URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2022_M

EAST FARM written by CHRIS BARRETT ’08 A HISTORY OF URI’S

Professor Steven Alm stands in the middle of his laboratory. Surrounded by roughly 85 acres of meadows, forests, orchards, greenhouses, and fish tanks, Alm, a professor of plant sciences and entomology, calls his surroundings a hidden gem. For 94 years, the University of Rhode Island (URI) East Farm has operated as a living laboratory for generations of URI students and faculty researchers. A mile from the bustle of the Kingston campus, researchers dig, grow, prune, harvest, and observe to think big about solving

species decline, bolstering the horticulture industry and studying fish. “We can conduct field experiments here, things you can’t do in a 20-by-20-foot lab,” says Alm. Sprouting Golden Delicious, McIntosh and Rhode Island Greening apple trees, the orchards at East Farm afford researchers opportunities to assess new cultivars, and teach pest control, pruning and growing techniques. URI plant sciences and entomology Professor Larry

Page 26 | The University of Rhode Island { MOMENTUM: RESEARCH & INNOVATION }