By Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $4,162 penalty to Donald Richard Merrill for burning the remains of a motor home and other debris at his property on Altamont Drive, Klamath Falls, in October. Merrill did not respond by DEQ’s appeal deadline in […]

By National  Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Washington, DC – Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a proposed rule for a new microloan program that would be part of the suite of credit options available to farmers through the Farm Service Agency (FSA). The new program would allow FSA to make smaller […]

Thanks Dominos For Not Caving to HSUS Whims By Mark Corn Commentary Farmers are always getting asked these days to get involved; write a letter, call your Congressman, but how about eat a pizza? Now activation by the slice is something I think we can sink our teeth into and […]

Timber industry concurs with Congressional concerns over flawed spotted owl proposal Further oversight needed to resolve decades of failed federal forest management policies By American Forest Research Council The timber industry joined those testifying at the Congressional field hearing in Longview, Washington, in calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife […]

Forest Policy Briefs by Rex Storm, Forest Policy Manager Associated Oregon Loggers Sen. Wyden Wants Entitlement, Not Timber Income: Oregon’s US Senator Ron Wyden announced that two bills—intended to reconnect county receipts to increased federal timber sale revenues—lack his support and would be “a nonstarter” in the Senate. Sen. Wyden […]

By Oregon Bureau Of Land Management In response to President Obama’s call to expand opportunities for summer employment for young people and connect them with the great outdoors, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Chair of the White House Council […]

NW Natural Resource Note, NW lumber firms are benefiting from the Japan Tsunami aftermath.   The Vancouver business, Columbia Vista Corp., exports 75% of its lumber to Japan and has recently hired two dozen new workers.   A Japanese lumber company, Miyoshi, was destroyed after the Tsunami and now relies on $120,000 […]

Bill Would Allow Forest Fire Fuel Loads to be Responsibly Managed National Cattlemen’s Beef Association  Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was joined by 27 of his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives today, May 15, 2012, to introduce the bipartisan Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention Act of 2012 (H.R. 5744). According to […]

by National Association Wheat Gorwers The conference process for divergent House- and Senate-passed surface transportation bills began this week with a public hearing on Tuesday that was dominated by opening statements and calls for passage of a long-term bill. The 47-member conference committee is charged with bridging the gap between […]

Export figures indicate a recovering grass seed industry resurrected By Oregon Department of Agriculture Oregon’s grass seed industry suffered greatly with the US economic downturn that began in 2008. But there are increasing signs of recovery that include export numbers generated by the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s inspection and certification […]