Thirty-First Meeting

THIRTY-FIRST MEETING Western Washington State College June 12-14, 1968 For their thirty-first annual meeting the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers convened on the campus of Western Washington State College, Bellingham, at the same time that TOPS invaded many of the commercial tourist facilities of the city. The availability of Highland Hall dormitory and the innumerable courtesies of the staff of the host Geography Department more than compensated for the inability of the Association's members to compete with TOPS for hotel, taxi, and restaurant facilities. Northern members seemed at home in the Bellingham environs, and southern members soon adjusted to the lengthy daylight periods, the short intervals of real darkness, and the early morning warblings of the birds which commenced daily about three o'clock. Fifty papers were presented during the ten-session meeting which began on the evening of June 12 with Robert Teshera presiding for invited papers on The North Puget Sound Region. Galen Biery initiated the session with "History of Bellingham" illustrated with lantern slides. In Victor Grimson's absence, his paper and slides on "Urban Development and Problems of the Bellingham Area" were ably presented by Robert Monahan. Concurrent sessions were held in the mornings and afternoons of June 13 and 14 under the separate chairmanships of Richard Preston, John Chapman, Edward Ullman, Walter Olson, Robert Rudd, Archie MacPherson, Robert Kennelly, and Martin Kaatz. Clyde Patton presided at the business meeting at which Fritz Kramer revealed some interesting figures and facts on the growth and progress of the Association. On the evening of June 13 a sea-going field trip of the Bellingham Bay and adjacent San Juan Islands narrated by Robert Monahan was highlighted by a salmon barbecue on Lummi Island and culminated in a return yacht trip from Lummi Island under weather conditions which the indigenes affectionately term a "Bellingham blow." The Bellingham Yacht Club was the scene for the annual banquet and presidential address. Outgoing Vice President Tom McKnight presided in his best yacht club fashion. Clyde Patton's 144 VOLUME 31 1 YEARBOOK / 1969145 presidential address, "The West European University: A Typical Case of Diffusion" was succinct, not diffuse, and has been printed in full in this volume. Abstracts of Papers Presented Frank T. Aldrich, Oregon State University "An Examination of the Physical Parameters Used in Agricultural Land Resource Productivity Classification Systems" The purpose of this paper was to examine and evaluate the kind of physical parameters and the degree to which they have been employed in productivity classification systems for agricultural land in the United States. The study was motivated by the belief that better means of land rating and classification is basic to improving the ordering of the occupance of this nation from the national level. The factors which might be considered in a productivity classification system can be expressed in a model which certainly would include all facets of soil, climate, natural biota, and topography as physical variables. These parameters may be measured in terms of the productivity potential for a particular crop. An additional variable, the genetic parameter, represents the variety or strain used in the measurement. Productivity ratings based on crop yields typify this parameter. To simplify the scope of this paper, consideration was limited to natural physical capability with no additional economic input to the land. Many classification systems were reviewed and compared with the model. The significance of each parameter as a basis for use in classifying the site potential for agriculture was investigated. This established the importance and limitations of the parameters. Two conclusions are reached. First, the relative agricultural potential of widely separated areas of the United States cannot be determined because: (a) existing classification systems often omit certain parameters, notably climate; and (b) the factors making up the parameters are not comparable in scale. This has many implications with regard to the ordering of regional occupance at the national level. Second, there is a disproportionate emphasis on soil and genetic parameters. These shortcomings, together with the use of subjective rather than quantitative measurements in many cases, cast some doubt on the validity given a parcel of land by the existing classification systems. Burton L. Anderson, Long Beach State College...