Digger magazine

Written to make you a nursery industry expert.

How the public feels

By — Posted

How do Oregonians feel about agriculture? A recent public opinion survey by Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick revealed opinion trends on a number of issues, from water use to pesticides to organic farming. The Oregon Department of Agriculture outlined several of the most significant results in a press release. Among those results, a strong majority favors […]

Farm to market

By — Posted

The Oregon Legislature this week approved a $300 million per year transportation package designed to upgrade roads statewide, create new capacity, and loosen bottlenecks that currently cost businesses time and money. The move was applauded by the Oregon Association of Nurseries as an important step towards helping growers move their goods to market. The improvements […]

Green Communities Act introduced

By — Posted

The Oregon Association of Nurseries, and numerous other green industry trade groups, are getting behind the Green Communities Act, a federal bill introduced recently by U.S. Rep. Alyson Schwartz (D-Penn.). The bill would direct the U.S. Department of Commerce to award matching grants to up to 80 municipalities towards improving their “green infrastructure.” This could […]

Work site enforcement: a good thing?

By — Posted

We reported last week that administration officials are planning to concentrate their immigration enforcement efforts on employers rather than employees. For employers, this sounds like a bad thing, but according to this e-mail from Tamar Jacoby, president of Immigration Works USA, that’s not necessarily the case: This will be the hallmark of DHS efforts going […]

Faith and immigration reform

By — Posted

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral of Portland, Ore., is hosting a series of faith and ethics forums that pertain to the topic of immigraton. Jeff Stone of the Oregon Association of Nurseries and the Coalition for a Working Oregon are coordinating the speakers. Upcoming topics include “Labor and Community” (May 3), “Economics of Immigration Reform” (May 10), […]

OSU selects new agriculture dean

By — Posted

Following an extensive recruitment and selection process, Oregon State University has chosen Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, associate dean and agricultural research director at the Purdue University College of Agriculture, to serve as dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. He replaces Thayne Dutson, who served in both roles […]

Garden Centers of America tour comes to Oregon

By — Posted

The Portland area will play host for the 2009 Garden Centers of America Summer Tour, which will be June 28-July 1. The 12-stop tour consists entirely of OAN member garden centers, including Al’s Garden Centers, Bauman Farms, Yard n’ Garden Land, Tsugawa Nursery, Shorty’s Garden & Home, Drake’s Seven Dees Garden Centers, Portland Nursery, Garden […]

New immigration enforcement guidelines target employers

By — Posted

We mentioned a few weeks back that the Obama administration was sending signals that it would focus on employers, not employees, in its immigration enforcement under Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Today came further confirmation of that in the form of an article in The New York Times. The newspaper reported that new guidelines […]

Getting tough on metal thefts

By — Posted

A bipartisan bill designed to combat metal theft, Oregon Senate Bill 570 (HTML | PDF), was approved yesterday (Wednesday, April 29) in the Oregon Senate by a 29 – 0 vote. The bill would increase record-keeping requirements for scrap metal dealers. It would require them to pay for metal by check, and set aside any […]