By Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Center, NEWPORT, Ore. – Ocean conditions during 2008 for many fish species in the Pacific Northwest, including chinook salmon, were greatly improved because of a huge cold water influx that settled in across much of the northern Pacific Ocean – a phenomenon not seen […]

Guest Submission A rising number of environmental groups now want to help the timber industry stay in business by providing funds or other support. The question is whether they can save timber companies and mills reeling from the collapse of housing and construction. “It’s a new day — it’s a […]

Submitted by: Gienie Assink, Lane County Oregon Allen Thomas of the Vancouver Columbian reports state, federal and tribal fishery biologists are predicting 298,900 spring chinook salmon will enter the Columbia River in 2009 destined for waters upstream of Bonneville Dam. That would be the biggest return since 2002. Forecasts for […]

Oregon Department of Agriculture — The first blast of winter has hit Oregon this week, but forecasters predict more to come in the months ahead. As the mountain snowpack builds between now and March, farmers and ranchers can expect another summer of ample water for irrigation. “The odds are there […]

By Tom Partin American Forest Resource Council AFRC News, 12/08 On December 8, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski issued a six page letter asking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) not to adopt the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) and to reopen the public comment period. The BLM has spent nearly […]

OSU University–  CORVALLIS, Ore. – Hal Schudel changed the shape of the Christmas tree – and the entire industry. Founder of Holiday Tree Farms Inc., the largest Christmas tree grower in the world, Schudel popularized the lush, triangle-shaped, plantation-grown conifers that decorate many homes and offices during the holiday season. […]

SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Agriculture says that federal conservation payments to Oregon farmers and ranchers have more than tripled since 2000. The payments by the U.S. Department of Agriculture fund various conservation programs, including compensation to take environmentally sensitive land out of agricultural production. Other projects are […]

Guest Submission Oregon’s largest dairy will test a new generation of technology that captures methane from cow manure–tapping an underused energy source and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. NW Natural and Bonneville Environmental Foundation are building the $1 million methane digester at Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman. Methane digesters are not […]

By Helen Moore, Water for Life, Return Flows Newsletter The question of the day is can irrigated agriculture survive in the current political climate? Everyone has heard expressed that “water is the oil of the 21st century” and “whiskey’s for drinkin, water’s for fightin”.  Truer words have never been spoken. […]

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture presented its second annual “Book of the Year” award to Leon Hesser for The Man Who Fed the World, his biography of Dr. Norman Borlaug. Terry Gilbert presents Leon Hesser with the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s 2008 “Book of the Year” […]