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Forage quality surveys can provide a variety of insights into the nutritional well‐being of herbivores. Even small differences in how much of the food eaten can be digested and used for life requisites (dry matter digestibility %; DMD) can affect performance of ruminants, and thus methods for determining forage digestibility must be accurate, repeatable, and robust among laboratories and over time. In 2013, we observed levels of DMD as determined from sequential detergent fiber assays with the filter bag method and the ANKOM fiber analyzer200/200® that were greater than expected given the plant species, season, and environmental setting. Using stockpiled and previously analyzed forage samples from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, we evaluated whether fiber results had shifted since 2012, potential causes of the shifts, and whether results since 2012 aligned with data on ungulate performance. Beginning in 2012, our results indicated that sequential detergent fiber analysis began significantly overestimating DMD compared to the same samples analyzed using identical methodology prior to 2012. Magnitude of the difference increased as soluble fiber increased and overestimated DMD by up to 31 percentage points. We detected no changes in laboratory procedures (e.g., fiber bag design or origin of chemical solution) nor differences among laboratories using identical methodologies (e.g., Washington State University versus Dairy One) that might explain the shift, and thus were unable to pinpoint the cause. Results obtained prior to 2012 better explained ungulate performance (e.g., body fat, pregnancy, population trends) and thus we developed predictive equations (0.59 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.88) to align post‐2012 lab results with those obtained before 2012. Shifts in assay results and inconsistencies in laboratory methods have marked potential to affect inferences from studies of ruminant nutritional ecology. We provide recommendations for researchers using sequential detergent fiber analysis to measure DMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Washington Archaeological Research Center (WARC) was established in 1972 at Washington State University (WSU) to serve the six four-year universities and colleges, the state, and thus the public. WARC served as a clearinghouse for government contracts. Project assignments were made through a Scientific Committee of archaeology faculty. Dr. Richard D. Daugherty directed WARC until 1980, when the Administrative Board, and the Scientific Committee, redirected WARC away from contract coordination. Dr. Dale R. Croes was appointed Director, and WARC was tasked with maintaining the state's site records and contract/research reports library. WARC was also directed to create the first computer database for survey projects and site records. WARC goals grew to include: facilitating research, training students, and conducting public outreach. WARC soon created an Advisory Council representing a broad collation of private contract archaeologists; professional archaeologists from Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, Canada; Native American Representatives; Federal/state agencies; and Archaeological/Historical Societies. In many ways it was an effort to work together, using our limited resources, to promote archaeological interests (especially beginning to digitize, standardize, and update our paper-based archaeological site forms)--a coordinating of our discipline, in a form of communitarianism, based on the idea that those involved in archaeology were essentially cooperative ("good") people who wanted to work together for our common goals. The WARC newsletter, The Thunderbird with the distribution of 68 issues, serves as the basis for outlining a chronology of our history between 1980 and 1988. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]