By Rick Sohn Ph.D Umpqua Coquille LLC 2015 looks promising. 30-year mortgage rates are again below 4%, unsold inventories are down, home prices are up steadily, and construction remains above 1 million. Trends of lumber, home construction, and housing markets, are compared to 2005. Interpretation and Looking Ahead. Stud prices […]

By American Farm Bureau Federation With the launch of a new oversight subcommittee focusing on the administration’s energy and environmental policies and House passage of the Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 185), House lawmakers are putting the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies on notice: Business as usual is over. In […]

Low Carbon bill further handicaps family farms By Oregon Family Farm Association Farming in Oregon is becoming more difficult than other states. Oregon’s net cash farm income was down by 10%. This downturn occurred while the same income was rising nationally by 24%. Oregon is sinking while other states are […]

Healthy Forest, Healthy Communities Sen. Ron Wyden recently announced the reintroduction of his O&C federal forest legislation, pledging once again to “double” timber harvests as a way to create desperately-needed jobs in rural Oregon.  However, a recent report commissioned by Oregon’s affected counties indicates that the Wyden plan would actually reduce harvest […]

By Cindy National Corn Growers Association Not to sound like a lunatic but it may be entirely possible, maybe even likely, the American public will be begging for a return to $3.60 gas in the near future. I know it sounds crazy, but if you are following the public debate […]

By Oregon Cattlemen Association A new trend has started in Oregon. Conservation groups are buying up private lands and turning them over to the state to become public lands. Recently, Western Rivers Conservancy bought the Rattray Ranch in Gilliam County and announced its plans to sell a good portion of […]

By Oregon Farm Bureau FB hosted two GMO community conversations this week These days, almost everyone has at least heard of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and knows that passions run high on the issue. But few truly understand what they are. Because so much fear and misinformation abounds on biotechnology, […]

By American Farm Bureau Federation Consumers are tiring of anti-GMO rhetoric: They want facts. You don’t have to put those claims under the microscope to see how shaky the anti-GMO platform is. That’s no surprise to those of us who know the benefits of GM products firsthand, of course. Now, […]

Congressman Kurt Schrader Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson and Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader reintroduced legislation to make common sense changes to the federal wildfire budget. H.R. 167, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, which was cosponsored by nearly 150 Members of Congress and supported by a broad coalition of over 300 organizations […]

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife -Photo by Bethan Jones- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists are investigating the deaths of large numbers of seabirds along the Pacific coast in the wake of harsh winter weather the past several weeks. Common murres and Cassin’s auklets have been showing up […]