Auen Foundation Gives UI Salmon-area Ranch For Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center
Monday, August 8 2005
Aug. 5, 2005 Editor’s note: Photos for publication are available for downloading at www.ag.uidaho.edu/news/cummingscenter.html SALMON, Idaho – Good news got a whole lot better for University of Idaho officials gathered in Salmon for the Aug. 4 celebration of the Auen Foundation’s gift of a ranch for UI’s Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center. Auen Foundation representatives surprised UI President Tim White and other UI officials by deciding to transfer full ownership of the ranch six miles north of Salmon, which spans more than 1,000 acres along the Salmon River, in coming months. The party was scheduled to celebrate the fifth year of the foundation’s agreement to donate the ranch to UI in steps, with the first transfer, an expected quarter share, this year. UI President Tim White announced the foundation’s decision Thursday afternoon during the celebration. Preliminary estimates placed the property’s value at approximately $10 million. “We are grateful for your generosity,” White said, noting that the late Nancy M. Cummings is remembered as a caring person and good businesswoman who saw potential in people. The decision will help the center achieve its potential, he added, as a premier beef cattle research station. “At the core of this was the issue of trust,” White said. Auen Foundation and university representatives were able to agree on and commit to a plan for the Cummings Center. “They were sizing us up: will these people be able to deliver on our expectations to provide educational opportunities in the Salmon River Valley and research that stretches far beyond Idaho’s borders,” White said. The Palm Desert, Calif., foundation and university will work out details of the transfer in coming months, accelerating the original schedule by several years. Catharine Reed, the foundation’s program director, said UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Dean John Hammel and its leaders earned that trust. “It came down to John Hammel doing everything he said he was going to do,” Reed said, in addition to hard work by others at the university. “It was their commitment in the past year that assured us that we could trust that what they said, they would do,” said Catharine Reed, Nancy Cummings’ granddaughter. “I’m very pleased that they have confidence in us and they believe in us,” Hammel said. “The community members who showed up today proved that there is support for this center.” “My mom would have loved to stand here with Tim and John and all of the people, including Caroline Nilsson Troy of the university and Catharine Reed, who helped to pull it together. She would have been so proud,” said Sherrie Auen, Nancy Cumming’s daughter and an Auen Foundation trustee with her husband Ron. The center honors the late Nancy Cummings’ love for the Salmon River Valley, her entrepreneurial spirit and her desire to expand educational horizons for its residents. The university’s researchers are already contributing to society worldwide and educational programs are providing opportunities in the Salmon River Valley, her mother’s lifelong wish, she said. The party in the center’s new education building constructed by the foundation drew an estimated 100 members of the Cummings family, community leaders and legislators, cattle producers and Idaho Cattle Association leaders and university representatives. The center is the first in nearly 25 years added to the university’s statewide system of a dozen research and extension centers in 25 years. It is the only one with an education component. UI administrators and researchers gathered to highlight some of their current projects and their plans for the first center devoted to beef cattle research. Projects range from pioneering research on an innovative system to track individual cattle, to genetic and breeding improvements, to forage production and grazing practices. “The cattle industry has never had a research and extension facility devoted to its needs and we appreciate this effort,” said Mike Webster of Roberts, the Idaho Cattle Association’s president elect. Cattle producers know they can benefit from applying research results to their operations to make them more efficient, Webster added. In 2001, ICA leaders helped round up more than 100 donated cattle to start the center’s herd, which has since nearly doubled. The Auen Foundation also made significant investments in the center, such as funding major improvements including the education building, fences and a significant upgrade to its irrigation system. Salmon Mayor Stan Davis praised the Auens’ efforts to establish the center and to support the city schools. “Salmon is a hub for ranching, mining, tourism and logging. Ranching is so important to the city that we wanted to be here to show our support and to show that education is important to the city,” Davis said. In recent years, some 200 middle school students from Salmon have visited the ranch for environmental science field days. The university is committed to continuing to pursue the center’s goals, even if that growth is slow and inch-by-inch, Hammel said, adding that the foundation’s move was a significant advance. “With us as the owner, it helps us to seek grants to support future projects,” Hammel said. As the event wound down, he gazed over a herd of cattle grazing, an emerald green of an alfalfa field and a dramatic river canyon rich in history. Hammel added, “And plus, when I look at it, jeez it’s incredible. Lewis and Clark wrote about those light colored cliffs when they came through here 200 years ago. Today is a great day.” Contact: Bill Loftus, UI science writer, (208) 885-7694, bloftus@uidaho.edu --- cell (208) 301-3566 -30- BL-8/5/2005-CALS
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