McGregor Company Recognized & Oregon Easement Issues

McGregor Company Recognized & Oregon Easement Issues plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The northwest's own McGregor Company has been recognized for environmental stewardship in the conversion of a defunct biodiesel plant in Creston, WA from an environmental hazard into a clean, compliant agri-chemical facility by the Washington State Department of Ecology. The investment and cleanup of the property earned McGregor an environmental excellence award. McGregor purchased the property in 2011, stripped the building down to its steel frame and rebuilt office space to permanently house six employees.

A panel of experts in the use of easements for working lands made their case before the State Board of Agriculture. Conservation easements are a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency, which permanently limits the use of that land for conservation purposes. Don Stuart, formerly of the American Farmland Trust, told the board of ag that a working land easement is much the same except the conservation value to be protected is agriculture.

STUART:  In the simplest case, what the easement really does, it says do not develop this land and do not subdivide this land. Don't do anything here that will prejudice it's usefulness for agriculture.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

This past week I had the pleasure of accompanying my son and granddaughter to our local animal shelter where they were having a 24-hour cat adoption event for the holidays, offering reduced rates for adoptions. My son who just purchased his first home a few months back is a full-time single Dad and he and our granddaughter are both cat lovers so this provided the perfect opportunity to find that new family member! We weren't there very long before both of them bonded with a two year old cat named Taz, who displayed a playful and loving personality. The three of them just clicked. Needless to say Taz is now a much loved addition to their happy home. Matching animal personalities to their human counterparts is extremely important, whether it's cats, dogs, or horses; especially horses, as horse and rider need to have a strong connection in order to operate well as a team. If that connection isn't there between horse and rider then the safety of both could be at risk. As authors and horsewomen Mary Morrow and Eunice Rush says in their 2012 book "Know You, Know Your Horse", "Understanding the personality is the only way to truly bond".

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