Americans are deeply divided on COVID-19 and the response to it. Public health has turned political, there’s no doubt about it.
For the entire year, the Columbia Basin Development League has been pushing to ensure the White House infrastructure plan would include water infrastructure for agriculture. Drinking water inf…
This is for the Idaho ranchers (or any other ranchers that graze public land). I just read the article in the latest issue of the Capital Press. As usual, many good articles. One in particular…
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Our civilization has benefited greatly from the use of fossil fuel to power our lives, for which I am grateful. Unfortunately, scientific investigation has made it clear that the carbon dioxid…
Last week Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the Bureau of Land Management is moving back to Washington, D.C., from Grand Junction, Colo.
People often see ag land as having “potential.” They look at farmland or rangeland and start to imagine everything they could do with it.
Numerous published geologic studies and present-day observations show that over the course of past millennia, a series of no less than five lava flows crossed the Klamath River.
The USDA has a tough job ahead. It needs to come up with a moniker for meat that is grown in a laboratory. For want of a better word, the agency is calling it “cultured” meat, but it’s looking…
We have from the start advised those old enough and medically able to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. We have also pressed employers to take reasonable steps to protect their employe…
My family’s cattle ranching heritage dates back to California’s Gold Rush. Today, my wife, Katie, and I are still going strong, and one day we hope to have a ranch of our own that our daughter…
Oregon holds 1,917 of the 13,413 river miles governed under the Federal managed National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. This Federal system regulates (and restricts) how those 1,917 river mile…
On Aug 26, 2021, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind authorized the lethal removal of one to two wolves from the Togo pack territory in response to repeated depr…
“Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.” It ain’t so.
This last week, the Oregon Legislature released their proposals for redistricting in the state, and the stakes have never been higher. This redistricting process follows on the heels of the 20…
For decades there have been concerns that foreign investors are buying up farmland in the United States.
One issue we can all agree on is that food shouldn’t be wasted. Too much time, effort and money goes into growing food for it to be casually tossed into the garbage.
Last month, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure package. Idaho Sens. Risch and Crapo voted to support the package.
Like many readers, we have watched with great interest the story of Washington rancher Cody Easterday’s fleecing of Tyson Fresh Meats and the subsequent bankruptcy of Easterday Farms, one of h…
Like so many other stories related to water use in the Northwest, the one about Bill Zimmerman, a farmer in Clark County, Wash., is a head-scratcher.
Fifty-one years ago, chlorpyrifos was introduced to farmers as a way to stop the spread of agricultural and household bugs. Since then, it has proved to be effective in protecting crops such a…
Chantell and Michael Sackett have lost their appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the court ruling that their property includes wetlands that can’t be filled without a Cle…
Some questions have been raised concerning the determination of the price used in calculating revenue crop insurance payments for Washington wheat producers. Selecting an insurance plan can be…
Your editorial, “The two languages of climate change,” seems to assume that farmers and ranchers can find ways to adapt to impacts of climate change, and that politicians are just “leaping for…
The latest update by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contained few surprises. The average worldwide temperature will continue to creep upward. However, it will increase more slow…
Last week, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown reinstituted the mandate that Oregonians must wear masks in public spaces to halt the spread of the COVID Delta variant that threatens to overwhelm hospitals …
Farmers and ranchers have a long history of helping neighbors in need, so it wasn’t surprising last weekend to see a convoy of trucks roll into Oregon’s Klamath County loaded with hay for stoc…
A recent opinion piece argues that salmon were unable to migrate upstream of the Klamath River dams due to a natural barrier. This matter is raised in order to question the rationale behind pl…
If you don’t live in Central Washington, it may be easy to dismiss the critical role the dams along the Lower Snake and Columbia rivers play in local communities. But if you care about the fut…
As the Oregon legislature ended its 2021 session, an epic heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest, punctuating the importance of a bipartisan breakthrough for climate.
Iron Gate and Copco lakes together hold a reserve of 45 billion gallons of fresh water.
The Oregon Legislature has hit on a winner with the Irrigation District Temporary Transfers Pilot Project.
We eagerly await the resolution of an unusual claim made in a case to wrap up back pay claims in the bankruptcy of a Yakima, Wash., dairy.
Wildfires and land management should not be a partisan issue, and nowhere is it more evident than in California. In order to prevent the catastrophic dangers that fires pose to homes, business…
People across Eastern Oregon are right to question a proposal to designate 4,700 miles of rivers, creeks, ditches and swales as federal “wild and scenic rivers.”
California voters are free to call the tune for pork producers in their state, but Iowa hog farmers don’t have to dance or pay the fiddler.
It’s that time of year for members of Congress to head home to their districts, take tours and talk to constituents. It gives lawmakers a chance to take the pulse of what is happening back hom…
The Legislature created the Oregon Forest Resources Institute 29 years ago during the timber wars, which featured battles over logging, fierce debates over the role of state and federal forest…
The Interior Department is reviewing the Trump administration’s decision to move the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo., and critics are pushing the Biden admini…
I recently had a conversation with one of our member dairy farmers, who has been a patient in at least two different hospitals. At one of those hospitals, he asked for whole milk with his lunc…
For some reason — politics maybe? — Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife Commission can’t make up its mind about the marbled murrelet. First the commissioners said the bird was endangered, then they dec…
A dispute between farmers and county commissioners in Oregon’s Columbia County over the rezoning of 837 acres of high-value farmland adjacent to the Port Westward Industrial Park presents land…
We add our voice to those who support maintaining the Lower Snake River Dams.
As a lifelong farmer and the chairman of the Idaho Water Resource Board, it’s been amazing to watch our state’s potential 2021 water supplies diminish from what was shaping up to be a comparat…
We are still digging into a sweeping executive order signed last week by President Biden that he says will promote fair competition in the American economy.
Managing gray wolves must be exasperating for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials. Not only do they have 7.6 million backseat drivers in the state, many of whom seem to think …
Anyone who works the land should be wary of proposed legislation that applies federal Wild & Scenic River designations to 4,700 miles of Oregon rivers, streams, creeks, gulches, draws and …
"Chi, chi, chi, chi, chi, chi chi, chi. . ."
During the past two weeks Capital Press reporter Sierra Dawn McClain took a close look at how food gets from the farm to the grocery store.
We add our voice to those who believe an enemy of livestock grazing with ties to ecoterrorists shouldn’t lead the Bureau of Land Management.
For all those who wish for any part of Oregon to be turned over to Idaho, I have a simple solution that doesn’t require an act of Congress — move to Idaho.
The declaration stands the test of time, its ideas are just as relevant to patriots and tyrants today as in 1776.
It may seem counterintuitive to say that removing dams can be in the best interests of irrigated agriculture, but in the case of the four lower Klamath dams this is precisely the case.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week rightly upheld private property rights in a case that pitted California farmers against union organizers.
A California judge last week issued one of the most disconcerting decisions involving wolves that we’ve seen.
