Wolves May Have Killed Alaska Teacher

From the Anchorage Daily News:
Authorities were in an Alaska Peninsula village Tuesday investigating whether a 32-year-old schoolteacher, found dead off a road leading out of town, was killed in a wolf attack, according to state and local officials.
The body of Candice Berner of Slippery Rock, Pa., was discovered Monday evening off a roughly 7-mile gravel road leading to the Chignik Lake airstrip… [after what one state trooper described as an] "animal attack, possibly a wolf attack."
"I don't think there's any decision yet as to whether it was predated before or after death," [said Bruce Woods, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]. "In other words, the (woman) might have died of something else and wolves might have found the body…."
"There's only been one other case of a fatal wolf attack by a healthy, wild wolf in North America, and that happened in 2005 in northern Saskatchewan," [wolf expert Mark] McNay said. "It is extremely rare….
"The frequency of these cases seems to have increased in the past decade or so."

Mountain Lines by Nelson Haas

Photo of the Day

I took the wife for a late winter ride in the Hicks Run area this weekend. The snow was beautiful but will be gone soon

Opinion- Roads To Ruin Without Natural Gas Production Tax

By Rep. Camille George
Pennsylvania's natural gas supplies in the Marcellus Shale deposit don't have to be the road to ruin.
But it's looking shaky.
Follow the money, follow the rutted roads, follow the fines. However, don't believe for a second the gas industry blather about "best management practices" and it complying "with all state regulations to protect the environment and the people of Pennsylvania."
A gas-industry truck was impounded in January after it was found to be 41.6 tons over the weight limit on a Bradford County road. The truck also had "numerous other permit violations."
"We've had so many problems lately with blatant [weight limit] violations," said a state policeman. "It's only going to get worse with all these gas companies coming in."
Four drivers of trucks serving the gas industry were fined and jailed in February after they allegedly hauled oversize loads illegally on Bradford County roads. Before being found almost 27 tons over weight, one of the trucks struck utility lines, a traffic signal and finally an overpass that sheared off part of his load.
A week later, a truck bound for a natural gas-drilling site was found to be 49.9 tons over the weight limit.
The state Public Utility Commission is increasing enforcement in northeastern Pennsylvania after receiving complaints. A township supervisor in Clearfield County told me that drilling trucks had pulverized roads to the point that they remind his son "of the bombed out roads in Iraq."......READ MORE

Mountain Lines by Nelson Haas

Click the image to see enlarged version of Nelson's fine art

EQT Announces Strategic Marcellus Acreage Acquisition

PITTSBURGH, March 2, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EQT Corporation (NYSE: EQT) today announced that it will acquire approximately 58,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale from a group of private operators and landowners. The acreage is located primarily in Cameron, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties in Pennsylvania. The purchase includes a 200 mile gathering system, with associated rights of way, and approximately 100 producing vertical wells.
At closing, EQT will pay approximately $280 million, ....read MORE

Photo of the Day

Spring is just around the corner, but its not too late to enjoy the winter snows while it lasts!