The Oregon Natural Resources Report - Agricultural News from Oregon

Schrader: Re-evaluate Detroit dam

Congressman Kurt Schrader,
Press Release,

As the city of Salem issued a water advisory, Congressman Kurt Schrader (OR-05), along with Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) sent a letter to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) calling for a reevaluation of the Detroit Dam Downstream Passage Project, raising serious concerns about the potential impact the project could have on Salem’s water supply. The Members also have concerns about the impact the project could have on communities throughout the Santiam canyon and the region, including the cities of Detroit, Mill City, Gates, Idanha, Stayton and beyond. In addition, over 850 irrigation customers rely on the North Santiam River and serious questions remain about how the timing and proposed construction will affect their operations. Stakeholders throughout the region including tribal interests, cities, businesses, agricultural interests, conservationists, recreations users, anglers, and municipalities need to have a full and thorough understanding of the project to be able to appropriately respond and prepare.

20-1 vote moves 2018 Farm Bill forward!

Senate Committee Vote a “Positive Step” for 2018 Farm Bill
By National Cattlemen Beef Association
Press Release,

WASHINGTON D.C. (June 13, 2018) – National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Executive Director of Government Affairs Allison Rivera today issued the following statement in response to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee’s vote to advance the 2018 Farm Bill:

Immigration Reform Common Ground

By Jeff Stone
Oregon Association of Nurseries

The immigration system has been broken for more than three decades.

Building an immigration reform package in a vitriolic political environment remains a huge challenge. Oregon’s agricultural industry is united in seeking a solution to the perpetual labor crisis. Getting from there will demand that we reconsider what a solution could look like.

Washington, D.C. has changed since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed. Congress envisioned a two-step process — first bring undocumented people into legal status, and second, create a visa system to assure a legal labor supply.

Oregon’s forest & logging industry examined

By Oregon Employment Department

Oregon is one of the world’s great tree-growing areas. The state’s soils and climate provide ideal conditions to grow such commercially viable species as Douglas fir and ponderosa pine. Forests cover more than 30 million of Oregon’s 62 million acres – almost half of the state’s landmass.

The Oregon Department of Forestry estimates logging harvests totaled 3.9 billion board feet in 2016. While much of this timber feeds Oregon’s wood products industry, creating jobs and income, many jobs are also created planting, growing, and harvesting this resource. According to the Oregon Employment Department’s covered employment statistics, the subsector’s 757 firms employed 9,668 people statewide and added $539 million in payroll to Oregon’s economy in 2016.

Keeping farms financially stable

American Farm Bureau

A Los Angeles Times column on the farm bill that ran earlier this week relied heavily on the anti-progress agenda of those who oppose nearly every aspect of our nation’s modern food system. In response, AFBF President Zippy Duvall submitted the letter below.

Farmer share of food dollar declines

By American Farm Bureau

Farmers are receiving less of the food dollar than ever before. Micheal Clements has more.

Clements: Recent research from the Department of Agriculture shows that in 2016, the farmers’ share of the food dollar fell to 14.8 percent, down 4.5 percent from the prior year and the lowest level since the Food Dollar Series was launched in 1993. Dr. John Newton, American Farm Bureau Federation market intelligence director, says lower commodity prices and where consumers are purchasing food are driving the farmers’ share of the food dollar lower.

AFRC responds to Chetco Bar Fire report

By American Forest Resource Council

The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) submitted comments regarding the Chetco Bar Fire Salvage Environmental Assessment (EA), a document describing the Forest Service’s plans for responding to last year’s Chetco Bar Fire.

The Chetco Bar fire, which ranked as the nation’s top firefighting priority at one point, started in July 2017 in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and burned more than 190,000 acres, including 170,000 acres of Forest Service land. Suppressing the fire required 2,500 fire personnel and four months of dangerous work, at a cost of $70 million to the taxpayers. The Chetco Fire also burned 30 structures and led to multiple public evacuations. In addition, smoke from the Chetco Fire combined with other nearby fires on public lands in Southern Oregon led to the cancellation of multiple public events, including Cycle Oregon and reduced performances at the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, which is estimated to add $130 million per year to the local economy.[1] Total public health costs – including increased visits to the hospital due to asthma attacks – from the smoke have not been calculated.

Zinke commits $60.3 preserving U.S. and tribal history and heritage

U.S. Department of the Interior

The U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service (NPS) announced $48.9 million in historic preservation grants for U.S. states, territories, and partnering nations, and $11.4 million for historic preservation grants to 175 tribal historic preservation offices.

Oregon’s #2 diary in spectacular downfall

By Oregon Family Farm Association,

For more than a year, the state of Oregon has tried without success to force the owner of Lost Valley Farms in Boardman, the state’s second-largest dairy, to comply with environmental and agricultural permits.

Since the mega-dairy, permitted for 30,000 animals, opened in April 2017, it has repeatedly failed environmental inspections by improperly disposing of overflowing wastewater and waste, such as allowing a container holding dead animals to leak. The state has issued four citations and fined the dairy $10,640, according to an article last month in The Statesman-Journal.

State officials sued in February to close the 7,288-acre dairy over concerns that mismanaged handling of manure and wastewater jeopardized the safety of nearby residents by potentially contaminating groundwater and both city and private wells. The dairy’s spokeswoman Andrea Cantu-Schomus said overruns of wastewater and manure have not affected groundwater, according to The Oregonian.