Saturday, February 04, 2012
Click here for RSS feedOLYMPIA -- A measure aimed at protecting people from pesticide drift moved out of committee with a do-pass recommendation in a party-line vote on Feb. 3. The original bill, sponsored by Rep. Chris Reykdal, D-Tumwater, had called for a half-mile buffer around aerial and air-blast applications. An a ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 10:37 AM
Agriculture in parts of Eastern Washington's 4th congressional district feel a bit disenfranchised by the state's new redistricting plan. The plan, set for legislative adoption by Feb. 7, was put together by a bipartisan commission. The plan moves three Eastern Washington counties from the 4th Di ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
SALEM -- On Feb. 1, Oregon State Forester Doug Decker completed his first year at the helm of the state Department of Forestry. Decker, who began with the department in 1987 as a public affairs specialist, rose to state forest division chief prior to the Board of Forestry selecting him to succeed ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 11:00 AM
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Rob and Sally Hilles, who run a fully integrated hazelnut operation near here, have been chosen as Nut Growers of the Year for 2011 by the Nut Growers Society of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The award, which was presented by society president Tim Aman at the nut growe ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
DRYDEN, Wash. -- Alex Toban moves quickly, instinctively knowing his next lopper cut with the merest glance of the eye. At 56, he's pruned, thinned and picked pears in the Wenatchee Valley for 30 years. This year, Toban and pruners throughout Central Washington are two to four weeks ahead of sch ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
OLYMPIA -- Two bills in the Washington Legislature would require labels on genetically modified food, but many proponents talk more about food than labels, a senator says. Reflecting on a hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Water and Rural Economic Development Committee, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
SALEM -- Rep. Mike McLane and five other legislators are making a run at increasing irrigation water withdrawals from the Columbia River. The lawmakers want to establish a task force "to develop recommendations for new allocations totaling 450,000 acre-feet of water from surface or storage source ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:00 PM
OREGON CITY, Ore. -- USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager says the agency is scaling back grants but maintaining its loan and loan guarantee programs in an effort to keep delivering services to rural America. Tonsager's comments Jan. 26 come a little more than two weeks afte ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
By SCOTTA CALLISTER East Oregonian Publishing Group WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two collaborative restoration projects on federal forests in eastern Oregon will gain $6 million in funding for 2012 as part of a sweeping strategy announced Thursday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The funding inclu ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:05 PM
Several scholarships are available to ag students in the region. They are as follows: Ag education foundation scholarships offered The Oregon Agricultural Education Foundation announces that applications are available for two scholarship programs for the 2012-2013 academic year. Oregon Farm Bu ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:46 AM
LONGVIEW, Wash. -- Although a labor contract has not been signed, rank-and-file members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have approved an agreement with the EGT grain terminal. The terminal has been the epicenter of a dispute between its owners and the ILWU since it began operat ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
ROSEBURG, Ore. -- Rancher Dan Dawson hopes Oregon hunters are aware of the predator problem and join the fight against coyotes, cougars and bears. Hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts are being given that option thanks to a law the Oregon State Legislature passed last year. When purchasing a lic ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
SALEM -- A committee has moved a bill to the House floor that gives the Oregon Department of Agriculture authority to raise food safety license fees as much as 3 percent a year. The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee passed House Bill 4003 on Feb. 1 after hearing supporting testimony ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:00 PM
OLYMPIA -- A unique program that exempts some small farm interns from wage laws could be expanded. Nine people worked last season as farm interns under a pilot program in two counties authorized by the Washington Legislature in 2010. New legislation would expand the program to eight counties. Se ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
A bill to change the state's funding formula for fighting wildfires is among the farm and forestry bills expected to come before lawmakers in the legislative session that started Feb. 1. The bill, backed by the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, calls for evenly splitting the cost of fighting wi ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:00 PM
The new manager of the Oregon State Fair and Exposition Center, Toni Payseno, plans to work closely with farm groups. "They are one of the vital partners in the fair," Payseno said. "The fair started with agriculture as a major goal for having the fair." Payseno took over as manager of the fair ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:00 PM
WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- A bill to set a national welfare standard for egg-laying hens faces an uphill battle, according to the congressman who introduced it. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., said House Agriculture Committee leaders have indicated they won't support the compromise legislation brokered bet ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
OLYMPIA -- A bill giving counties more control over groundwater does not affect the exemption for stock watering, its backers say, but spokesmen for farmers and ranchers aren't so sure. State statute allows the unlimited withdrawal of groundwater for watering livestock. That exemption was upheld ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
OLYMPIA -- A state legislator wants to reduce the amount of paperwork required for several standard timber practices. In a public hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rep. Ed Orcutt said his bill would drop a requirement that costs the state, taxpayers and for ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:00 PM
YAKIMA, Wash. -- Fred McMechan Plath, owner of Washington Fruit and Produce Co., one of the state's largest tree fruit companies, died Jan. 25 in Yakima. He was 89. Plath was president of the company in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, decades that saw strong growth. The company was started by his fathe ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
Range managers from around the world will meet Jan. 29-Feb.3 in Spokane, Wash. The Society for Range Management holds its annual meeting at the Spokane Convention Center and Red Lion Hotel at the Park. Jack Alexander, president of the society and a rancher near Belgrade, Mont., said the meeting ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:00 PM
OREGON CITY, Ore. -- USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager has announced the 23 Oregon recipients of business development assistance through the agency's value-added producer grant program. "These grants will improve financial returns and help create jobs for agricultural produ ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
Oregon State University Extension entomologist Peter Shearer said he still is catching spotted-wing drosophila in his traps in Hood River and Wasco counties, which shows the insect overwinters. But experiments to determine where it resides during cold winter months have been unfruitful. "It may ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:00 PM
OLYMPIA -- A handful of bills intended to modify the state's minimum-wage law has failed to make it out of committee. Prime sponsor Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, said the five bills were intended to encourage the hiring of more employees. In introducing his legislation to the House Labo ...
Wednesday, February 01, 2012 4:54 PM
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Frustrated that a judge has blocked a state kill order against two members of Oregon's first wolf pack, the Oregon Cattlemen's Association is pushing legislation to boost the state's authority over the predators. Conservation groups that sued the state to stop th ...
Wednesday, February 01, 2012 3:45 PM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Preliminary assessments indicate the wind, rain and snow that hit Oregon in mid-January caused an estimated $38 million in damage to nine counties. The Oregonian reports (http://is.gd/6Aykjh) that figure is expected to grow. Flooding was blamed for two deaths. H ...
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