REGION

REGION
MCFSC awards banquetset at Lowellville club
LOWELLVILLE -- The annual Mahoning County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs awards banquet will be at 6 p.m. today at the Lowellville Rod & amp; Gun Clubhouse, 6225 Quarry Road off U.S. Route 224 in Poland Township.
Rosemary Herr, national coordinator of the NRA Shooting Sports Camps programs, will be the featured speaker, MFCSC president James Denney said.
A longtime firearms and shooting sports enthusiast, Herr began her career in the Shooting Sports Development Program and was responsible for the administration of the NRA Junior Olympic and NRA Marksmanship Qualification shooting programs. She also oversaw the national promotion of international style shooting sports in the United States and the growth of youth participation in competitive shooting.
She has written several new courses of fire for handgun, sporting clays, light rifle, high power and trap, as well as numerous NRA publications.
Tickets are available by calling Denney at (330) 545-4250 or contacting any federation club president.
Banquet benefitsTod Children's Hospital
BROOKFIELD -- The 19th annual Tod Children's Hospital sportsman's awards banquet, sponsored by Marteney's Barber Shop and Fish & amp; Field Report, will take place March 11 at Yankee Lake Ballroom.
Last year's event drew 1,000 people and raised over $25,000 for Tod Children's Hospital.
Doors open at 5 p.m. Tickets are $16, and tables for 10 are available. Corporate sponsorships are $260 for a table of 10. A special drawing will be held for the corporate sponsored tables.
For more information, call William Marteney at (330) 898-3858 or 872-0596, Fish & amp; Field editor Rick Henninger at (330) 544-8951, Frank Maloney at (440) 293-8217 or Mike Landis at (440) 293-4074.
Owl prowl at Jennings
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- The Jennings Environmental Education Center, 2951 Prospect Road, will present a program Feb. 12 on folklore, natural history and adaptations of mysterious creatures of the night.
After a brief indoor presentation, guests can prowl among the owls and other winter creatures on a guided walk along Jennings' darkened forest trails.
Jennings is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and on weekends as scheduled. The trails are open daily from sunrise to sunset.
OHIO
Earthquakes here?You can believe it
When it comes to earth-shaking experiences, Californians aren't the only ones who feel the earth move beneath their feet. Every year, small earthquakes rattle along buried fault lines in Ohio, particularly in the western and northeastern portions of the state.
While most of us never notice these minor jolts in the earth, sensitive equipment in strategic locations around Ohio is recording every shift and shake that occurs deep beneath the surface of the Buckeye State.
Known as seismographs, the sensitive equipment records underground waves of energy generated by earthquakes. Most recently, these instruments picked up two earthquakes that rumbled through northeast Ohio on consecutive Fridays in January.
The first occurred Jan. 6, and registered 2.3 in magnitude as it gently shook the ground beneath Mentor-on-the-Lake, just east of Cleveland in Lake County.
The second quake, a 2.6 magnitude, rolled through the same area on Jan. 13. Preliminary data indicate the two earthquakes were actually centered beneath Lake Erie, about nine miles off shore.
Ohio is one of only a few states to have a network of seismograph stations that continuously monitor ground motion to detect and locate local and regional earthquakes. These 25 volunteer stations are located at colleges, universities, and institutions around Ohio, such as the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Alum Creek State Park.
The instruments are part of the Ohio Seismic Network (or OhioSeis), and are so sensitive to motion that they were able to detect seismic waves from the December 2004 Indian Ocean that created the devastating tsunami.
PENNSYLVANIA
Deer study concludes
HARRISBURG -- The first year of a midstate study focusing on female white-tailed deer survival and behavior during hunting seasons recently concluded. The three-year research project is a cooperative venture between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University.
The study, which is being conducted in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 2G and 4B, is designed to answer the following questions: What percentage of female deer survive from one hunting season to the next in both big woods and mixed habitats? What factors influence survival of female deer? What is hunter density on public and private lands? How do female deer respond to hunting activity on public and private lands? Do environmental factors influence the harvest of female deer?
In recent years, results from a series of research projects on white-tailed deer have been used to guide and refine deer management decisions made by the Game Commission. These studies include: a fawn survival study (2000-01); a buck survival and movement study (2001-05); a rut timing and conception study (2000-present); an antler measurement study (2000-01); an evaluation of deer harvest estimates and reporting rates (2003-04); and chronic wasting disease surveillance (1998-present). Information on many of these research projects can be found on the agency's Web site at (www.pgc.state.pa.us) by clicking on "Wildlife" and then choosing "Deer."