Follow the information highway to Minnesota's emerald w o o d s , waters, and wildlife.

There's No Place Like Home By LYNN WADSWORTH

EVERYONE HAS H E A R D THE B U Z Z T H E Web, the In te rne t , the i n f o r m a t i o n highway. But many of us aren't sure exactly what the Web looks like or how to use it. Even some of the most tech-savvy h a v e n ' t explored or " s u r f e d " e n o u g h to know the extent of what 's out there.

Yet in the last two years the World Wide Web has m a d e its w a y into ma ins t r eam communica t ions . Every TV commercia l , every movie , every p r in ted publ icat ion, every p r o d u c t , every bus iness seems to have its own Web address, also known as an URL (universal resource locator, pro-nounced "earl" or spelled out "U-R-L"). You can get the latest news and weather, visit cult sites for nearly every passion, and b r o w s e p e r s o n a l h o m e p a g e s f e a t u r i n g pictures of the owner ' s spiri tual advisor, fountain pen collection, or latest haircut.

Recently, a friend told me how she had p l anned her ent i re trip to San Francisco

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o v e r the Web . She go t m u s e u m hours, ferry schedules, and transit m a p s , and chose her ho te l r o o m f rom pictures on the Internet. She bought her plane tickets, reserved a rental car, and picked u p the confer-ence schedule over the Web.

N o w you can plan a trip to some Minnesota state trails with the same ease by v i s i t i n g t h e M i n n e s o t a Depa r tmen t of Natura l Resources Web site. Imagine it's Friday night, t h e w e a t h e r f o r e c a s t on t h e 10 o 'clock n e w s predic ts a go rgeous day for tomorrow, and you think, "A perfect day to take the family biking." But you haven ' t p lanned, t h e D N R I n f o r m a t i o n C e n t e r is closed for the weekend , you have no map, and you aren ' t even sure where to pick u p the trail. So what do you do? You get on the Internet, go to the DNR Web site, download the trail information and a trail m a p onto your computer , then pr int it out. You're all set to get started first thing in the morning.

W I B H M 8 M I Onl ine for almost a year at www.dnr.state.mn.us, t h e D N R W e b s i t e h o s t s a b o u t 3,000 v i s i t o r s a w e e k . T h e s i t e offers informat ion f rom the basics about the DNR's work and Minne-s o t a ' s n a t u r a l r e sou rces , to ou t -door recreation such as state park campground rules, f ishing regula-

Lynn Wadsworth is the Web site designer for the Minnesota DNR.

tions, lake survey reports, and boat and wa te r safety guide l ines . You can a l s o f i n d o u t a b o u t t r e e s e e d l i n g sa les , n u i s a n c e a n i m a l control , and e n d a n g e r e d species . Teachers can learn about the DNR e d u c a t i o n a l p r o g r a m s P r o j e c t WET, Project WILD, M i n n A q u a , a n d Pro jec t L e a r n i n g Tree . A n d kids can find lots of facts and fig-ures for school reports.

The DNR Web site is designed to be friendly and intuitively accessed in other words, a little bit of com-m o n sense s h o u l d h e l p y o u f ind what you want. For example, if you k n o w the D N R ' s o r g a n i z a t i o n of divisions and bureaus, you can go to the appropriate DNR program for i n f o r m a t i o n . U n d e r the h e a d i n g About DNR, you can get p rog ram informat ion, inc luding the names , addresses , and phone n u m b e r s of many supervisors and staff.

If y o u d o n ' t k n o w the DNR as an organizat ion, you can find the answer to your quest ion by look-ing unde r a natural resource head-ing such as Wildlife or Water. Or you can search by keyword , such as rocks or fishing. Check out sea-sonal f r equen t ly asked ques t ions at the DNR Informat ion Center.

Besides getting information f rom the Web site, you can use it to drop the DNR a line. Click on Comments to send y o u r feedback or to reques t i n f o r m a t i o n f r o m t h e D N R Information Center.

The Web site features one story

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f r o m each i s sue of The Minnesota Volunteer. Y o u c a n d o w n l o a d a s u b s c r i p t i o n f o r m a n d l o o k u p ar t ic les in a 25-year i n d e x to the m a g a z i n e . Fish and Wildlife Today, Forest Disease and Insect Newsletter, a n d w e e k l y n e w s r e l e a s e s a l s o a p p e a r on the W e b site.

^ K I I I V H I I P The DNR links to a f e w r e l a t ed si tes. O n e of these , a cl imatology site, is a project of the D N R a n d t h e U n i v e r s i t y of Minnesota . This site fea tures week-ly snow-dep th and trail repor ts for cross-country skiing and s n o w m o -biling, flood informat ion, and daily c l imate s u m m a r i e s for M i n n e s o t a communi t ies .

When you visit the DNR site, be s u r e to c h e c k o u t t he T o w n Ha l l f o r u m , w h e r e you can voice y o u r opinions and concerns about select-ed DNR issues and programs. Town Hal l d i s c u s s i o n s h a v e f o c u s e d on such controversial topics as the 1837 treaty negotiat ions and winter deer feeding. The f o r u m invites visi tors to respond by e-mail to the current topic, then pos ts the r e sponses on the site daily.

N e w informat ion turns u p on the D N R W e b site eve ry day . A n d as t h e s i t e g r o w s , so d o e s t h e W e b i t se l f . N o r t h S t a r , t h e M i n n e s o t a s t a t e g o v e r n m e n t p r e s e n c e a t w w w . s t a t e . m n . u s , lists m o r e than 80 s t a t e a g e n c i e s w i t h W e b addresses . The Web has more con-servat ion and natura l resource sites

t h a n I cou ld b e g i n to m e n t i o n in this short article.

H o w e v e r , w h a t you f ind on the Web is no t a lways w h a t it appea r s to be. Recen t ly , I d i d a s ea rch of t h e w o r d conservation on Y a h o o (one of the W e b d i r e c t o r i e s ) a n d b r o u g h t u p 1 ,008 r e f e r e n c e s . I p i c k e d o n e r e f e r e n c e a t r a n d o m f r o m t h e f i r s t 12 d i s p l a y e d a n d b r o u g h t u p a p a g e tha t a p p e a r e d to c o n t a i n i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t a y o u t h - i n - c o n s e r v a t i o n o r g a n i z a -t i o n . W i t h f u r t h e r e x p l o r a t i o n , I d i s c o v e r e d th i s s i te w a s a c t u a l l y the h o m e p a g e of a 12-year-old boy w h o lives in Hawai i .

If you are not onl ine at h o m e bu t w a n t to explore the Web, check out y o u r local l ib rary . S o m e l ibrar ies offer publ ic use of compu te r s wi th Web access. Some bus iness service c e n t e r s o f f e r t e r m i n a l s w i t h I n t e r n e t a c c e s s f o r r e n t b y t h e h o u r . S o m e e m p l o y e r s a l l o w employees l imited use of the Web d u r i n g b reak time. In fact, traffic to the D N R W e b si te p e a k s a r o u n d t h e n o o n l u n c h h o u r , t h e n s l o w s again unti l af ter d inner .

In the f u t u r e , W e b v is i tors wil l be able to do m o r e online, such as s u b s c r i b e to the Volunteer, m a k e c a m p i n g reservat ions , or app ly for a n d p u r c h a s e a h u n t i n g l i cense . E v e n t u a l l y y o u w i l l b e a b l e t o r e g i s t e r y o u r b o a t a n d p u r c h a s e y o u r f i sh ing license w i t h o u t even p i c k i n g u p t h e p h o n e . A r e y o u ready for v i r tua l f ishing?

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