By Rick Sohn, Umpqua Coquille LLC Strong product prices and a Building Permits record high for this recovery are positive, while interest rates have hit bottom, and average home price gains are deceptive. Four-year market trends of lumber, logs, housing, and mortgage statistics are shown below. Interpretation.

By Curt Kipp Daily Digger Oregon Association of  Nurseries Pete Brentano, co-owner of Brentano’s Tree Farm LLC in St. Paul, Ore., has been appointed to the 10-member Oregon Board of Agriculture. Brentano has a long record of nursery industry involvement, including serving one year as president of the Oregon Association […]

As promised, the Renewable Fuels Association submitted an opinion piece for publication in the Wall Street Journal. After all, in a recent editorial, the Journal editorial staff said they were more than happy to give RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen space to voice his opinion.Not surprisingly, the Journal rejected […]

by Cindy Corn Commentary National Association of Wheat Growers The corn harvest this drought-damaged year is running three times ahead of normal pace right now at 15% nationwide. On the state level, some numbers are simply unprecedented, like Missouri where 53% of the crop is harvested compared to 15% on […]

California Governor signs Timber Reform By California Farm Bureau Rural regions that rely on forests and timber sales will benefit from a bill signed by Governor Brown Tuesday. The new law gives forest landowners a longer window in which they can harvest timber under state-approved plans, and makes other reforms […]

By Oregon Forest Resource Institute The Malheur Lumber Company in John Day has been granted a reprieve from the closure that parent company Ochoco Lumber announced last month. The promise of private landowners to supply the mill with enough timber supply for a month or two to keep it open […]

EQC Considers Implementing 1000 ft. Pesticide Buffers By Oregonians for Food and Shelter August 9th, Nina Bell, on behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), submitted a petition to the Environmental Quality Council (EQC) asking them to put pesticide buffers into rule. The petition would implement the terribly flawed National Marine […]

Oregon State University Extension Office A researcher at Oregon State University has reported Oregon’s first documented case of a “zombie” fly infecting a honeybee, but he doubts that the parasite at the moment poses a threat to the already beleaguered bee, which is a vital pollinator of some of the […]

American Farm Bureau Federation The American Farm Bureau Federation urged Senate leaders to “refrain from supporting” any legislation resembling the House-passed disaster bill if such a measure is presented in the Senate. Supporting such a measure would detract from the larger mission of passing a long-term farm bill. In a […]

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) clearly spelled out its opposition to any attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower the coarse particulate matter (PM) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) in its official comments submitted to the agency last week. PM, which includes […]