Penn State Cooperative Extension To
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Penn State Cooperative
Extension soon will offer a course
to teach small business owners
and operators how to use the In
ternet.
The Access Pennsylvania Main
Street program connects small- to
medium-sized businesses to the
Internet, electronic commerce,
and global trade. The program
teaches Pennsylvania business
people about the potential to dra
matically increase access to re
sources and to expand their
available markets.
“This program will provide
Penn State, Game Commission Study Hunter Movements
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Hunters will be able to co
operate this fall in a joint Penn
State-Pennsylvania Game Com
mission study of hunter move
ment, success, and attitudes in
Sproul State Forest in northcen
tral Pennsylvania.
During the Friday-through-
Sunday period (Nov. 23-25) prior
to opening day of the regular rifle
deer-hunting season, university
personnel, game commission
staff, and state Department of
Conservation and Natural Re
sources Bureau of Forestry work
ers were scheduled to contact a
sample of hunting camp resi
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small business owners the in
formation they need to make
good decisions about using the
Internet in a way that will im
prove their bottom line,” said Bill
Shuffstall, Clearfield County ex
tension agent and coordinator of
the program. “And that is not al
ways e-commerce, or selling
things. We will show them how
to get information they need to be
effective.”
Shuffstall is quick to point out
that the Access Pennsylvania
program does not try to sell Web
page-building services. “How
ever, we can advise small busi-
dents.
Then, beginning opening day,
Monday morning, Nov. 26,
through Wednesday, Nov. 28,
and the following two Saturdays,
a series of check stations along
Rt. 144 will be staffed so that
hunters traveling to Sproul State
Forest can be asked to participate
in this study as well.
“This is one of several research
projects at Penn State related to'
deer management,” said Dr.
Gary Alt, deer management sec
tion leader with the Game Com
mission. “As we move forward
with changes in deer manage
ment, we need to know more
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ness people who have or want
Web pages what they need to do
to make them better,” he said.
The Internet holds a wealth of
information small business peo
ple need, according to Shuffstall,
such as potential new suppliers,
explanations of government regu
lations, the low-down on compet
itors and services of trade groups,
just to name a few.
The 12-hour e-business course
is taught in an easy-to-under
stand format in an informal
classroom setting. A substantial
portion of the course consists of
hands-on exploration of the In
ternet.
about when, where, and how
hunters hunt.
“This study,” he said, “will
provide information to help us
improve deer management on
state forestlands. I hope hunters
using Sproul State Forest will co
operate with us on this project.”
To participate, some hunters
will be asked to trace their day’s
hunt on a topographic map. A
small group of hunters from
camps and some hunters who
drive into Sproul State Forest
will be asked to carry a pocket
sized global positioning unit dur
ing their hunt.
These units automatically will
Offer E-Business Course
“We will teach small business
people how to use e-mail to
quickly send and receive inform
ation needed in their operations,”
he said.
The program is new to Penn
sylvania, but proven elsewhere.
“We have worked with the
University of Minnesota to adopt
and modify their program and
make it a Penn State program,”
Shuffstall explained. “It was used
in that state and others in the
Midwest for more than four
years. It is very popular there
with small business people be
cause it offers them so much
practical help.”
record hunter movement. The
study team will retrieve the unit,
either as the hunter leaves the
forest or from the hunter at
camp, and download the satellite
information into computers for
later analysis.
In addition to these efforts to
contact hunters both at camp and
when they drive into the area, an
attempt will be made to de
termine hunter distribution in the
forest using aerial photography
taken by the Bureau of Forestry
during the study period.
“This cooperative research is
using cutting-edge technology to
study hunter movements, but still
Penn State Clarifies
Soy-Diesel Confusion
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Some people, depending
on their definitions of the term
may have misinter
preted recent warnings from an
expert in Penn State’s College of
Agricultural Sciences on the dan
gers of burning soy-diesel blend
ed with diesel fuel in engines.
According to Dennis Buffing
ton, professor of agricultural and
biological engineering, the term
“bio-diesel” is the modem term
for transesterfied oil (whether its
origin is vegetable, animal or
spent cooking oil).
“Bio-diesel meets ASTM Fuel
Grade Standards PS-121 and it is
perfectly safe and advisable to
burn bio-diesel straight or blend
ed with conventional diesel fuel
in diesel en
gines,” Buf
fington said.
“In some re
gions of the
country, the
term ‘soy
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Penn State extension agents
were trained last summer to offer
the Access Pennsylvania Main
Street Program and have been
forging partnerships with com
munity organizations to offer the
program across the state. The
course first will be offered in a
number of counties in late fall
and early winter, running more
or less continuously after that.
For more information on the
program or to see when and
where the course will be offered,
visit the Web at http://
www. ebusiness, exten
sion.psu.edu.
depends on the cooperation of
deer hunters in Sproul State For
est,” said Dr. Jim Finley, an asso
ciate professor of forest resources
in Penn State Cooperative Exten
sion.
Contact Finley at (814)
863-0401 if you have questions
about the study.
Penn State and the Game
Commission plan to repeat this
study during the fall 2002 hunt
ing season. As an incentive, all
hunters helping with this study
will have their name entered in a
drawing for a Garmin GPS unit.
diesel’ is still being used to refer
to bio-diesel that is derived from
soybean oil.”
In these regions, explains Buf
fington, the use of soy-diesel, ei
ther straight or blended with die
sel fuel, is likewise perfectly safe
and advisable since this fuel also
meets the ASTM standards as
well as pertinent government reg
ulations.
However, in some parts of the
country, the term “soy-diesel”
currently is being used to refer to
raw soybean oil that is blended
with diesel fuel along with an ad
ditive.
“Although engines will run
short term on this mixture, the
mixture does not meet ASTM
standards,” said Buffington. “It
does not meet government regu
lations, and users risk damaging
their engines.”
The bottom line, Buffington
warns, is “buyer beware” of what
he or she is purchasing to use as
a fuel in an engine.