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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Friday, February 9, 2007 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Shenandoah NP Special Event: Presidential Visit On Wednesday, February 7th, President and Mrs. Bush, Secretary Kempthorne, Director Bomar and others visited Shenandoah National Park to announce the National Parks Centennial Initiative and hold roundtable discussions. Superintendent Chas Cartwright remarked that he was pleased to host the event announcing this important initiative. The park was notified of the visit the previous week and immediately established an incident command team to manage the event. Shenandoah chief ranger Gordon Wissinger served as incident commander. Over 50 employees from all divisions of Shenandoah, as well as 30 employees from 10 other parks in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, North Carolina and Tennessee, worked together with multiple federal, state and local agencies to coordinate the visit. The US Park Police provided Eagle II and mounted units to help secure the area. Other cooperating agencies that provided personnel included the US Marshal Service, Virginia State Police, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Madison, Page and Rappahannock Counties Sheriffs' Offices, and the Luray, Stanley and Rockingham County Volunteer Rescue Squads. ARAMARK, the park's concessionaire, and the Shenandoah National Park Association both contributed to the event. The President and others arrived via Marine One and landed near the middle of the park at Big Meadows around 11:30 a.m. They were escorted to the Byrd Visitor Center where the event was held indoors. Four inches of powdery snow had fallen overnight and temperatures were in the low 20s, with the wind chill reaching -18. Significant snow removal operations were required to maintain the over 20 miles of road and facilities used for the event. Around 15 White House press pool members were flown in to cover the event and two local media outlets, WVIR television out of Charlottesville and the weekly Page News and Courier paper in Luray, were selected by the White House to attend. The visit lasted two hours and all operations were conducted successfully. [Superintendent's Office] Lake Roosevelt NRA Man Sentenced For Damaging Park Lands G.L.B., 56, of Snohomish, Washington, has been sentenced in federal court for damage he inflicted on park property last fall. G.L.B. was ordered to pay the Service $63,580.80 in restitution. G.L.B. earlier admitted in a guilty plea to knowingly and unlawfully cleared 7.6 acres of park land between 2001 and 2004 while he was developing a 66 lot subdivision named “Roosevelt Views” that overlooks Lake Roosevelt near Keller Ferry. The damaged park land is situated between Roosevelt Views and Lake Roosevelt. G.L.B. used heavy equipment to clear the land, which consisted largely of mature bitterbrush trees that had grown in places to a height of 10 feet. The $63,580.80 in restitution will pay the National Park Service for the cost to restore the land to its natural condition. “The park lands at Lake Roosevelt are a national treasure and must be protected,” said James McDevitt, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. “These open spaces are for the use and enjoyment of the public and illegal encroachment onto and destruction of these lands will not be tolerated.” This investigation was conducted by the National Park Service and was prosecuted by Jared C. Kimball, assistant U.S. attorney for the district. [Margaret Goodro, Chief Ranger] Delaware Water Gap NRA Life Saved Through Rangers' Intervention In Attempted Suicide On the evening of February 3rd, ranger Chuck Kanopsic was on patrol on Old Mine Road in the park's New Jersey District when he came upon a GMC pickup backed into the Callestini area. Kanopsic saw a man lying near the vehicle, partially covered with snow. The temperature was in the low teens at the time. The man appeared to be heavily intoxicated and was unstable on his feet. An open bottle of tequila was observed on the center console of the pickup and the engine was running. Ranger Don Philpot and supervisory ranger Chris Kross responded for backup. Kanopsic secured the alcohol and vehicle keys and after a quick search of the cab placed the man in the truck and obtained identification from him. After Philpot and Kross arrived, the rangers noted that the man was making furtive movements in the truck. Philpot approached and determined that he was trying to retrieve something from the right rear floor area. He was removed from the truck, handcuffed, searched and secured in Philpot's patrol vehicle. A search of the vehicle revealed a large kitchen knife and numerous prescription containers. Kross answered a cell call from the man's wife and was told that he was attempting to kill himself and that other agencies had been looking for him. The man had text messaged his wife earlier, saying that he was going to overdose on tranquillizers and blood thinners, drink the tequila, then cut his wrists with the large kitchen knife. Numerous empty prescription bottles in the truck revealed that he'd already ingested the pills. Philpot rushed the man to the Newton Memorial Hospital ER, where he was given activated charcoal and was hospitalized. [Chris Kross, Supervisory Park Ranger] OTHER NEWS Other news from today's edition of InsideNPS, the National Park Service's home page: Glacier NP - News story: Scientists who completed DNA tests on nearly 34,000 hair samples collected in 2004 have determined that at least 545 individual grizzly bears roam the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem, which includes the park. Colorado NM - Joan Anzelmo has been selected as the park's new superintendent. She will assume her new responsibilities this coming May after spending the past 13 years at Grand Teton National Park as chief of public affairs, among other assignments. Kalaupapa NHP - The park is recruiting for a new chief of maintenance. The announcement closes on March 1st. Training Calendar - This week's summary includes a concession management evaluation and pricing course at Shenandoah and an EMS First Responder course at Valley Forge. To link to InsideNPS, click on HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/ * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |