By Rick Sohn, PhD Umqua Coquille LLC Stud prices are up and most statistics are favorable for the economy, despite the fact the housing starts remain unchanged. Further improvements are expected over the next 4-years. Recent trends of lumber, logs, home construction, and housing markets, are compared to 2009 and […]

By American Farm Bureau Federation The American Farm Bureau Federation is supporting proposed Senate legislation that establishes federal pre-emption of what was expected to grow into an unruly patchwork of state-by-state mandatory GMO labeling laws. “Our nation’s top scientists agree that crops enhanced through GMO technology are safe, and this […]

Wildlife Groups Support Senate Action on Fire Borrowing, Forest Management Reforms By Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities, The American Wildlife Conservation Partners, a coalition of over 30 hunting and outdoors organizations, recently sent a letter to key leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In light of the committee’s […]

By Oregon Farm Bureau, If you’re driving around Portland this summer, you may encounter one of these colorful billboards by Multnomah County Farm Bureau asking an important question: Who’s your farmer? Many people don’t realize that 98 percent of Oregon farms and ranches are family owned and operated. Farm Bureau’s […]

By American Forest Research Council, Local Forest Products Industry Builds Habitat Home in Springfield for Navarrete Bravo Family The Navarrete Bravo family will be joined by Springfield Mayor Lundberg, partners from the forest products industry, and Habitat supporters in celebrating the groundbreaking of the family’s Habitat home on Saturday, June […]

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Tracy Brunner testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture. Brunner, a fourth generation rancher and cattle feeder from the Flint Hills area of Kansas, stressed to the subcommittee that over-regulation poses the greatest threat to the profitability […]

by Rex Storm, Forest Policy Manager Associated Oregon Loggers Possible Anti-Forestry Ballot Initiatives: November’s general election might include three state-wide anti-forestry ballot initiatives—only if each petition clears two very tough hurdles by late July to qualify for the ballot. Although the petitions received the requisite sponsorship signatures, each must secure […]

Oregon Association of Nurseries The White House announced  that it will essentially double the threshold at which salaried employees performing certain executive, professional or administrative duties are exempt from overtime pay. The current threshold is $23,660 and will roughly double to $47,476. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told reporters the exemption […]

By American Farm Bureau Federation Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and board member of the American Farm Bureau Federation, described a litany of trade barriers faced by farmers and ranchers in a hearing of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. In response, Paap asked Congress to […]

By Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities, The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., is holding a forum on the “growing anti-government extremism on public lands.” Grijalva says the forum will discuss the emergence of this movement and the government’s efforts to confront these dangers, and […]