Digger magazine

Written to make you a nursery industry expert.

APHIS delays federal order on interstate plant shipments

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The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today has delayed the effective date of Federal Order DA-2021, which was announced May 27. It initially was scheduled to take effect on Monday, June 21, but now it officially has been pushed back to Monday, July 19. The order requires West Coast states to pre-notify […]

Sustainability issue lands in mailboxes

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This month’s issue of Digger magazine is devoted to the topic of sustainable nurseries, and how they can serve the triple bottom line of planet, people and profits. All three of these elements are covered in the following five articles, which are downloadable (PDF): Sowing the sustainability seeds – OAN’s Sustainability Initiative aims to make […]

Extension center gathers input on its future

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There will be a summit and open forum to gather input for the future of Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) from 4–8 p.m. Thursday, June 3 at Al Kader Shrine Center, 25100 S.W. Parkway Ave., Wilsonville. The agenda is called “Developing Our Plan Together,” and the agenda is here (PDF). […]

Challenges escalate for comprehensive immigration reform

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For quite some time, the nursery industry has been at the forefront of the push for comprehensive federal immigration reform. This means enforcing the law to secure U.S. borders, providing a dependable labor source for industries that need it, and setting up a path for undocumented people already in the country to earn sensible adjustment […]

Wage and hour law seminar is next Tuesday

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View Larger MapAgricultural employers are invited to attend a refresher meeting next Tuesday, May 25, on wage and hour law. It’s being conducted by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and will last from 6-8 p.m. in the PGE Community Room, 2079 Progress Way, Woodburn, Ore. Topics covered will include minimum wage, piece-rate work, […]

Nursery people succeed at ballot box

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Two leaders from the Oregon nursery industry – both of them past presidents of the Oregon Association of Nurseries – made strong impressions at the ballot box in Tuesday’s primary election: Kathy LeCompte, the owner of Brooks Tree Farm in Brooks, Ore., with her husband Dave, is running for a seat in the Oregon House […]

Extension services to cease in Lane County

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Oregon State University Extension Service of Lane County has announced that it is shutting down most of its programs by the end of this summer due to the failure of a funding measure in yesterday’s election. Faculty members presently stationed there will be reassigned elsewhere. The official press release: The defeat of Measure 20-158 leaves […]

Writer breaks down the immigration issue

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From reporter Dan Wheat in the Capital Press (Salem, Ore.), Thursday, May 13, 2010: If illegal immigration was an easy issue it would have been solved by now. For most of us who are not immersed in the subject it is easy to adopt the sound bite of the side we lean toward. It’s much […]

Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown to speak to OAN members

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The second-highest elected official in Oregon’s state government will be the guest speaker at the next meeting of the OAN Government Relations Committee. As secretary of state, Kate Brown works on many issues of importance to nursery growers. For one, she is leading a workgroup that is grappling with the thorny issue of defining public […]