The Oregon Natural Resources Report - Agricultural News from Oregon

Ag update: Bills impacting Farming, forestry

By Oregonians for Food and Shelter,

To date, over 2600 bills have been introduced. The pace at the Capitol is picking up as Committees try to work bills before the April 9th Work Session Deadline.

Tuesday of last week, the House Energy & Environment Committee held a hearing on HB 2656, which would ban harvest, building of roads and application of pesticides and fertilizer in forests that serve as drinking water sources. This legislation would lock up millions of forestland, shutter mills and devastate rural communities. A huge thank you to the OFS coalition members who submitted hundreds of letters to the committee and/or came to the hearing. Roughly 100 foresters, loggers and small woodland owners attended the hearing and made an impressive showing!

Gray Wolf rebound = Conservation Success Story

By National Cattlemen Beef Association,

Livestock Producers Praise Recovery of Gray Wolf as “Conservation Success Story”

Jennifer Houston, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and Bob Skinner, president of the Public Lands Council, released a joint statement in response to the Department of Interior’s announcement that it will publish a gray wolf delisting rule in the Federal Register:

“The recovery of the gray wolf in the United States is a conservation success story. When the federal government collaborates with state wildlife officials and local land managers, it enhances our ability to protect the wildlife and ecosystems that we all cherish. This is exactly how the Endangered Species Act is supposed to work.

Trump signs Walden’s wildfire bill

Congressman Greg Walden,

President Trump signed into law legislation introduced by Representative Greg Walden (R-Hood River) to protect a central Oregon community from wildfire. Walden’s Crooked River Ranch Fire Protection Act (H.R. 524) will allow for needed management of the fire fuels that surround Crooked River Ranch in Jefferson and Deschutes counties, which will reduce the risk of wildfire for the approximately 5,500 residents living at the Ranch. Walden released the following statement:

HB 2656 locks up a million acres

By Oregonians for Food and Shelter,

Probably the most threatening bill to Oregon’s managed forests, HB 2656 will have a hearing in House Energy & Environment Committee on Tuesday, March 12th at 1:00 PM. HB 2656 bans harvest, road building, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers in forestland that supplies drinking water for public sources; locking up over a million of acres. Anti-forestry activists have been heavily promoting this bill (which they’ve dubbed the “Safe Waters Drinking Act”) on social media and other means, and we anticipate they will pack the room with supporters.

50 Ag groups push estate tax repeal

By American Farm Bureau Federation

Repeal is the most effective way to protect family-run businesses from the estate tax, the American Farm Bureau Federation and more than 50 other organizations wrote in a letter to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), who introduced the Death Tax Repeal Act (S. 215, H.R. 218) in their respective chambers.

Justice for the Hammond family

By Oregon Farm Bureau,

“On Feb. 14, 2014, the Bureau of Land Management revoked the grazing permit of Hammond Ranches. Almost five years to the day later, on Feb. 13, 2019, BLM signed documents that reissued the permit, allowing the Hammond family to get back to the business of raising cattle in eastern Oregon.

Inflatable dancers to ward wolves

By Oregon Family Farm Association,

Like farmers use scarecrows to protect seeds and crops from birds, a Jackson County rancher is employing an inflatable dancing tube man to keep gray wolves from killing his livestock.

Ted Birdseye set up a lime-green inflatable dancer, such as those seen in used-car lots, in his pasture after Oregon-7’s Rogue Pack killed a calf in the field. They had previously slain five cows and a dog, according to The Mail Tribune. Early results proved promising, although Birdseye didn’t know how well it would deter the wolves in the long term.

Rancher launch ‘Fake-Meat Facts’ campaign

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association launched a new campaign highlighting critical questions about the production of lab-grown fake meat. The Fake Meat Facts campaign will shine a spotlight on the many unknowns that the federal government must clarify before finalizing the regulatory framework for these emerging products.

Senator debuts four wildfire fix bills

By Oregon Family Farm Association

An Oregon state senator introduced four bills in the state Legislature to help people fighting fires on farmland after a wildfire in July burned 80,000 acres in Sherman and Wasco counties.

Sen. Bill Hansell, a Republican from Athena in the 29th District, credited local farmers with preventing the Substation Fire—at one point the largest blaze in the nation—from morphing into the devastation experienced Paradise, California. He said firefighters at a debriefing praised the assistance offered by local farmers, according to an article by the EO Media Group.