WASHINGTON, D.C. — USDA and the Department of the Interior are gearing up for what's expected to be one of the most intense fire years in recent history.
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OAKLAND, Ore. — A poison oak and blackberry infested forest has been transformed into a timbered park of Douglas fir, oak and madrone trees through the efforts of Richard and Donna Rawson.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A trust approved by a federal judge to help compensate victims of deadly California wildfires sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric equipment paid survivors just $7 millio…
PENDLETON — Mental health issues and protections for family farms were some of the starter topics during a virtual town hall Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden held Sunday, May 2, for residents of Umatilla…
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Forty students from Glide and South Umpqua high schools listened to the presentations from public and private forestry officials on a recent morning as they stood in a blackened landscape.
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Rancher testifies on the need for swift, decisive and strategic intervention to interrupt the current fire cycle.
The agency authorized the Hanna Flats project in 2018 without undertaking an environmental analysis, finding it’s “categorically excluded” from such review because it’s aimed at preventing ins…
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The Biden administration announced Thursday it intends to revise or withdraw a Trump-era rule that would roll back 3.4 million acres of federally designated "critical habitat" for the northern…
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DENVER (AP) — As Western states prepare for this year’s wildfire season, the world’s largest firefighting plane has been grounded and could be converted to help fight against another crisis, t…
The Council of Forest Trust Land Counties, or CFTLC, has countered the Oregon Department of Forestry's proposed habitat conservation plan, or HCP, with an alternative proposal.
Despite rain showers over the weekend in much of Northeast Oregon, fire officials say the region is still ripe for wildfires.
Fires start in north, east regions of the state in April's third full week.
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Seven months ago, Central Oregonians felt the impact of some of the worst wildfires in this state’s history. Now there is growing concern that dry fuels across the region could ignite even big…
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Becky Johnson has worked at Oregon State since 1984 when she began as an associate professor in the college of forestry. She will be the university’s first female president.
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With the prospect of a catastrophic 2021 fire season looming, Oregon will rely again on it's one-of-a-kind $25 million wildfire risk policy with the world's oldest continually active insurance…
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Seven environmental groups are suing the Oregon Department of Forestry to halt salvage logging in the Santiam State Forest east of Salem.
Environmentalists have mischaracterized the impacts of an Oregon timber project whose 9,000 acres are meant to improve harvest flexibility, according to the federal government
LA GRANDE — The Oregon Department of Forestry is putting to work in Northeast Oregon some of the $5 million it was granted in January by the Oregon Legislative Emergency Board for reducing wil…
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Beginning next month, the 20,000-square-foot signature building of the Chemeketa Agriculture Complex is expected to be open for business.
The highest Northwest risk during June and July likely will be in Central Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia Basin of Oregon and Washington.
Fires driven by extreme winds Sunday afternoon forced evacuations in the Deschutes River Woods neighborhood in southwest Bend and in a rural area just west of Bend, near Shevlin Park.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — USDA on Wednesday announced it has a new plan — called Pandemic Assistance for Producers — to provide farmers with financial aid during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Nine conservation groups are suing to reinstate "critical habitat" for the threatened species across nearly 3.5 million acres of old-growth forests in Oregon, Washington and Northern Californi…
Oregon would emphasize reducing fuels in high-risk forests near communities and key environmental resources as part of broader legislation aimed at mitigating wildfire hazards.
Under the original proposal, the Oregon Health Authority would use eminent domain to secure conservation easements that restrict activities affecting water on private property.
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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden locked up aid money for Grant County and others with similar economies tied to timber and natural resource on federal lands.
Department of Lands seeks state funding boost. Work targets landscape-scale improvements across jurisdictional, ownership boundaries.
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The Washington Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case brought by environmentalists challenging how the Department of Natural Resources manages about 2 million acres of forests.
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The American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, along with counties in Oregon, Washington and California, are challenging the Biden administration's decision to delay removing m…
Shirley Jolliff and Lee Peterman were recently named 2020 Linn County Tree Farmers of the Year by the Oregon Tree Farm System, which is administered by the Oregon Small Woodlands Association.
I agree 100% with Tom Kammerzell's assessment of the plan to take out the Snake River dams. I would add: for the most part, the dam removal people are driven by a worthy desire to bring back t…
ROSEBURG, Ore. — Not long after the coolers are emptied of summer and fall produce and products, the cool space on several farms becomes a transition home for seedling trees.
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Lawmakers are considering re-imposing a 5% severance tax on the value of harvested timber to replace the existing forest products privilege tax, which is currently 90 cents per thousand board-feet.
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Oregon’s timber industry was already contending with the aftermath of last year's fires when forestland owners were recently hit with an ice storm that snapped and knocked over trees.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday held its first of two hearings to consider Deb Haaland, Biden's nominee to lead the Interior Department.
The Biden administration has announced it will delay a controversial rollback of critical habitat protections for the northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washington and Northern California in orde…
Going from summer wildfires to winter ice storms, TimberUnity has again mobilized to offer public assistance, donating firewood for people who were left without power.
Addressing infrastructure was identified as a top priority for the nonprofit Family Farm Alliance in 2021. The organization held its two-day virtual conference Feb. 18-19, featuring panel disc…
A conservation group claims a 65-acre logging project on private forestland in Washington’s Klickitat County violates federal protections for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
The proposed rule would release the Forest Service from reinitiating consultation with Fish and Wildlife on forest plans every time “new information” claims come up.
Fifteen years in the making, a nonprofit forestry group and Linn County, Ore., are collaborating on a project designed to highlight reforestation of the Willamette Valley Ponderosa pine.
A group of eight Western lawmakers is calling for a federal review of the Trump administration's decision to reduce critical habitat protections for the northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washing…
LA GRANDE — Snow is proving to be a friend and foe this winter for Jesse Reed of Union as he helps reduce the odds of a catastrophic wildfire someday striking the Grande Ronde Valley.
An Arizona-based "eco-timber" company, World Tree USA LLC, is reaching out to farmers in Washington and Oregon, seeking to build a market for carbon stored in trees and produce specialty hardw…
Projects target landscape-scale improvements through partnerships.
The federal government is again defending a timber sale in a recreational area near Springfield, Ore., arguing that it’s not prohibited from logging around proposed trails.
After 38 years, Oregon wildlife regulators want to make permanent a program that provides hunting tags to landowners who provide habitat for elk, deer and antelope.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, has been named to the House Natural Resources Committee. The freshman lawmaker will sit on the panel that deals with legislation affecting water, land, energy, min…
A federal judge has struck down another legal challenge to barred owl removal experiments along the West Coast, which aim to gauge impacts on threatened spotted owls.
Trees hit by Woodhead Fire to generate some revenue.
ROSEBURG, Ore. — Future funding for Wildlife Services and the predator control work it provides is a concern for land and livestock owners in a couple southwestern Oregon counties.
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The Trump administration is overturning a decades-old ban on logging large trees in six national forests across Eastern Oregon and southeast Washington.
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The federal government has removed 17 times more land from the threatened spotted owl’s “critical habitat” than it had originally proposed, likely provoking a court challenge.
ELGIN — If the Boise Cascade plywood plant in Elgin closes this year, it could cost Eastern Oregon 446 jobs, nearly $21 million in labor income and more than $78 million in economic output wit…
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The Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping changes Tuesday in the national vaccine rollout plan.
