FAIR WARNING: You heard it here
first.[neWLine]

A. Buck Tantalo of Bradford writes, “”On the morning of
Jan. 7, 2007, at 4 a.m., I heard a strange noise on the entrance to
my home. I jumped out of bed out to the kitchen, and there on the
rail of the deck stood this mountain lion. If you’re wondering how
I could see at this time of day – the night light illuminates the
whole area.””[neWLine]

“”I am standing at the kitchen window about 4 feet from
the rail, face to face with a mountain lion. The room is dark – it
can’t see me, but I have a perfect view of this lion. As you can
imagine, the feeling so close, yet safe; frightening, yet exciting.
The tail approximately 2 feet. Its body 3 feet, including the head.
Its weight 60 or 80 pounds.[neWLine]

“”My neighbor saw one a short time ago, and I was
talking with a local physician. He has seen
two.[neWLine]

“”So believe it or not, you people out there, beware.
These animals are dangerous. They will attack humans, as seen on
TV.””[neWLine]

[neWLine]

TIMBER TIME: Trees, of course, are a renewable resource.
And, in this region, they are plentiful as well as
valuable.[neWLine]

With that preamble, let us tell you about some
information we received from Elk State Forest about the revenue the
sale of its timber has generated over the past few
years.[neWLine]

Last year alone, 19 timber sales on 1,349 acres of Elk
State Forest generated $5,838,715.[neWLine]

That compares to the year 2005 when there were 12 sales
on 732 acres generating $3,332,665.[neWLine]

For 2004, 12 sales on 1,110 acres generated $3,927,839.
In 2003, 8 sales on 574 acres generated $471,117; and in 2002, 16
sales on 1,093 acres generated $3,134,468.[neWLine]

Now that’s just for Elk State Forest
alone.[neWLine]

Here are the statistics for all state forest land in the
previous years:[neWLine]

Last year, some 13,635 acres were included in timber
sales of $36,717,947.[neWLine]

In 2005, timber was harvested on 13,302 acres, bringing
in $42,745,069.[neWLine]

In 2004, some 12,843 acres were harvested for
$26,626,486.[neWLine]

In 2003, some 10,957 acres were harvested to bring in
$34,577,781.[neWLine]

In 2002, trees harvested on 19,424 acres brought in
revenue of $47,418,733.