BLM Defies Court and Moves To Abandon Scientific Plan and Rural Oregon By American Forest Research Council PORTLAND, OR—In an eleventh hour filing, Justices Department officials representing the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) filed a response in the Pacific Rivers vs. Salazar case asking the Court […]

By Rick Sohn, Umpqua Coquille Company Lumber prices are rebounding and log prices are falling. Real estate agents report more activity, unsold inventories and interest rates are down, and a new softwood lumber promotion program is launching. Good basic news. See below for details and a six-year span of prices […]

Governor upholds secret ballot with ‘card check’ veto By Christine Souza Assistant Editor California Farm Bureau Gov. Jerry Brown, who more than 35 years ago signed into law the nation’s first agricultural labor relations act giving agricultural workers the right to consider unionization by secret ballot, upheld that position last […]

Youth hunters must wear orange beginning Aug. 1, 2011 By Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife SALEM, Ore.—New rules that require youth to wear hunter orange when hunting take effect Aug. 1, 2011.  As of that date, hunters age 17 and under are required to wear a hunter (fluorescent) orange […]

By Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation Regarding Memorandum on Mexican Trucks WASHINGTON, D.C., July 6, 2011 – “The American Farm Bureau is pleased that a memorandum between Mexico and the United States has been signed today, bringing an end to the long-running dispute over Mexican truck access north […]

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, […]