NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, March 19, 2010

INCIDENTS

Bighorn Canyon NRA

Taser Employed In Confrontation With Would-Be Assailant

The park's chief of interpretation called in a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot of the Ok-A-Beh contact station on the afternoon of March 14th. A ranger moved in behind the vehicle and followed it down Highway 313 into Fort Smith. The operator was presumed to be operating under the influence, almost driving off the road, and failed to yield to the ranger, eventually pulling into a residence off the highway. A second ranger arrived as back-up. The seriously intoxicated male driver was contacted, and proved to be both uncooperative and aggressive towards the rangers. One ranger deployed her taser while the second gave verbal commands to the man. The man moved away from the rangers, picked up a three-foot-long wooden fence post that was connected to strands of barbed wire, then turned towards and squared off in front of the ranger who was giving the verbal commands. As he began to raise the fence post, he was tasered by the second ranger. Both probes hit and incapacitated him. He was then handcuffed and taken into custody. Charges are pending. [Dale Kissner, Acting Chief Ranger]

Great Smoky Mountains NP

Slide Closes Little River Road

A rockslide has blocked the western end of Little River Road within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The slide is about two miles west of Metcalf Bottoms, so an eight-mile-long portion of Little River Road is currently closed between Metcalf Bottoms picnic area and Townsend Junction. Traffic that would normally transit that section is being diverted out of the park unto US 321 in Townsend, then north on US 321 to Lyon Springs Road in Wears Valley, where motorists can reenter the park on the Wear Cove Road to Metcalf Bottoms and continue east on Little River to Newfound Gap Road and on to either Gatlinburg or Cherokee. Due to bridge weight limits, no large motor homes or buses can use this alternate route. These larger vehicles must continue on US 321 into Pigeon Forge. Park crews are evaluating the slide. No estimated time of repairs is yet available. [Bob Miller, Management Assistant]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Hawaii Volcanoes NP - Today, March 19th, marks the second anniversary of an explosion within Halema‘uma‘u Crater that heralded the start of a new eruption cycle, the first at Kilauea's summit since 1982. That eruption continues.

Office of Tourism - The NPS National Tourism Council convened in Washington in early March for its annual meeting. The council advises the Office of Sustainable Tourism on ways to benefit parks and the park system by engaging tourism partners and expanding agency capacity.

Office of the Chief Information Officer - The Department of the Interior no longer has an enterprise contract with Adobe, but DOI is a participating member in the Adobe Volume Licensing Cumulative Licensing Program 4.5. Details are provided.

Servicewide Training Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses offered by the NPS and its partners across the nation. Added to this week's listing are the following - four VIP training courses in Northeast Region, a number of new FLETC courses, a course on NPS partnerships in Albuquerque, and TEL station training on FERS retirement and on EEO fundamentals.

To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):

NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index

Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/notify" http://inside.nps.gov/notify

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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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