Timber Industry Report Rick Sohn Umpqua Coquille LLC OUCH! Not only are log and lumber prices down, but unsold home inventories are up, and economies here and elsewhere around the world, continue to raise concerns about the recovery and drive interest rates down to unprecedented levels. Swanson Group has closed […]

Timber Industry Report August 2010 Addendum Rick Sohn Umpqua Coquille LLC The Financial Times of London carried an in-depth series on homebuying August 16-17.  It includes an international map of house price changes in the first quarter of 2010.  For example, China, Australia, and Canada were up 68%¬, 20¬%, 11.6%, […]

Animals Don’t Have Rights, But Humans Do Have Duties By John Hart American Farm Bureau Federation In a 1986 interview with Washingtonian magazine, Ingrid Newkirk, the founder and still president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, made a provocative statement that continues to be noticed today.  When […]

Helping teachers teach kids about agriculture — Ag in the Classroom continues to reach Oregon students By Oregon Department of Ag. As the doors to school open next week, Oregon agriculture is once again determined to see more education about one of the state’s leading industries follow the kids and […]

2010 Fall Hunting Forecast available online By Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife, SALEM, Ore.—ODFW released its fall hunting forecast today. Based on surveys by staff biologists, the report offers hunters a good look at what to expect this fall.  The forecast can be accessed on ODFW’s website through a […]

Natural Resource News Note: The Oregonian newspaper featured a front page article on the problems of Measure 49 which is the measure that brought limits to landowner compensation but promised a fast-track process.  Three years later, few new homes have been approved and built under the new system with landowners […]

No Reason to Fear Our Food Supply By Mark, National Corn Growers Association This week we are supposed to be afraid of eating eggs. Apparently we have about a 1 in 20,000 chance of getting salmonella from eating eggs. The odds are slightly higher that you will die in a […]

Livestock Producers Fear GIPSA Rule’s Vagueness and Unintended Consequences By National Cattlemen’s Beef Association FORT COLLINS (Aug. 27, 2010) – Beef and pork producers rallied against USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration’s (GIPSA) proposed federal rule on the buying and selling of livestock at a public meeting held in […]

More push to get legislation giving the public the right to recreate on privately-owned banks and uplands along non-navigable waterways By Bill Moshofsky Oregonians In Action, During the 2010 special session of the legislature, Senator Alan Bates of Jackson County introduced a  bill that gave the public (1) the right […]

By State Senator Jason Atkinson, Last year, California ended the practice of dredge mining in its rivers. With the ban in effect, out-of-state miners have flooded into southern Oregon rivers armed with $25 permits issued by the state. I’ve a long history with “The New 49’ers,” the miners association that […]