NOW IT

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NOW ITS YOUR TURN . . . Write an Impact
Statement for Your Agriculture and Natural
Resources Program

• Linda J. Brewer
• Senior Faculty Research Assistant
• Department of Horticulture
• Oregon State University

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Impact Statements

• Justify the investment of public dollars.
• The consequences of what we do
• Follows evaluation data collection
• Environmental, social, economic
• Can be planned or unintended positive or
  negative
• Attribution vs. impact.

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Parts of an Impact Statement

• Part 1 Issue
• Part 2 Goal or mission statement
• Part 3 Outputs What you did
• Part 4 Outcomes What changed
• Part 5 Impact Interpretation of outcomes.

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The Issue First Sentence

• General Fact generally accepted
• Example Oregon produces 99 of US commercial
  hazelnuts, with farmgate sales at 60-75 million
  per year.

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The Issue Second Sentence

• Local fact - generally agreed upon about your
  state, region, or county.
• Example Pacific Northwest hazelnut acreage
  increased from 1905 until 1970 when Eastern
  Filbert Blight was discovered in the growing
  region. Since that time, acreage has declined
  commercial production outside the Willamette
  Valley is virtually non-existent.

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The Issue Third Sentence

• Focus of Concern for your program.
• Example Oregon has lost 1600 of about 30,000
  acres of hazelnuts to Eastern Filbert Blight in
  the past decade. More than 70 of Oregon
  orchards are infected, or are close to diseased
  orchards. Eastern Filbert Blight control costs
  about 310 per acre per year.

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Program Mission or Goal

• Statement of Goals The goal of this project is
  to develop disease-resistant hazelnuts adapted to
  production outside the Pacific Northwest.
• Write this first?
• Complete this sentence
• Our mission was to . . .
• My goal in creating this program was to . . .

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Outputs What You Did

• With the support of USDA NIFA SCRI funding, the
  Gasaway gene confers resistance to Eastern
  Filbert Blight it is now fully mapped and
  characterized. Fully resistant selections from
  the breeding program are crossed with susceptible
  cultivars to improve desirable characteristics.

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What You Did Specific Outputs

• EFB resistant Jefferson, a cultivar valued for
  its large nuts, is being readily adopted by
  growers.
• Output
• Outcome

Partnership, an
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Statement of Impact

• This work has saved a specialty crop industry in
  the United States.
• Hazelnuts provide an alternative enterprise to
  the Willamette Valleys grass seed growers, who
  continue to suffer from stagnant housing markets
  since 2008.
• In a fully established orchard, Eastern Filbert
  Blight resistant trees return 1,940 per acre
  over cash costs to the grower, as compared to
  -3,014 for susceptible trees, a cash flow
  difference of 4,954 per acre.
• http//www.capitalpress.com/content/js-Filbert-gra
  ss-w-art-ONV-Fixed

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Check Your Work

• Review the Top Tips Handout
• Glossary
• CRIS Database Handout
• Critically analyze what you put in the fields in
  the SOARS template, keeping in mind the
  definitions of output, outcome, and impact.