By Oregon Employment Department, Between 1990 and 2016, annual average employment in wood product manufacturing dropped 23,600, or 51 percent. Similar losses were experienced in all subsectors, with sawmills and wood preservation dropping 5,400 (45%); plywood and engineered wood products dropping 9,500 (53%), and all other wood product manufacturing, which […]

Congressman Kurt Schrader After Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Representatives Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici raised concerns about funding for industrial hemp pilot projects last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken a key step by clarifying which industrial hemp research programs […]

by Rex Storm, Forest Policy Manager Associated Oregon Loggers Trump and Federal Lands: The newly-approved Republican national platform document expands support for transfer of some federal lands to states. Although the platform is largely a ceremonial document, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) said the revised federal lands platform highlights the gridlock […]

It’s not too late to comment on BOLI’s new sick time rules! Since enactment of Oregon’s sick time law (SB 454) in January 2016, BOLI technical assistance has heard from thousands of employers who have struggled to understand the new law. BOLI reopened the rules in Summer 2016 to address […]

By Robert Giblin, American Farm Bureau Federation, Just about everyone running for a major federal or state office is talking about immigration reform, and it will likely be a top item on 2017 political agendas. Responsible immigration reform will need to balance homeland security and food security. Otherwise, consumers may […]

By Oregonians for Food and Shelter The future of your crop protection tools is at stake. Now is the time to tell EPA to follow good science and let them know what simazine and/or atrazine mean to your crop production! Who is really running the Environmental Protection Agency? Recently, the […]

By Oregon Farm Bureau, Farm Bureau thanks Oregon Governor Kate Brown for speaking to the OFB Board of Directors on Sept. 14, 2016. Governor Brown discussed her work with a variety of stakeholders to avoid a sage grouse listing via the national Endangered Species Act, her signing the bill this […]

American Farm Bureau Federation, A unanimous ruling from the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said the Environmental Protection Agency violated the personal privacy rights of farmers and ranchers. Chad Smith has more. Smith: Danielle Quist is the Senior Counsel for Public Policy with the American Farm Bureau Federation, and […]

By Oregon Cattlemen’s Association The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has invested $5,000.00 in a campaign led by Malheur County families to oppose a national monument designation that would restrict access to public lands, hurting Oregon’s economy by curtailing ranching in the state’s No. 1 cattle producing region. It seemed only fitting […]

By Oregon Dept. of Agriculture A record number of invasive Japanese beetles have been detected in Washington County within the city of Portland this summer. To date, the Oregon Department of Agriculture has found 265 Japanese beetles in traps placed in the area as well as numerous live beetles causing […]