Oregon State University Extension educator Christy Tanner has moved from Malheur County to the Willamette Valley.

Tanner for more than two year worked at the Malheur County office in Ontario as assistant professor in field crops and watershed management. She was slated to move to OSU Linn County Extension in Tangent to focus on field crops in Linn, Benton and Lane counties.

“This new position will allow me to move closer to my family, but I will miss the connections I have made here in Malheur County,” she said in a Malheur County Extension online newsletter Sept. 30. “I am deeply grateful to each of you for welcoming me into this community. Your help in learning about the cropping system here and your support of my extension program has been invaluable.”

Tanner grew up outside Lebanon, Ore. She worked as a research assistant at Salem seed breeder-producer Grassland Oregon before moving to Ontario. Her recent work has emphasized forage and field crops. She has focused on cover cropping for Malheur County cropping systems.

“There have been a lot of people who are changing from furrow to center-pivot irrigation systems, and those changes are affecting the cropping systems quite a lot,” she said in an interview.

Tanner is preparing material for, and will remain involved in, the PNW Inland Pasture Calendar Webinar Series on Nov. 3-6.

In Tangent, where she will succeed Will Jessie, “I am going to be spending a lot of time learning what the issues are,” she said. “I encourage people to reach out to me with things they consider important, or just to introduce themselves.”

Key crops in Linn, Benton and Lane counties include annual ryegrass, tall fescue, orchard grass, meadow foam, white clover, wheat and many seed crops. Tanner said she aims to explore needs and opportunities in these, as well as alternative crops that could be used in rotations in some places.

“It’s going to be a really good opportunity to work with a great team of people there,” she said.