Timber Industry Report By Rick Sohn, PhD Coquille LLC Good news/bad news. Product prices are down and mortgage rates are up. Housing starts are lackluster, but unsold inventory is down. Seven-year trend of lumber, logs, housing, and mortgage statistics are shown below. Interpretation The housing recovery has entered a readjustment […]

By Oregon Farm Bureau Oregon Legislature Has Adjourned! The 2013 legislative session has finally adjourned. Sine die (Latin for adjournment) occurred approximately at 2:48 PM. There were many bad bills that did not get passed into law, while other OFB supported bills passed. However, the session in its entirety can […]

County Emergency Legislation Clears Oregon House By State Representative Wally Hicks Legislators voted today to pass House Bill 3453, which allows for the declaration of a fiscal emergency in counties struggling to fund law enforcement and other basic services. Several Oregon counties had traditionally been funded by timber receipts under […]

Action Alert: Farmers’ Action is Needed to Pass SB 633 By Oregon Farm Bureau  SB 633 would ensure that agriculture seed and seed products are only regulated　at the state and federal levels, preempting additional regulations by local　municipalities. This would prevent a potential patchwork of 36 different county regulations, and over […]

By Cindy National Corn Growers Association That’s a question asked recently by University of Illinois ag economists Darrel Good and Scott Irwin. In a FarmDocDaily article, Good and Irwin noted that the U.S. corn industry experienced a significant “growth spurt” beginning in the 2007-08 marketing year that continued through the […]

By American Farm Bureau Federation The American Farm Bureau Federation helped garner a group of more than 532 organizations that  urged House leadership to bring the farm bill back to the House floor for a vote as soon as possible. The groups also urged against splitting the nutrition title from […]

The Adverse Consequences from a Forestry Standards Certification Monopoly By Donald Rieck and Wayne Winegarden, PhD* Before policy is changed, the potential economic consequences that they can cause should also be considered.  The Community Reinvestment Act and other affordable housing regulations, for instance, were supposed to increase loan availability to […]

By State Representative Gail Whitsett, A combination of actions taken by the Oregon Water Resources Department has resulted in denying irrigation water to much of the ranching and farming community in the Upper Klamath River Basin. Make no mistake, the severity of the current meteorological drought would make meeting all […]

By Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Despite recent rains, forest and climate experts still anticipate an intense and longer than usual wildfire season in Oregon and across the Western United States. Of course, more wildfires mean more smoke and an increased possibility of poor air quality conditions. In order to […]

Senate approves compromise wolf control bill — Legislation will allow for taking of predatory wolves By Senator Bill Hansell The State Senate passed House Bill 3452 B Wednesday, a bill that will allow for a common-ground approach to wolf management and protect ranchers from predatory wolves. The bill passed unanimously. […]