Talk:Forbes State Forest

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	Forbes State Forest is part of WikiProject Pennsylvania, which is building a comprehensive and detailed guide to Pennsylvania on Wikipedia. To participate, you can edit the attached article, join or discuss the project.
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This article is part of WikiProject Protected Areas, a WikiProject related to national parks and other protected areas worldwide. It may include the protected area infobox.

An entry from Forbes State Forest appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 5 July 2006.

I just started adding content:

The "Natural features" section is still a stub with more to come (soon).

I added the first external link, but I'm not sure the format is correct.

Ideally we can add a couple of images to this article; a map and a "wilderness" image (if possible).

--Doc Tropics 16:40, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

When was it established? Also add establishment cat once found. Circeus 23:42, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Forbes is actually several noncontigous tracts which were acquired by the state at different times. So far I've only found info for the Roaring Run area, but I did put that in. --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 05:28, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] image issues

I just uploaded this image from the U.S. DCNR (see External link on Mainpage), but I've botched the licensing part. Any help or suggestions? --20:02, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

You need to state the source. If you got it from the DCNR website, a link to the place on the website you found it would help. If it's truly US Government/public domain, then that'll do a lot to clarify the image status. Kelly Martin (talk) 20:41, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Bah, it was an image from a state gov, not the U.S. gov; I had to kill it :( --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 01:13, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup and Question

I put in the Protected Areas Infobox and made the style more consistent with the other PA State Forest articles (the first six alphabetically are now consistent, I am working on the others). I have a question - the article says "millions of annual visitors", but gives no source. It either needs a source or a less specific number ("large numbers of annual visitors", maybe?). If there is a specific visitor number, there is a place for that in the infobox as well as year of founding, etc. I also wonder whether the www.stateparks.com website adds much - it is pretty much the same content as the PA State (not US) DCNR website for the forest. Nice article so far and congrats on the DYK! Ruhrfisch 19:45, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Hey, nice work! Especially with the map. Doc Tropics is the content expert in these parts, I'll ask him when he comes back from his holiday. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 00:34, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. The map is part of the infobox, the only tricky part is playing with the x and y coordinates to get the dot right. I will watch for Doc Tropics' feedback, take care, Ruhrfisch 02:23, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone for the fine additions and corrections, especially Ruhrfisch for the map which was sorely needed. The extraneous external link has already been removed and I'd actually suggest that the one which remains might be changed from a link to a cite because it specifically references the "millions of annual visitors". This change would retain all the useful info and the link itself, but is probably a more appropriate format. I'll change it shortly if no one raises an objection. --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 17:25, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

You are very welcome. I am still not sure about "millions of visitors annually to Forbes State Forest". The PA DCNR web page for Forbes (here [1]) says "Most of the Forbes State Forest lays along Laurel Ridge. This area is a favorite of people from the greater Pittsburgh area and is heavily used for all types of outdoor recreation. To play host to the millions of visitors to this area, six State Parks and three State Forest Picnic Areas have been developed." The term area is so vague, I am not sure what it means - the forest? the forest and state parks? the multicounty area the forest is in? Laurel Ridge?

The www.stateparks.com/forbes.html website does not seem to me to have any text content that is not taken directly (and without attribution) from the DCNR page (outside of ads). Here is their quote (identical): "Most of the Forbes State Forest lays along Laurel Ridge. This area is a favorite of people from the greater Pittsburgh area and is heavily used for all types of outdoor recreation. To play host to the millions of visitors to this area, six State Parks and three State Forest Picnic Areas have been developed." It does have the locator map and the nearby parks features. Finally, User:Rcc105 is making nice maps of each of the PA state forest holdings (see Image:Buchanan.png for an example). Ruhrfisch 18:55, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

I was thinking we could use either of the gov sites to cite the "millions of visitors" but if you're suggesting that the whole phrase simply be removed, that would be acceptable too (neither of the gov sites is especially well-written). I noticed that the section "Nearby State Parks" is mostly redlinks, so I'd also be interested in turning those into articles as well (but I owe Captain Vindaloo some work on another project first). Drop a note on my Talkpage if you're interested in working on those otherpark/forest articles. --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 20:21, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

I just made a quick edit and removed the words "millions of". This is probably not the most elegant solution, but it should suffice temporarily. --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 20:34, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Works for me - could we also just quote the sentence in question directly? Something like According to the DCNR Forbes State Forest Web page, "To play host to the millions of visitors to this area, six State Parks and three State Forest Picnic Areas have been developed." I am frustrated by the uneven quality of the DCNR web pages - some have much information (size and dates of founding of state forests), other lack this, and none have been updated since before July 2005. Since then they made a new state forest (Loyalsock), got rid of an old one (Wyoming), and shifted territory among these and five others, but none of their individual pages has been updated. Take care, Ruhrfisch 10:48, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I think it would be fine to offer either the quote that you've suggested, or to make it an inline cite (which might actually be considered more wikified). Even though I deleted the reference, I do think the info should be retained one way or the other; I was just too tired to make a reasonable decision at the time :) --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 16:47, 20 July 2006 (UTC)