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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Monday, June 26, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Rocky Mountain NP Successful Search for Missing Volunteer A two-day search for a missing park volunteer concluded successfully on Saturday afternoon when he was found near Desolation Peaks. S.D., 23, a volunteer working with the park's resource management staff, was returning to base camp late on Friday morning when he got ahead of his NPS companion. His partner yelled to him to slow up, but S.D. evidently did not hear him because of the wind. He was 50 to 100 yards ahead of his partner when last seen and did not show up at their base camp. A search for S.D. began late Friday afternoon. Initial efforts consisted of establishing a containment area along Fall River Road and in the Corral Creek area. On Saturday morning, over 75 people took to the field in the search for him. Park staff were augmented and assisted by ten teams - six of them dog teams - from a total of seven search and rescue organizations. Searchers focused on the area from Lawn Lake Trail west, around the base of their camp, and in the Hague Creek area along the creek up to the tree line and over to Mummy Creek Pass and trail. A helicopter was also utilized in the effort to find him. He was not found on Friday, so the operation resumed on Saturday morning. Around 3:40 p.m., S.D. was found between a quarter and half mile east of the Flatiron backcountry campsite along Hague Creek - north and slightly west from the point where he was last seen. He was flown by helicopter to Upper Beaver Meadows, then taken by a ranger to Estes Park Medical Center for medical treatment. Participating in the search were Larimer County Search and Rescue, Grand County Search and Rescue, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Routt County Search and Rescue, Arapaho Rescue Patrol, Summit County Rescue, and Garfield County Search and Rescue. [Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer] Everglades NP Missing Fisherman Found and Rescued On the night of June 17th, the Coast Guard notified the park that John Lynn was overdue from a fishing trip in the North River area of the park. Rangers found his vehicle at the Whitewater Bay boat ramp. A Coast Guard helicopter searched through the night, but was unable to find any sign of him. At first light, rangers in two park boats began searching the area, and were soon joined by a park plane. A spotter in the plane located Lynn in a remote wilderness area at the headwaters of the North River. A Coast Guard helicopter hoisted Lynn from the ground, flew him to the airport in Homestead, and reunited him with his family. Lynn was then taken to Homestead Hospital and treated for dehydration and insect bites. Tony Terry was incident commander. [Bonnie Foist, Chief Ranger]
Gates of the Arctic NP&P Aircraft Crash Victims Rescued On the evening of June 21st, off-duty park employee Rachel Hanft was walking her dog when she saw a private plane crash into the woods near a lake that is used by float planes. She called the ranger station in Bettles and notified rangers of the incident. A group of four rangers and volunteers used two boats to travel by river to reach the crash site, arriving within a half hour of Hanft's call. They extricated the aircraft's two occupants from the plane, suppressed a small flash fire, provided initial medical treatment, and transported them to Bettles. Medical assistance continued there until a military aircraft and helicopter with parajumpers arrived. The victims were then flown to Army and Air National Guard medical facilities. The accident occurred near the boundary of Kanuti Wildlife Refuge and Department of Transportation land. Rangers and Federal Aviation Administration representatives returned to the crash site on Friday to investigate the cause of the crash and to insert booms and pads around the aircraft to prevent any fuel contamination at the site. [Jane Ahern, Public Affairs Officer] OTHER NEWS Other news of interest from today's edition of InsideNPS, which can be found at this address if your inside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/) and at this address if you're outside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/). Note that not all articles that appear in the former make it into the latter: Pinnacles NM: Park staff are closely monitoring eleven endangered California condors that may have been poisoned with both lead shot and a rodenticide HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4582" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4582 WASO: 2006 NAGPRA grants announced HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=PressReleases&id=665" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=PressReleases&id=665 Servicewide: News story on study showing that Americans are less interested in spending time in natural surroundings like national parks because they are spending more time watching television, playing video games and surfing the Internet HYPERLINK "http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=filmNews&storyID=2006-06-21T033847Z_01_N20181846_RTRIDST_0_FILM-ENVIRONMENT-PARKS-DC.XML" http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=filmNews&storyID=2006-06-21T033847Z_01_N20181846_RTRIDST_0_FILM-ENVIRONMENT-PARKS-DC.XML MWRO: Midwest Region is seeking seven commissioned rangers (seasonal or permanent) to assist Jefferson NEM staff with the annual Fair St. Louis event held over the July Fourth weekend. HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewjobdetails&type=Jobs&id=2432" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewjobdetails&type=Jobs&id=2432 * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |