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The other day I was browsing the Oregon “Agripedia” – it’s 90 pages of agricultural statistics. It’s more interesting than it sounds, really. I learned that Oregon is the No. 1 U.S. producer of peppermint, grass seed, blackberries, hazelnuts, Dungeness cr

Thanksgiving is this week. Our family, like most families, has plenty of traditions surrounding Thanksgiving. Many of them are food-related – the brining of the turkey, the mashed-potato volcanoes, and the little oddly shaped dish whose only job, it seems

It’s not unusual to see film crews on the street below the OFRI office in downtown Portland. They often use the Historic U.S. Bank Building as a backdrop. But it was a first for us last week when a crew from the TV series “Grimm” came inside our office to

Well, I wouldn’t recommend it, but there are a lot more products from forests and trees than just wood. Wild forest goods – also known as non-timber forest products – are booming in Oregon forests, thanks to the work of several groups.

I had the pleasu

Forest products have long been an economic engine for the state. As a state agency charged with public education about the forest sector, it’s one of OFRI’s core competencies to lead a deep dive into the sector’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

As fall colors blaze, it's a good time to plant trees. That's right. Though spring brings new growth, October and November are optimal months for planting in Oregon. The heat of summer has faded, but the cold of winter is still a month or two away. The so

I moved to Portland in the late 1970s and went straight to work in a downtown office building. The Bus Mall, as it was known then, was fairly new. Red brick sidewalks lined the streets where public transportation was routed to give downtown a new focus. I

Flying back from family visits in Sacramento last week I could see from the airplane a substantial portion of Oregon’s 30.5 million acres of forestland. Not all of it, but quite a lot.

As we flew up I-5, I couldn’t see the invisible borders for timber-

I was deeply saddened by the recent announcement of the impending closure of Ochoco Lumber Company’s sawmill in John Day.

Following last month’s announcement, I saw an editorial in the Blue Mountain Eagle newspaper, which serves Grant County. The write

Owning family forestland is worth the hard work.But believe me, it’s no picnic. I’ve gained new respect for tree-planting crews.

I discovered this while replanting a section of our 89-acre woodland this past winter. My husband, Rex, plus my father and

“Hello? This is an owl calling. Anyone home?” No, it’s not the script for an annoying marketing call. Instead, it’s what I was doing on a recent perfect summer evening in the Douglas-fir forest of Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park, southeast of Salem.

10-year, $1 million study shows no threat to human health

I recently toured two Oregon sawmills and came away impressed with their innovation, technology and high degree of utilization. Today’s mills use every part of the tree except the shade. Efficient utilization of the wood resource is one of the keys to the

It may come as a surprise to new residents that Oregon has a long tradition of citizen governance. As a result, there are more than 200 citizen boards and commissions that oversee various aspects of the state’s business. Most of these positions are volunt