Tiny wasps offer hope in battle vs. exotic stink bug Imported natural enemies are being researched in Oregon By Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon’s ability to control an exotic stink bug that threatens agriculture may rest on a tiny insect that just happens to be a natural predator of the […]

Forest Policy Briefs by Rex Storm, Forest Policy Manager Associated Oregon Loggers Governor’s Biomass Fable: Oregon Governor Kitzhaber told reporters that wood pellets were a solution to reviving Oregon’s moribund rural economy. He talked about his vision of forest communities replacing their dwindling wood product-based (sawlog) industry with an industry […]

2011 Legislative Session Productive For Oregon Agriculture By Oregon Farm Bureau With an evenly split House and a narrow margin in the Senate, this session could have been filled with roadblocks and partisan posturing. However, the 2011 Legislature proved Oregon’s elected leaders could work in a bipartisan manner, and work […]

Wallowa Hatchery Rainbow Trout stung by IHNV, 42,000 fish euthanized By Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife, Enterprise, Ore. — Managers at Wallowa Hatchery euthanized 42,000 legal-sized rainbow trout on Thursday, after a number of fish died from the Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus. IHNV is a naturally occurring virus found […]

by Gail Krumenauer, Charles Johnson Oregon Employment Department The Oregon Employment Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, Oregon Field Office recently completed a survey of the state’s natural resources industries employers. The natural resources industries include crop production; animal production; forestry and logging; fishing, hunting, […]

Biodiesel Industry Applauds Job-Creating Tax Legislation — Tax Credit Extension Would Ensure Continued Industry Growth, Economic Development National Biodiesel Board, WASHINGTON – U.S. biodiesel producers thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate for introducing legislation to extend the biodiesel tax incentive for three years, a move […]

Regulatory Train Wreck Threatens Rural America By National Cattlemen Beef Association WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on June 9, 2011, announced the creation of a White House Rural Council to address rural economic potentials as well as challenges. In his executive order, President Obama said the Council was established “to […]

2011 Corn Acreage Higher than Analysts Expected By American Farm Bureau Federation WASHINGTON, D.C., June 30, 2011 – Farmers across the country are scratching their heads over an acreage report released today by the Agriculture Department showing a whopping 92.3 million acres of U.S. corn plantings this year. Most expected […]

New program pays Columbia Basin landowners for allowing public hunting access By Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife SALEM, Ore. — Columbia Basin landowners with good upland bird habitat on their properties can earn some additional income by providing public hunting access, thanks to ODFW’s new Oregon Open Fields program. […]

Lawsuit Seeks Sustainable Timber Harvest on O&C Lands — Companies ask Court to remedy federal agency inaction By American Forest Research Council PORTLAND, OR—Frustration over the failure of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to follow the law has lead the forest products industry to once […]