Oregon

The state of Oregon recently launched a new “Be Two Weeks Ready” toolkit as part of Preparedness Month, to encourage people to be ready for any disaster.  Oregon Department of Emergency Management’s Kayla Thompson acknowledges it’s scary to consider needing to shelter in place, or evacuate.   “I want people to feel e...

Pear Bureau Northwest is out with its first estimate of the 2024-25 fresh pear crop.  The expectation is Washington and Oregon growers will harvest 10.6 million standard box equivalents, which is down 31% from the five-year average.   ...

Fire season continues in the Pacific Northwest.  But Carol Connolly, with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, says conditions are improving.   “We just took five large fires off the board over the last 24 hours. Four of those were ...

Vegetable growers across Washington and Oregon can expect to be interviewed by NASS in the coming weeks.  The USDA will work to gather information for the 2024 Vegetable Chemical Use Survey this fall.  NASS will collect information on planted acreage, pest management practices, acres treated, and application rates, pesticide application, acres treated, and rates applied to five targeted vegetable

An old email scam is making the rounds again, prompting warnings from multiple police agencies in Oregon.  Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said the scammers use personal information that’s publicly available on various databases.   “So th...

While a low-pressure system brought cooler wetter weather to the Northwest last week, it wasn’t enough to put a sizable dent in this year’s drought.  Latest figures from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows while none of Washington is currently under the D-3, or Extreme Drought designation, the portion of the state under a D-2, or Severe Drought, increased from 4% to 10%.     In ...

Via an Executive Order, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has declared a drought in Lake County, and directed state agencies to coordinate and prioritize assistance to the region.  According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Lake County has been in moderate drought since July 9th.  Drought...

The Hazelnut Marketing Board recently wrapped up its annual Subjective Yield Survey, and it looks like 2024 will be an improved year.  With roughly 20% of acres accounted for, the HMB anticipates harvest this year to be nearly 98,000 tons.  If...

Wildfires have forced evacuations across Oregon this summer.  And now, the state is making new software available that alerts residents to changes in evacuation levels.  Ed Flick, director of the Oregon Office of Resilience and Emergency Management, says the software makes it easy to develop an evacuation map.   "The Genas...

Improve the health of America’s forests while reducing the risks of wildfire to communities.  That has been the effort and focus on the U.S. Forest Service’s Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program, which has focused on 21 specially selected fire sheds.  But Agriculture Sec...