Sept. 26, 2002

PITT-BRADFORD TO HOST PANEL DISCUSSION ON

RECREATION, TOURISM IN ALLEGHENY NATIONAL FOREST REGION

 

            BRADFORD, Pa. — Four professionals who work in tourism and recreation will discuss recreation and tourism in the Allegheny National Forest region during a panel discussion on Thursday, Sept. 26, at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

The panel, “Recreation and Tourism — The Sleeping Giant,” will be held at 7 p.m. in Rice Auditorium in Fisher Hall. The event is free and open to the public. The panel, which is part of the college’s annual Perspectives on the Environment Series and its Social Sciences Symposium, is co-sponsored by the Allegheny Institute of Natural History.

Sitting on the panel will be Gary Kell, manager for the Allegheny National Forest’s Recreation, Wilderness and Wild Scenic River program, Diane DeLarme, owner and operator of the Kinzua-Wolf Run Marina and Docksider’s Café; Linda Devlin, executive

director of the Allegheny National Forest Vacation Bureau; and Diane Sheeley, executive director of the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Stephen Robar, assistant professor of political science, will serve as moderator.

Kell graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a degree in landscape architecture and has been employed with the U.S. Forest Service for more than 30 years. Before working in the ANF in recreation management and forest planning, he was a landscape architect in the Idaho and Montana National Forest for five years.

DeLarme founded and operated the first bike rental business in Moraine State Park. She operated marina and boat rentals there and at Long Point State Park and Onoville Park Marina. She has owned and operated the Kinzua-Wolf Run Marina and Docksiders Café for 22 years and also serves as president of Kinzua Ltd.

Devlin has been executive director of the Allegheny National Forest Vacation Bureau since 1999. She served as vice president of the Downtown Bradford Business District Authority for three years and is currently a board member of the Tuna Valley Trail Association.. Devlin has also helped organize several local projects, including the Bradford Farmer’s Market and the clean up of Old City Hall.

Sheeley has been executive director of the Chamber of Commerce since June but had done some volunteer work prior to her appointment. Previously she worked for Georgia-Pacific, Owens-Illinois and McCourt Label. She also worked at the Allegheny National Forest Vacation Bureau, the YWCA of Bradford, Futures Rehabilitation Center and The Friendship Table. Sheeley is also a committee member at the YWCA and is participating in the emerging Habitat for Humanity affiliate in McKean County.

 

Oct. 17, 2002

PITT-BRADFORD TO HOST PANEL ON LOGGING, FARMING, CONSERVATION

 

            BRADFORD, Pa.  The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will host a panel discussion on “Sustainability on Private Lands – Logging, Farming and Conservation” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 17.

            The panel, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Rice Auditorium in Fisher Hall. The event is part of the University’s annual Perspectives on the Environment Series and its Social Sciences Symposium, and is co-sponsored by the Allegheny Institute of Natural History. 

            Sitting on the panel will be Andy Peck, who works with The Nature Conservancy’s French Creek Program as a field representative; Bill Belitskus, a founding member of Communities for Sustainable Forestry and board president of the Allegheny Defense Project; Karen Atwood, a volunteer with the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and Dr. James Finley, associate professor in Penn State University’s School of Forest Resources.

            Dr. Stephen Robar, assistant professor of political science, will serve as the moderator.

            Since 2000, Peck has been working with The Nature Conservancy’s French Creek Program. His main responsibility is monitoring the French Creek watershed relative to the implementation of Agricultural Best Management Practices.  He works with small dairy farmers to implement those practices on their lands. Peck also worked for Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Council in DuBois, where he worked with local watershed groups to restore watersheds affected by acid mine drainage.

            Belitskus, of Kane, has helped form or sits on the board of many environmental advocacy organizations. He is a board member of the Pennsylvania Environmental Network, is a founding member of PROACT, the McKean County Citizens Against Nuclear Waste, the Dogwood Alliance and Appalachian Voices.

            Atwood is owner/operator of Atwood & Son Concrete Forming and is a volunteer with the Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship/Converts Program Volunteer. She is also an Initiative Program Recreational volunteer with the U.S. Forest Service and has been a certified snowmobile safety instructor with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for 30 years.

            Finley has been teaching at Penn State since 1980 and was appointed assistant director for extension in the School of Forest Resources in December 1996. From 1975 to 1980, he was an area extension agent in the School of Forest Resources, addressing forest management in a five-county region of northcentral Pennsylvania. Finley holds a doctorate in extension education from Penn State, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in forest sciences from Penn State.

 

March 27, 2003

PITT-BRADFORD TO HOST PANEL ON RENEWABLE ENERGY

 

            BRADFORD, Pa.   The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will host the panel discussion “Renewable Energy: What is Here?” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 27, in Rice Auditorium.

            At the panel, which is free and open to the public, energy professionals will focus on the local and global approach to renewable energy and what is and isn’t possible. Dr. Stephen Robar, assistant professor of political science, will serve as the moderator.

            Sitting on the panel will be Achim Loewen, director of the Fraunhofer Center for Energy and Environment in the School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, Robert M. Markee, director of marketing and project manager for the PennWind Project of Energy Unlimited Inc., and Dr. Assad Panah, professor and director of Pitt-Bradford’s department of geology and environmental studies, and its environmental studies program.

            Loewen, as director of the Fraunhofer Center for Energy and Environment, focuses on energy efficiency and energy generation from renewables. For example, the center works on gasification and digestion of biomass, where the produced gas can be used in gas motors, micro turbines or fuel cells, and also on cold generation from waste heat.

            Before coming to Pittsburgh in 2001, Loewen was working for the German Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen for 10 years. For several years, he was a scientific employee, carrying out different projects mainly dealing with the reconstruction and optimization of energy supply systems.

            Loewen holds master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Dortmund, Germany.

            Markee’s activities with Energy Unlimited cover its full product offerings, ranging from the sale of small wind turbine systems to the development of sites for large-scale commercial wind projects. He is also very active with the industry’s premier trade group the American Wind Energy Association, having served as chairman of the Small Wind Turbine Committee.

            Markee’s career began as a management trainee for Leasway Transportation Corp., where he later was named vice president of marketing. He also started and managed a new subsidiary for Gelco Corp. 

            Markee served for more than three years as an officer in the U. S. Navy after graduating from Georgetown University in 1961. He also participated in the Executive Marketing Management program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business.

            Panah has published 56 articles in the fields of geology, environmental science, remote sensing and renewable energy. He has been named a Fullbright Scholar twice and has received three NASA Earth Science Enterprise Grants over five years. He was one of 15 leaders nationwide to be an invited regional leader for a National Science Foundation Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement program.

            He is the co-editor of three books by the Pennsylvania Academy of Science: The Oceans: Physical Chemical Dynamics and Human Impact, published in 1994; Renewable Energy: Trends and Prospects and Science, Technology and National Security, both published in 2002.           

            Panah earned his doctorate in geology in 1966 from the University of Oklahoma, his master’s degree in geology in 1964 from the University of Texas, and a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences in 1958 from the University of Tehran in Iran.            

            The event is part of the university’s annual Perspectives on the Environment Series and its Social Sciences Symposium and is co-sponsored by the Allegheny Institute of Natural History. Janis Trubic, a sophomore environmental studies major from Sheffield, is serving as student coordinator.