CRAFT Leadership to Change

There will soon be leadership changes at the Citrus Research and Field Trials (CRAFT) Foundation. Tamara Wood will succeed Kristen Carlson as executive director and program manager; she was previously assistant program manager. Tom Mitchell will succeed Glenn Beck as president.

Wood will manage day-to-day operations. There are no plans to hire a new assistant program manager, but the board agreed to provide needed additional support on a contractual basis.

Mitchell will preside over the board of directors that governs CRAFT. Beck stepped down as president because he recently became president of Florida Citrus Mutual. Mitchell is the recent past-president of Mutual.

Continuing to serve on the board of directors with Beck and Mitchell are Harold Browning, Phillip Rucks (vice president), Steve Smith, Trevor Smith and John Updike Jr. (treasurer).

At the June 29 CRAFT board meeting, Carlson said State Sen. Ben Albritton has indicated that the Florida Legislature may consolidate state-funded citrus organizations. CRAFT and the Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) both receive some state funding. Albritton reportedly indicated CRAFT and CRDF might come under the umbrella of the Florida Department of Citrus.

CRAFT uses state and federal funding to subsidize Florida growers planting new citrus plots in which the growers will utilize HLB mitigation practices. The CRAFT growers choose from a variety of HLB mitigation strategies to show how those various strategies work in large-scale field trials over time. Such commercial applications of HLB management strategies are valuable because practices that seem to work in a research laboratory or greenhouse often don’t work as well in an actual grove.  

A report at the board meeting indicated that 4,543 solid-set and reset acres have been planted by growers over the past two years; 87% of the projects are solid-set plantings. Those growers have so far received $4.4 million for their participation in CRAFT. A total of 102 projects have been developed and will be planted in 15 counties.

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