Reading Time: 2 minutes Blaine, Wash. | Reuters — The first Asian giant hornet nest of the year has been found in Washington state, and plans are being developed to eradicate it, likely next week, the state’s agriculture department said on Thursday. The so-called stinging “murder hornets,” the world’s largest hornets, can grow to five centimetres in length and […] Read more
U.S. training ag staff to track, trap, kill ‘murder hornets’
Invasive species remains threat to bees, honey producers
Charred U.S. west’s ‘wet ashtray’ wine grapes left to birds
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — Heavy ground smoke clouded Hanson Vineyards in Oregon’s picturesque Willamette Valley for more than a week following a Labour Day windstorm that kicked up wildfires across the western United States. Jason Hanson expects his crews may only harvest five tons of grapes, including his Chardonnay and Gamay varieties, down from the 25 to […] Read more
Eye worm, known only in cattle, found in U.S. woman’s eye
Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — An Oregon woman has become the first person worldwide known to have had an eye infestation by a tiny worm species previously seen only in cattle that is spread by flies that feed on eyeball lubrication, U.S. government researchers said on Monday. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists […] Read more
Oregon refuge searched for evidence, explosives after occupiers leave
Reading Time: 2 minutes Burns, Ore. | Reuters — Police and federal agents searched a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon for explosives and evidence on Friday, a day after the last holdouts in a protest over federal control of Western land surrendered to end a six-week armed standoff. Federal authorities said the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon […] Read more
FBI sets up checkpoints around Oregon refuge after deadly confrontation
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — U.S. and state officials in Oregon on Wednesday set up checkpoints around Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where an armed group pledged to prolong its standoff with the government a day after one protester was shot and eight others were arrested. Authorities said the new security involves a series of checkpoints along key routes […] Read more
Sympathy for jailed ranchers, anger at occupiers in Oregon town
Reading Time: 3 minutes Burns, Ore. | Reuters — Residents of the Oregon town thrust into the spotlight after self-styled militiamen took over a U.S. wildlife refuge voiced sympathy for the jailed ranchers whose plight inspired the action but were critical of the armed protesters. Saturday’s takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside the town of Burns, Ore., […] Read more
Oregon activists picked the wrong battle, militia leaders say
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — Self-styled militia members who seized federal property in rural Oregon in an effort to galvanize opposition to the U.S. government appear to have made a tactical error — potential allies say they picked the wrong battle. As armed anti-government activists occupied a snowy wildlife refuge for a third day to call attention to […] Read more
Protesters occupy Oregon wildlife refuge as rangeland dispute flares
Array
Reading Time: 3 minutes Princeton, Ore. | Reuters — A group of self-styled militiamen occupied the headquarters of a U.S. wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon to protest the imminent jailing of two ranchers, officials said Sunday, in the latest skirmish over federal land management in the U.S. West. The occupation, which began on Saturday, followed a march in Burns, […] Read more
Drought prompts cuts to farm irrigation in California, Oregon
Reading Time: 2 minutes Portland | Reuters –– The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will cut the amount of federal irrigation water available to farmers along the Oregon-California border to half the annual norm as it grapples with a fourth year of regional drought, the agency said on Friday. Though the roughly 1,200 affected farms in the Klamath Basin had […] Read more
No relief in sight for U.S. West’s drought in spring outlook
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Drought pressures will increase in California and western areas of the U.S. this spring even as the dry season begins, the government’s Climate Prediction Center said Thursday. “Periods of record warmth in the West and not enough precipitation during the rainy season cut short drought relief in California this winter and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
