Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

The Potter County Natural Gas Resource Center has arranged for an award-winning geoscientist as guest speaker for its next meeting. Dr. Terry Engelder’s presentation, “Utica Shale: Digging Deeper,” is especially timely, with large Utica Shale drilling projects on the drawing board in at least three sections of Potter County and in other parts of Pennsylvania. Marcellus Shale has been in the headlines for the past several years, but industry leaders say the Utica layer that’s beneath it -- more than two miles underground -- could be where the more intense local gas production takes place. Dr. Engelder will speak at 7 pm Tuesday, Feb. 17, at the Gunzburger Building on Main Street in Coudersport. “There are many things we do not know about the Utica Shale, but there are signs that it’s going to be a very productive source of natural gas in our region, so the more we know, the better prepared we can be,” said Natural Gas Resource Center Director Bob Veilleux. Engelder is a geosci...

Penn State Extension Water Resource Educator, Jim Clark, led a workshop on aquatic invasives for 69 McKean County Students on Wednesday, April 16, 2014, at Wildcat Park near Kane, PA. The high school students came to the park to release trout into local streams. These trout were raised in their classroom aquariums. Clark’s talk explained to the students that normally humans should never release anything into the water bodies of Pennsylvania. Millions of dollars are spent each year trying to control or eradicate invasive species in the United States. Many of these invasives were introduced by gardeners, for example the giant hogweed and purple loosestrife plants. Many exotic plants and fish that were released from unwanted aquariums or escaped into the wild are now invasives in ponds and lakes. The state of Florida has problems now with an over population of python snakes in the wild, that are believed to have been started from aquarium pythons, that became too big and were releas...

(News Release) Local Penn State Extension Water Resources Educator, Jim Clark, was elected Central Region Director for the Pennsylvania Lake Management Society, commonly known as “PALMS” at the annual conference in State College Thursday. Clark will serve in his position for two years. PALMS is a non-profit organization dedicated to the management, restoration and protection of Pennsylvania’s lakes and surrounding watersheds. PALMS is comprised of lake and watershed associations, concerned citizens and watershed management professionals from the private and public sector with the common interest of protecting Pennsylvania lakes for future generations. Clark has served as an Extension Educator based in McKean County since July of 1989. He has offered regional pond workshops, coordinates an on line pond management home study course each year, and serves as co-chair of the Penn State Water Resources Team. Thousands of people each year enjoy being on and around Pennsylvania lakes a...

Penn State Extension Educator, Jim Clark, and the Cameron County Conservation District, recently obtained a $6,000 grant from the Headwaters RC&D Sinnemahoning Stakeholders Group. The grant will pay for water tests for 35 rural ponds located throughout the Sinnemahoning Watershed. The ponds need to be one quarter acre or larger in size and will be selected on a first come, first served basis. The ponds must be located in the Sinnemahoning Watershed to be accepted. Clark will collect all of the samples and deliver them to the Penn State Water Lab in State College this spring. The Penn State Water Lab has two pond test kit options and these ponds will be tested for pH, total dissolved solids, nitrate-nitrogen, alkalinity, aluminum, iron, manganese, phosphorous, sulfate, hardness, and E coli. bacteria. The combined results will be shared at a Penn State Extension Pond Management Workshop to be held in Emporium in September. The project is designed to encourage pond owners to re...

The Penn State Extension Water Resources Team is offering two pond education opportunities where participants learn from home. An Online Pond Home Study Course, and an Aquatic Pesticide Recertification Correspondence Course, allows Pennsylvania Pond Owners to participate, without ever leaving their home. Beginning on April 4, 2013, a twelve week Penn State Extension Online Pond Management Home Study Course will restart. The course has been completed by over 100 pond owners so far and was redesigned last year for re-release this spring. The new course will feature PowerPoint’s with narration, covering the various topics. The cost of the course is $35.00 and covers six lessons delivered by email over a 12 week period. The six lessons cover pond assessment, pond maintenance, aquatic plants and algae, fisheries management, attracting and managing wildlife, and pond case studies. In the case studies lesson, the participants are given real life PA pond cases to manage. A series of six works...