modem connection.

Staff members are also using cell phones, with numbers provided upon request from the main office, and home computers.

“We will fully restore the Center’s facilities and operations as soon as possible,” said Dr. Greg Weidemann, associate vice president for research with the U of A Division of Agriculture. “The SWREC faculty and staff are doing a great job, under difficult circumstances, of carrying on with research projects and providing extension services to the people of Southwest Arkansas,” Weidemann said.

Research and extension programs at the Center include beef cattle and forage management, row crops, horticultural crops and forestry.

No injuries occurred at SWREC, but straight-line winds of 80 to 100 miles per hour caused extensive damage, including:

• 30 to 35 large oaks uprooted or severely damaged on the main campus around the headquarters
• about 28 acres of pine tree trunks snapped or blown down in a research tract planted in the 1940s,
• a number of peach and nectarine trees blown down in a research orchard,
• a pickup truck smashed by one of the oaks that hit the headquarters building,
• roofs blown off two hay barns,
• one greenhouse blown down and the roof blown off another greenhouse,
• a vacant wood frame house used for storage and two smaller outbuildings blown down, and
• fences damaged by trees and limbs.

The Fruit and Truck Branch Station was one of the first three branches of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station established by the University of Arkansas in 1925. The Hope unit was renamed the Southwest Branch Station in 1960 and became the Southwest Research and Extension Center in 1982.

Each of the original branch stations included a red brick headquarters building. The original headquarters building at Hope was converted to laboratory space when the current SWREC headquarters building was completed in 1982, and it is now serving as a temporary headquarters during the repair of storm damage.

Phillips said all research programs and extension services are back in operation.

The statewide Nematode Diagnostic Service based at SWREC was impacted by the loss of phone service for two weeks for electronic delivery of results to clients. The service, directed by Dr. Terry Kirkpatrick, provides a diagnosis of the type and severity of nematode infestation in soil and plant samples submitted by farmers, plant nurseries and others.

Research projects most severely impacted were peach and nectarine studies and a long-term pine management study that was planted in the 1940s, Phillips said.

Trees remaining in the research orchard will provide sufficient data to evaluate breeding lines being tested as potential new peach and nectarine varieties, Phillips said.

Most of the pine plantation study was not damaged and will continue to provide valuable data for long-term comparison of different management systems. The pines are on the north side of the property, which was hardest hit by the wind storm. The downed pine trees are being salvaged for saw logs, which will help offset repair and restoration costs not covered by insurance.

The oak trees uprooted in the main campus area were planted in the 1920s and 1930s. Ornamental plants currently growing in research and extension projects will provide material for a new landscape design for that area, Phillips said.