North Willamette Research and Extension Center

Serving Northwest Oregon

The North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) serves growers in the North Willamette Valley area with research and educational programs that focus on the region's most important crop systems.

We serve farmers in the seven county north valley area and focus our research and education on the region's most important crop systems: nurseries and greenhouses, fresh vegetables and specialty seed crops, berries and small fruit, Christmas trees, Orchard Crops, Field Crops, and Small Farms. In addition, NWREC is the location for the state's only IR-4 Pesticide Registration program working with many of the state’s agricultural crops throughout Oregon.

NWREC location marked on an Oregon map

Oregon’s Most Diverse Agricultural Region

Nearly 40% of the $5.7 billion farmgate value of Oregon Agriculture is produced within a 50 mile radius of NWREC.

NWREC combines the research and outreach activities of Oregon State University to serve the needs of the region’s agricultural industries. NWREC researchers and Extension faculty focus their work and programming on our most important local agricultural crops including: greenhouses and nurseries, hazelnuts, berries, vegetables and specialty seed production, Christmas trees, orchard crops, and field and grass crops. In addition, four other programs cut across these crop systems—small farms production, organic production, pesticide research, and agrivoltaics.

NWREC’s unique geographic location and proximity to Portland makes it a critical interface between rural and urban communities.

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Our Mission

Our mission is to conduct horticultural crops research and to extend new knowledge to the horticultural industries and communities, particularly in the Willamette Valley. The location, just 20 miles south of Portland, provides growers with convenient access to research findings and Extension Service educational programs.

Research is aimed at producing better quality crops at lower costs, and with reduced environmental impact. Often the quality or form of a product must be changed to meet the demands of domestic or foreign customers. Growers must change varieties and learn to grow what the market demands.

Agriculture is Oregon's leading industry. Farming and its support industries account for 11% of the employment in the Portland metropolitan area. We seek to keep agriculture healthy and growing. Because of the highly competitive nature of farming, other regions will try to gain a larger share of the Oregon market. This means we must continue to test and adapt new crops and production systems to keep Oregon competitive.

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