Assessing Oregon Ag & Burn Ban

This kinda harkens back to the summer months when wildfires were a danger, now it's air quality. The Washington State Department of Ecology has issued a burn ban for nine counties as weather conditions have created stagnant air over the region. Allowing burning just exacerbates the issue and creates unhealthy air pollution levels. The counties are Kittitas, Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Asotin and Walla Walla.

Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba remains confident that the industry is generally in good shape at year's end, despite several tough challenges– many of which played out during the 2015 legislative session.

COBA:  I think where some of our challenges come is, again, around co-existence and the fact that we are so diverse. Sometimes something that one sector does could potentially harm another sector, not intentionally but certainly unintentionally. All of those issues become much more challenging. We saw that play out in the legislative session. We are learning a lot, we are learning a lot in partnership with this new sector of Oregon agriculture. We are supportive of the marijuana industry in Oregon and doing everything we can to give it the same level of support and resources and technical assistance as we do with any other sector of agriculture.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.