Oregon Farm Bureau announces resolutions, including repeal of federal estate tax, fire protection policy, and removal of gray wolf from state endangered species list

By MITCH LIES
Capital Press Staff Writer

1/9/03

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon Farm Bureau wants to repeal the federal estate tax, implement an incentive-based fire protection policy in wildland-urban interface areas and remove the gray wolf from the state endangered species list.

Through their House of Delegates, Farm Bureau members voted to adopt these and 21 other resolutions during the bureau’s annual convention in December.

The Farm Bureau also supports a national policy that promotes salvage logging in areas of burned, diseased or infested forests, supports changing laws to allow the use of signs to announce roadside stands and supports use of a paper reporting system for reporting pesticide use.

In other resolutions, the bureau moved to:

Seek legal changes to expedite the building of small scale reservoirs of 500 acre feet or less.

Support right-to-work legislation that would eliminate closed union shops.

Support the concept of farmers’ markets and other opportunities for farmers to increase the marketability and profitability of their crops.

Support government management of public lands to assure that fire prevention, suppression and control measures are taken to prevent the spread of fire onto private lands.

Support limiting civil penalties for violation of removal and fill laws to no more than $100 per day and the retention of all exemptions for agriculture contained in the current Oregon removal-fill law.

Support guaranteed payments to growers for raw product deliveries through licensing of dealers.

Oppose federal preemption of state water rights.

Oppose removal of acreage from agricultural production through any government or private program.

Oppose the use of mail surveys by county assessors to determine whether land inside exclusive farm use zones qualifies for farm use special assessment.

Oppose the current commodity commission legislation and support a provision that would allow producers to receive a refund of all assessments paid in the current calendar year.

The bureau will take its resolution to repeal the federal estate tax to the American Farm Bureau in the hopes of getting the national farm bureau to adopt the resolution at its annual convention in February.

All resolutions will be added to the bureau’s policy manual.