U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced yesterday that the USDA is closing some 250 offices across the country, including 131 Farm Service Agency offices. The closures will save $150 million per year and are part of the across-the-board federal budget cuts. “We must innovate, modernize and be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” Vilsack […]
Christmas tree marketing fee delayed
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Just one day after it was announced, USDA officials have decided to delay implementation of a 15-cents-per-tree marketing fee to pay for the promotion of natural grown Christmas trees. Growers in favor of the plan hope to launch a campaign to promote a preference for natural over artificial trees. Such an effort could be similar […]
Webinar series teaches all about irrigation
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The Water Education Alliance for Horticulture is offering an upcoming series of nine free, 45-minute webinars on various irrigation-related topics. The webinars begin Nov. 29, and run every Tuesday at 9 a.m. Pacific time (noon Eastern) through Feb. 7, 2012. Several experts at universities and companies will give presentations on topics to help growers conserve, […]
USDA offers webinar on specialty crop grants
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The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will hold a free webinar Thursday, Dec. 15 on the agency’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. It will take place 11 a.m.–noon PST. Guest speaker Trista Etzig, manager of the grant program, will give an introduction to the program and explain how to apply. The grants are given to […]
Key industry yardstick falls victim to cuts
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Over the past two decades, Oregon’s nursery and greenhouse sales have skyrocketed, climbing from gross sales of $315 million in 1990 to a peak of more than three times that — almost $1 billion — in 2007. Recent years have seen a decline, to $676 million in 2010, largely due to the housing crash and […]
Ag inspections suffered in wake of 9/11
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If you fly on an airplane, then you have experienced firsthand how U.S. security priorities changed following 9/11. A huge new agency, the Department of Homeland Security, was created and given broad powers to stop terrorist threats. Passengers were treated to body imaging, patdowns and a thicket of regulations governing what they can and can’t […]
Urban trees boost price of rental housing
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Homeowners value trees. That much has been shown in studies performed by researchers at the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. But now it turns out that renters value trees, as well. A new study by Geoffrey H. Donovan and David T. Butry concluded that the presence of a lot tree raised the rental […]
Oregon nursery sales down 9 percent
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During 2010, Oregon nursery and greenhouse growers had less money coming in for the third consecutive year, according to statistics newly released by the USDA-Natural Agricultural Statistics Service, Oregon Field Office. The numbers are added up from a survey that is sent to every nursery and greenhouse grower in the state. For 2010, the results […]
Trees: Is there anything they can’t do? (Updated)
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[Originally posted 12.Jan.2011; Updated 18.Jan.2011] I thought I’d seen it all until I saw this story. The Associated Press reports that according to U.S. Forest Service researchers, there’s a correlation between healthy babies and homes with more shade trees. For each 10 percent increase in tree coverage within about 50 yards of a home, the […]
USDA awards $2.7 million for research into plant pathogens
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded group of colleges, led by Virginia Tech, a $2.7 million grant to conduct research on integrated management of zoosporic pathogens and irrigation water quality. Researchers will look for biological control methods for fighting Phythophthora, Pythium and other pathogens. Researchers will also “develop […]