Courtesy Army Corps of Engineers
Workers walk near the The Dalles downstream gate during last yearÕs outage. The lock will be closed from Dec. 10 to March 18 to replace the two downstream miter gates.
While lock maintenance on the Columbia and Snake rivers will force some growers transporting crops to Portland's port to switch from barges to truck and rail, industry representatives say planning -- and a little luck -- have combined to make the closures less of a burden.
"The reality is we' ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:10 AM
Federal regulators say they will decide by year's end on rules regulating production of biotech sugar beets for the next two seasons.
Unregulated production of Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets was banned last month by a federal judge.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service s ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 12:39 PM
The linchpin of the Columbia-Snake transportation system is Tidewater Barge Lines, which expects to lose about 85 percent of its total revenue during the four-month river closure that starts Dec. 10, said assistant to the president John Pigott.
All of the company's business above The Dalles, ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:56 AM
HUBBARD, Ore. -- Dylan Wells, 21, and his brother Darren, 19, may grow and sell miniature pumpkins, but there is nothing small about the way they do business.
The brothers raise small ornamental pumpkins, gourds, winter squash and Indian corn that are sold across the U.S. and in Japan and Mex ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:54 AM
Stripe rust hurt the performance of many wheat varieties during this year's Northwest university wheat trials.
In the spring wheat trials in which May and June rains ended suddenly, some trials dried out, researchers found.
"In many of those locations, there was a lot of stripe rust," Wash ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:59 AM
The 2010 Oregon hazelnut crop forecast shows a smaller crop than predicted earlier this season, which may push prices upward, a grower said.
Based on an unscientific grower survey conducted by the Oregon Hazelnut Commission earlier in 2010, the industry was expecting another good year, aroun ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:45 AM
DNA evidence has been used to solve a mystery on an Oregon dairy in a case of mistaken manure identity.
It turns out the cows weren't the culprit. It was the geese all along.
Wym Matthews, head of the state program that regulates dairies, turned to DNA after state investigators were stumpe ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:57 AM
SALEM -- The Oregon Department of Agriculture will use fees to cover some of the $400,000 it will lose from its general fund operating budget as a result of lower state revenue projections.
State economists on Aug. 26 announced state revenues were down $373 million from earlier estimates.
...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:38 AM
SALEM -- Plaintiffs suing the state of Oregon over the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement have amended their lawsuit, now claiming the state didn't have the authority to enter into the pact.
Water For Life and several individuals in December 2009 filed a lawsuit accusing the state of acting ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:40 AM
The Oregon Association of Nurseries is in the final stages of its search for a new executive director.
According to a schedule released by the association, a search committee now is conducting interviews with an eye toward naming an executive director the first week of October.
Under the plan, ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:39 AM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The federal government has declared a natural disaster area in the California-Oregon border region in an effort to bring relief to farmers and ranchers stricken by an ongoing drought, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced Thursday.
The declaration officially labe ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 5:29 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The federal government has declared a natural disaster area in the California-Oregon border region in an effort to bring relief to farmers and ranchers stricken by an ongoing drought, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced Thursday.
The declaration officially l ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 5:09 PM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A suspect in the deaths of a Salem farming couple found slain in their home has told police she helped the couple's son dispose of his bloody clothing just hours before she and the son were arrested.
The bodies of 61-year-old David Scott Jondle and his 58-year-old w ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 10:49 AM
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) -- A proposed initiative to bar Klamath County from supporting removal of four dams from the Klamath River has failed to qualify for the county ballot.
The Herald and News reports that Klamath County Clerk Linda Smith said Thursday it does not meet state cons ...
Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:29 PM
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- For the ninth time in about two years, state economists have delivered bad news to the Oregon's political leaders: Tax collections are going to be even less than we told you a couple of months ago.
The string of dismal forecasts led to yet another round of patchwork ...
Sunday, August 29, 2010 9:09 AM
Matthew Chambers Jr. was a new Knox College graduate in Illinois when he decided to move west in 1847.
Upon his arrival in Linn County, Ore., Chambers received a 640-acre homestead after he married Margaret Knox. Prior to their marriage, he would have received only 320 acres.
The Chambers' f ...
Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:09 AM
When he arrived in the United States from Scotland in 1891, James Cruickshank was looking for a new beginning.
After working several jobs in the Willamette Valley, he found a place to call home on 242 acres near McMinnville, Ore., in 1908.
Now, 102 years later, the Cruickshank farm and 15 o ...
Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:09 AM
KEIZER, Ore. -- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called for Congress to pass a bill revising the foreign guestworker program "sooner rather than later," and to make a "firm and complete commitment" to rural economic growth during a stop Aug. 20.
In a question-and-answer session that ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
Opponents of dam removal on the Klamath River hope to get Klamath County voters to weigh in on the issue.
A petition committee has asked Klamath County's board of commissioners to put an anti-dam removal measure on the county's ballot in November.
If approved, the proposed initiative would ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 10:09 AM
PORTLAND -- The Oregon Association of Nurseries and the Oregon Environmental Council have released a guide to help nursery growers improve energy-use efficiency and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
"Best Management Practices for Climate Friendly Nurseries" includes energy-use tips that have been ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
Processor to increase production capacity by 25 percent
SALEM -- Diamond Foods plans an $8.4 million expansion of the Kettle Foods plant in Salem.
The expansion will increase the plant's production capacity 25 percent, the San Francisco-based company said in a press release.
Diamond Foods p ...
Thursday, August 26, 2010 9:28 AM
SALEM -- State agencies were bracing for the Aug. 26 revenue forecast earlier this week, expecting a range of news from bad to worse.
An Aug. 17 memo to state agency directors from the Department of Administrative Services warned that the late-August revenue forecast could be $200 million to ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
The Oregon State Fair will have its share of cotton candy, corn dogs, livestock and carnival rides, but it will also have several new events and a new manager: Connie Bradley.
The fair kicks off on Aug. 27 and will run through Labor Day, Sept. 6.
As a native of Salem and a former 4-H membe ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
Umpqua Dairy said this week they are back in business after an outbreak of salmonella cases caused them to shut down for a week to sterilize processing equipment.
"We have taken numerous steps to assure the health and safety of our customers, and are pleased to be returning to our regular pro ...
Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:10 AM
The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission on Aug. 19 formally adopted Oregon's new field-burning restrictions, in the process dousing grower hopes to burn some acreage under the new law's emergency burn provision.
"As it now stands, I don't believe the emergency burning provision is workabl ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
Oregon Rep. Scott Bruun, R-West Linn, has been raking in endorsements from natural resource groups in his congressional race against U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.
In recent weeks, Bruun has received backing from the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregonians for Food and Shelter, the Oregon Cattlemen's ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
