Henry P sends me this amusing piece of correspondence!

This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries regarding a pond on his property. It was sent by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania. This guy's response is hilarious, but read the State's letter before you get to the response letter, you won't stop once you start. WOW Love this man.

This is an actual letter:

State of Pennsylvania's letter to Mr. DeVries:

SUBJECT: DEQ ... File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:

Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond.

A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the Department's files shows that no permits have been issued Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.

The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations.. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2015.

Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action..

We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division.

And Mr DeVries' reply?

Biologists will test whether a measles-like virus that killed more than 1,600 dolphins since July 2013 also did in an 11-foot-long pilot whale that beached itself Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

"It's a big female," said Megan Stolen, a research scientist with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. "It was emaciated."

Stolen and fellow biologists are examining the pilot whale's remains today (May 8) at Hubb's lab near Melbourne Beach, extracting lung, lymph node and spinal cord tissues to test for the so-called morbillivirus.

The virus has been killing bottlenose dolphins along the Atlantic Coast for more than two years in the worst outbreak of the virus in almost three decades.

The virus claimed 740 dolphins from New Jersey to Florida in 1987.

The rising leopard population in the region has resulted in frequent human-animal conflicts over the past five years. Leopards straying into farms have claimed 12 human lives and caused 6,603 animal deaths since 2010.

Foresters said there have been 10 incidents of leopard straying and/or attacking human beings or animals in the span of past six months. More recently, two attacks were reported in a month in Sinnar area.

The recent attacks in Sinnar resulted in the death of a four-year-old and left a farmer with minor injuries. The forest department laid two cages to trap the leopard but is yet to catch the wild cat.

Forest officials said there has been a significant rise in the leopard population in the region. The recent incidents of leopards straying into human habitats have given rise to the question whether humans have encroached upon their habitats.

A four-year-old disabled boy was reportedly killed by a monkey in Ghaziabad on Thursday, 7 May.

The deceased, Mohan, was playing with his brothers, Golu, 6, Srikant, 6, and Sohan, 4, at their home when the mishap happened in the afternoon.

However, when the incident occurred none of the elders were at home and he breathed his last on the way to hospital.

"The monkey appeared out of nowhere and attacked me and chased my brothers. We all ran outside to save ourselves but Mohan could not. The animal managed to push open the door of the room where Mohan was present. He then grabbed his neck and choked him. I ran out and called my grandmother for help. But to no avail," Golu said, according to the Hindustan Times.

A series of tornadoes, including a major twister, touched down southwest of Oklahoma City on Wednesday, flipping cars and causing the escape of tigers and other animals from an exotic wildlife park, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries but some structures were damaged as a storm system brought severe weather to several Great Plains states, officials said.

Tigers and other animals were able to briefly escape from the Tiger Safari park after a tornado struck the city of Tuttle, about 30 miles (48km) south-west of Oklahoma City, though they were recaptured without further incident, the Grady County Sheriff's Office said.

Residents of Tuttle had been warned to stay indoors by authorities after the escape.

Meanwhile passengers, visitors and employees at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were evacuated to a pedestrian tunnel for about 30 minutes as the storms moved through the area, the airport said on its Twitter feed.

The tornadoes flipped cars, downed power lines and snapped trees. Several roads were closed because of debris, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said.

Northern wheatear is an extremely rare sight south of Canada

A rare Arctic visitor came to Lane River Bridge in South Sutton on May 3.

A female northern wheatear was seen and photographed there and leads to Rare Bird Alert for New Hampshire for this week.

These are marathon migrators who don't usually make it into the lower 48 states.

Its conservation status is probably stable and may be increasing as a breeder in northeastern Canada, according to Audubon.

A Wood River Police Officer's five-year-old son was attacked by the family dog Wednesday afternoon.

The incident happened around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the back yard of the officer's Wood River home. The dog was a 120 pound English Mastiff. The five-year-old was unconscious when emergency responders arrived at the house.

Officers say they were forced to put down the dog due to it's violent behavior. The boy regained consciousness before he was flown to a St. Louis Hospital. He was bitten multiple times and suffered lacerations to the lower portion of his body. Police did not release details on his condition tonight.

An elephant went on rampage in the State capital creating havoc among the people for several hours before daybreak on Wednesday. One person named Baldev Mahli, 55, got killed after it rammed over him after he came out of his house at Naya Basti under Argora Police Station in Ranchi. It also injured at least two other persons of the same locality as they stepped out of their houses.

A forest official said that the tusker took the root from the jungles of Khunti to Lalkhatanga to Bio-diversity Park and entered the city along with the boundary of Birsa Munda Airport, then to Birsa Chowk from where it took the Hatia Ranchi Railway line for venturing towards Argora and Kadru heading towards Ranchi Station.

They, however, claimed that the elephant has been chased away to the jungles of Lalkhatanga adjacent to Ranchi.

Indian pitta and black-naped oriole, two species of migratory birds from the Himalayan region, have extended their stay in the Grizzled giant squirrel sanctuary in Srivilliputhur.

Sighting of these rare birds were recorded during a bird census last Saturday and Sunday. Bombay Natural History Society member S Chandrasekar, who took part in the census, said normally these birds stay till the end of March. When temperatures soar, they return to their habitat after nesting and roosting. This time they are hanging around. We need to study the reasons.

Five species of birds have been recorded during the census, the other three species being the Wayanad laughing thrush, yellow-throated bulbul and Malabar trogan. A decade ago it was considered that the yellow-throated bulbul was purely an Eastern Ghats species. Sighting of this bird last week in the Western Ghats has opened new possibilities of studies. Similarly, the sighting of Malabar trogan was reported from camps set up in high altitude areas. All the five species were not recorded in last year's census.

A 67-year-old man was killed by a wild elephant near Belpahari town in Midnapore West district today, forest department officials said.

Sukhen Mura of Banspahari village had come to Belpahari to collect his old age pension and was returning home in a cycle through a forest where a herd of three elephants were staying.

One of the three pachyderms wrapped Mura with its trunk and flung him on the ground, the officials said.

After being taken to hospital, he was declared dead on arrival.