The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission (WTFRC) is comprised of a board of commissioners. When considering funding, the Board consults with industry experts from the 4 major advisory committees: Apple Horticulture and Postharvest (AHP), Apple Crop Protection (ACP), Cherry and Stonefruit, and Technology. In addition, the WTFRC staff works closely with the Pear Research Subcommittee (PRSC), a subcommittee to the Processed Pear and Fresh Pear Committees, to oversee PRSC funding administrative tasks.

Advisory committees are established with dedicated volunteers comprised of interested growers, packers, fieldpersons, R&D managers and technical consultants.  To ensure that industry concerns are covered in the widest possible manner, WTFRC personnel assist by helping to select committee membership covering the entire geographical region, various operation sizes, conventional and organic production, multilingual industry members, new growers, seasoned industry professionals, etc.

Each year, the WTFRC holds a Research Review for Cherry and Stonefruit, Technology, Apple Crop Protection, Apple Horticulture and Postharvest, and Pear (under guidance of the Pear Marketing Order) where researchers give status updates of their funded projects. Prior to the Research Reviews, advisory committees for each category meet and set priorities for new research projects they would like to see that year. Once the priorities are set, interested scientists submit preproposals to address the priorities. The advisory committees will then review and vote on the preproposals and recommend to the WTFRC board which projects they would like to see submitted as full proposals. After receiving and reviewing the full proposals, typically immediately following each Research Review, the advisory committees  meet again to discuss and rank the new proposals and to give feedback to scientists working on currently funded projects.  The WTFRC board uses the committee’s recommendations to determine continuing and new project funding.

For pear proposals and projects, the Fresh Pear (FPC) and Processed Pear (PPC) Committees work together, and carefully consider input from the PRSC, to determine funding.

In addition, committee members serve as subject matter experts to scientists and are encouraged to actively participate in ongoing research projects by offering orchard locations, providing feedback on study design, allowing access to packing facilities etc.

Advisory committees are reviewed each summer. If you are interested to volunteer on an advisory committee, contact Paige Beuhler (PaigeB@treefruitresearch.com).

To view the current members of each committee, click on the drop-down menus below.