Water

A proposed bill in Salem would impose a moratorium on new mega farms in Oregon.  Lawmakers are considering two amendments to either pause new licensing of all factory farms for eight years, or only the largest poultry farms for two years.  Lucy Go...

With warmer weather in the weeks ahead, sugarbeet growers will focus more on their fields and the 2023 crop.  But that doesn’t mean things have been quiet since harvest.  Samantha Parrott, Executive Director of the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association, says their growers have been hard at work over recent months advocating for issues vital to the ag industry, both at the state and federal lev

The U.S. House voted last week to repeal, on a largely symbolic 227-198 vote, the EPA’s controversial WOTUS rule.  The Senate could follow suit as soon as this week.  Democrats argued clean water is a human right that will suffer with the GOP’s move.  However nine Democrats, inclu...

Over the past couple of years, demand for water in the Harney Basin has increased while groundwater levels in the region have decreased.  Now the Oregon Water Resources Department is slated to begin rulemaking which intends to address those declining groundwater levels in the basin.   ...

On Monday, the Department of Agriculture announced new investments and strategies to help farmers and ranchers conserve water, address climate change and build drought resilience in the West.  The effort is through the Western Water and Working Lands Framework for Conservation Action to address key water and land management challenges across 17 Western States.  The fra...

A new report from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office reveals big gaps in the state’s management of water resources.  Secretary Shemia Fagan said this basic human need is at risk.   "Our federally recognized tribes are unable to ensure that their people have access to clean water, and across the state we are not immune to the mega-drought that is incapacitating other parts of the western U

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, and 16 other farm and builders’ groups are not waiting around for the Supreme Court to clarify the definition of WOTUS.  NCBA, AFBF, and others filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Biden EPA last week for its final WOTUS rule.   The NCBA’s C...

The Biden EPA has issued a final rewrite of Trump-era WOTUS reforms, and farm groups like National Cattlemen are not happy.  NCBA Chief Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart said the Biden Administration’s final Waters of the U.S. rule is tainted.   “The r...

The USDA is out with a series of USDA rural development funding mechanisms are targeting improved market opportunities for rural economies.   “We are highlighting 242 investments totaling $981 million that will create economic opportunities for people and businesses and diverse communities and industries throughout 47 states Guam and the US Virgin Islands," noted rural business cooperative se

Many in farm country know the type, and extent of, conservation practices being employed by farmers.   “But the next logical step is to understand why producers are adopting or not adopting conservation practices.”   Dan Mullarkey with NRCS said to try to answer that question, USDA surveyed 34,000 crop producers as well as livestock confinement operators this spring and summer.  And the USDA has j