NPS Visitor and Resource Protection
The Morning Report
Thursday, December 04, 2003


INCIDENTS

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (AZ)
Narcotics Seizures and Arrests

Rangers were involved in three drug interdiction incidents during the first half of November. On November 6th, rangers on an overflight training mission saw five suspected illegal aliens along a highly-used smuggling trail. The helicopter set down south of them and a ranger was able to apprehend one 17-year-old smuggler who had 17 pounds of marijuana in his backpack. A check of the Border Patrol's "Ident" system revealed that the boy had been arrested 16 times by the Border Patrol. The case and contraband were turned over to the county sheriff. While on another overflight training operation the next day, rangers were asked by the Border Patrol to assist an officer who was tracking a group of drug backpackers. They spotted the group hidden in a grove of trees. Six people were apprehended and ten backpacks containing a total of 537 pounds of marijuana were seized. DEA and Border Patrol are handling the case. On November 21st, three rangers tracked another group of backpackers about five miles from North Puerto Blanco Road. With assistance from a helicopter and its ranger air crew, they were able to locate and arrest five smugglers and seize ten bundles of marijuana weighing 559 pounds. The case and contraband were turned over to Customs.
[Submitted by Grant Stolhand, Park Ranger]



Yosemite National Park (CA)
Visitor Suicide in Curry Village

Just after midnight on November 28th, the park's emergency communications center received a request from the Curry Village front desk for a welfare check by law enforcement staff on a 33-year-old male guest staying in a tent cabin. The Sacramento man had not been seen since being told by other members of his party that he needed to get some counseling for relationship problems with his girlfriend. Ranger/paramedic Duane Grego met with them and was told that they had became concerned about his welfare when they heard some banging and gurgling noises coming from inside his tent cabin. Grego went to the cabin and found the door locked from the inside. After seeing the form of a person suspended by the neck from a ceiling beam through a window, Grego forced entry. The man was found to be pulseless and breathless. CPR was begun by Grego and Yosemite clinic ambulance paramedics, but there was no viable response. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Rangers and special agents are investigating the death.
[Submitted by Jeff Sullivan, Supervisory Special Agent]




OPERATIONAL NOTES

NPS History
Rangers and Resource Management: The Early Years


A new book on National Park Service rangers has been published and is now available. The book, entitled National Park Ranger: An American Icon, was written by Butch Farabee and published by Roberts Rinehart Publishers (ISBN 1-57098-392-5, $18.95 in paper).

Through permission of both the author and publisher, excerpts are appearing intermittently in the Morning Report and InsideNPS. Previous installments can be found by searching back issues of either publication for the following dates:

  • Part 1 — May 15, 2003.
  • Part 2 — May 21, 2003.
  • Part 3 — June 3, 2003
  • Part 4 — June 11, 2003.
  • Part 5 — June 20, 2003.
  • Part 6 — July 22, 2003.
  • Part 7 — August 4, 2003.
  • Part 8 — August 13, 2003.
  • Part 9 — August 21, 2003.
  • Part 10 — August 26, 2003.
  • Part 11 — November 3, 2003.
  • Part 12 — November 13, 2003.

The Early Years of Resource Management — Part 3


Forest Fire Suppression


Organized efforts to contend with forest fire in this country began as early as 1743, when New York adopted a statute giving officials authority to enlist citizens to fight local wild fires. Rudimentary fire protection initiatives were undertaken by the "Division of Forestry" of the Department of Agriculture in the 1880s, but forest fire protection by the federal government really began in Yellowstone National Park in 1886.

The Army assumed administrative control of Yellowstone that summer, with small detachments garrisoned at fifteen stations throughout the park. Congress, in its annual report on Yellowstone National Park for 1886, stated that "The most important duty of the superintendent and assistants in the park is to protect the forests from fire and ax." Taking this to heart, Captain Moses Harris, the park's first military superintendent (and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient), soon began to fight fires, developing roads, trails, and communication networks to assist in this enterprise.

Until that time, "sage-brushing," as camping was known, was permitted almost anywhere in the park and tourists often left their campfires unattended. Some effort was made to control these fires, but the park had little staff. Some fires were even set by corrupt frontiersmen, both to embarrass the civilian administration and to drive animals into the open for easier hunting. Park workers battled over one hundred fires in 1888 (they burned a total of only five acres of parkland); another sixty-one were extinguished the next year. To outfit his employees for fire fighting duty, the superintendent asked his superiors in Washington for twenty axes and twenty rubber buckets. When this request went unanswered, a tourist from Pennsylvania bought them for the park. To limit the hazard of fires from campers, the Army established the first formal campgrounds in Yellowstone in 1889—1890 and forbade camping outside these designated areas.

In California, John Muir raged against wanton fires, particularly those set by herders of sheep and cattle in the Sierra. Stephen Mather, the agency's first director, called fire the "forest fiend," and the National Park Service generally embraced the Forest Service's total suppression policy. Rapid and broad attack on fires in the parks became a primary objective, and the elimination of wildland fire was established as a sacrosanct NPS policy. Park managers compared the scenic resources of parks to "priceless pieces of art" that should not be endangered by fire. Some went so far as to advocate that the agency should have the most efficient fire control organization in the country.

It was not until 1922, however, that the National Park Service received a special appropriation for fire control (it totaled $10,000). Not long thereafter, a major wild fire in Glacier in 1926 forced the service to create its first office at the national level solely devoted to natural resource management. This new "division of forestry" was initially overseen by Ansel F. Hall, the agency's first chief naturalist, who had been trained as a forester. In the summer of 1928, Hall hired John Coffman from the U. S. Forest Service, and Hall's division was renamed "education and forestry." The two men developed the first written NPS fire policy, adopted in 1931: to provide for the "prevention, detection and suppression" of fires; cooperate with other agencies with lands near parks; execute removal of potential fire hazards; train firefighters; and establish a fire reporting and review process.


Prescribed Fire


Although Native Americans often ignited fires for their beneficial effects on the land, Europeans didn't do so until the 1880s. Such fires, which reduced fuel hazards around buildings and maintained open meadows for ungulates, were recognized as wise forest management by a few advanced thinkers. Unfortunately, few in the National Park Service saw the value of letting fire burn in appropriate situations.

During World War II, the cause of preventing wild fires became a patriotic one, and the U. S. Forest Service joined the National Advertising Council in developing promotional materials to encourage fire awareness. On August 9, 1944, a smiling Smokey Bear wearing a ranger hat was introduced to the world as a symbol for fire prevention. Later, a real-life black bear was "found" orphaned following a catastrophic forest fire in New Mexico, quickly given the name Smokey, and the legend of the anti-fire bruin was created.

The first effort to study the positive effects of fire in the national parks was initiated in the Everglades in 1951. Conducted by biologist William B. Robertson, Jr., the studies that followed led to National Park Service experiments in 1958 that would become known as prescribed burning: selected natural and human-caused fires that were allowed to burn in ways simulating natural conditions.

The following year, Sequoia National Park's ecologist Richard Hartesveldt issued a report indicating that California's giant sequoia trees needed fire, both to clear away abnormal accumulations of fuel at their bases and to help germinate their seeds. There are stories that Sequoia Chief Ranger Pete Schuft drove along park roads at the time throwing lighted matches out of his green government truck, hoping to reintroduce the natural fire lost to the ecosystem for decades.

The 1960s saw prescribed and natural fire gradually gain acceptance by land management agencies and the general public. With the enactment of the 1964 Wilderness Act and the setting aside of many millions of acres, the blanket policy of strict fire suppression had to be reconsidered. Fire had come to be seen as a natural phenomenon, with an important role in the ecology of national parks. The many years of regarding "fire as a fiend" had to be undone.

Changing attitudes about fire was not simple, particularly because people increasingly chose to live in forests and near underbrush. The job of managing fire in parks that adjoined urban and developed areas became more difficult and controversial. During the 1960s and '70s, several areas, such as Arizona's Saguaro and New Mexico's Bandelier National Monuments, were testing grounds in the country's much-needed and ultimately successful prescribed fire program.

Despite the May 2000, tragedy — in which nearly fifty thousand acres in northern New Mexico and at least 220 homes in Los Alamos were consumed as a result of a National Park Service prescribed fire that got out of hand — fire is absolutely critical to the ecological health of this country's wildlands and to the safety of those who choose to live near them.


Bear Shows


The evolution of agency-sanctioned "bear shows" in several parks can be traced back to the nightly disposal of food scraps and kitchen garbage at the early Yellowstone inns. At the park's first hotel — Sarah and George Marshall's 1880 log structure near the Lower Geyser Basin — a bear broke into the storeroom in the spring of 1881, seemingly attracted by the odors of an "easy" meal. Mrs. Marshall shot and killed the four-legged intruder.

Seventeen years later, a tourist at the Fountain Hotel noted that "from ten to sixteen bears came there for their supper, 'quietly munching the bones and fruit peelings, while a dozen or two of the hotel guests look on ten yards away'." One of the duties of a Yellowstone soldier in the early 1900s was to serve as "bear guard." The Army supervised the feeding of these animals near the hotels, the men often remaining at their posts until 9 P.M.

Officially prohibited in 1902, the roadside hand-feeding of bears and other animals was tacitly allowed for many years. During the first four decades of the twentieth century, the Service intentionally brought bears and people together with advertised nightly shows at some garbage dumps. In Sequoia's Giant Forest, tourists gathered after dark at "Bear Hill" to watch the animals root through trash left for the occasion.

During the same era, officials flood-lit an arena west of Yosemite's Old Village and fed black bears for an excited gathering of tourists and residents alike. "It was the social event of the evening." Often as many as eight hundred vehicles lined the road near the site; 16,400 people attended the program in June 1930.

These wildlife carnivals became so notorious in a few areas that armed rangers were assigned to protect fascinated crowds from grizzly bears and the more numerous but equally unpredictable black bears.

As a public service in Yellowstone, bear feeding was restricted in the 1930s to just one area, Canyon. On July 4, 1936, sitting behind a chain link fence on a hillside overlooking an elaborate concrete feeding platform, 2,476 people looked on. On August 6 of the following year, "seventy grizzlies and seven black bears foraged there on hotel garbage" at one time. Finally, under specific orders from the National Park Service director and with a ranger work force drastically eroded by the demands of war, park managers halted the shows in the summer of 1942. Unnatural attractions such as Bear Hill soon turned "garbage-hungry bears loose in the campgrounds to the dismay of rangers and visitors."

The National Park Service now pays strict heed to scientists, striving to separate animals from people. That segregation has yet to be achieved — and it may never be. Roadside "bear jams" (and other animals) still occur as innocent creatures beg for easy food and clueless visitors want to have photos taken with the seemingly "tame" animals.


Some Other Early Resource Manipulations

  • In the early years, rangers focused on maintaining those plants and animals that most visitors seemed to enjoy, and the NPS "ranched and farmed" the favored species. Those that threatened the more attractive wildlife were destroyed. Less visible life forms, such as small mammals, were of little concern to park administrators and largely ignored.
  • To avert starvation of park mammals when harsh Yellowstone winters made finding food difficult, the Army began to feed elk, antelope, deer, and bighorn sheep in 1904, with up to fifteen hundred tons of hay being provided to those animals by 1919. Similar supplemental feedings for ungulates were carried out in other western parks during this period.
  • Assisted by local hunters, Yellowstone rangers began harvesting elk in January 1935, after determining that there were too many animals and that their habitat was being seriously harmed. Carcasses were donated to nearby Native Americans. During the first winter reduction, 2,598 animals were killed outside Yellowstone, and 667 were destroyed within. For similar ecological reasons, workers in Rocky Mountain and Glacier sporadically hunted elk. The last "reduction" in Yellowstone was in 1967.
  • With the blessing of the National Park Service's first director, Yosemite established a zoo — complete with cougars — so that tourists might see the more popular animals. From 1920 to 1933, a herd of tule elk from the San Joaquin Valley was penned in a twenty-eight-acre meadow in Yosemite Valley "for the pleasure and education of the visitors." Yellowstone set up a zoo with bison, bears, coyotes, and a badger in 1925.
  • Reacting to the devastating effects that feral (once domestic) burros were having on the landscape, Grand Canyon rangers began eradicating the pack-animals-gone-wild in 1924; by 1969 they had killed 2,888 of the creatures.
  • For three days in December 1924, in an effort to avert mass starvation of at least thirty thousand deer on the Grand Canyon's isolated North Rim, 150 men tried to drive some eight thousand emaciated animals down off the eight-thousand-foot plateau and across the Colorado River. The attempt was a total failure; deer easily doubled back between the cowboys. The huge buildup of deer was the direct result of years of systematic removal of mountain lions from the area. According to author Zane Grey, who was looking for book material as well as riding in the roundup, "The failure of the Grand Canyon deer drive might be laid to three causes—inadequate preparation, lack of enough drivers, and the total unexpected refusal of the deer to herd."



PARKS AND PEOPLE

Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (GA)
Dan Sholly Retires from NPS

Dan Sholly, the park's deputy superintendent, will be retiring in January after more than 30 years in the National Park Service, including tours as chief ranger at Yellowstone and as chief ranger for the NPS in Washington. He will be taking a position as deputy director of Texas State Parks, based in Austin, Texas, and will help manage and oversee that state's system of 120 parks, 1500 employees and an $80 million annual budget. The park is collecting commemorative letters, photos and other items for a scrapbook for Dan. Please send anything you might have by December 23rd to Robyn Podany, Chattahoochee River NRA, 1978 Island Ford Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30350.



Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (LA)
GS-025-9 Protection Ranger

The park is currently seeking a motivated individual to conduct the full-scope of protection related duties. The ranger selected will be based out of Barataria Preserve, a 20,000 acre wetland marsh, but will also be responsible for coverage of five additional sites in southern Louisiana. Protection duties will specifically include boat operations, traffic enforcement, special events, EMS, SAR, surveillance and criminal investigations, and supervision of the park's hunting and trapping program. Significant training opportunities will be provided. The announcement closes on December 12th. For more information, contact Leigh Zahm, field supervisor, at 504-589-2330 ext. 17.




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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.