NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, August 18, 2011

INCIDENTS

Blue Ridge Parkway

Teenager Rescued After Fall From Cliff

On August 16th, two teenage boys on a family outing climbed over the containment wall at Erwin's View on the Linville Falls trail. One of them slipped and went over the edge of a cliff, falling about 60 feet and ending up caught in a tree. He yelled back to his friend that he was uninjured but unable to free himself. A multi-agency rescue ensued. Due to the height and features of the cliff, the boy was short-hauled from his location by a National Guard helicopter and taken to a nearby landing zone. He was treated for minor cuts and scrapes and released. [Tim Francis, Pisgah District Ranger]

Everglades NP

Suicide Victim Found In Boat At Ramshorn Shoal

Rangers in the Florida Bay District were notified of an overdue boater by park dispatch on the morning of August 12th. When the rangers contacted the Coast Guard for more information, they learned that the boat had just been found in the park at Ramshorn Shoal and that there was a body onboard. Rangers responded with officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They were soon joined by a homicide detective from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, who found a loaded Sig Sauer .45 handgun and a single shell casing near the man's body. The boat was towed to shore and the body turned over to the county medical examiner. While this was occurring, an investigator from the sheriff's office was in town found a suicide note presumed to have been written by the man. The county is continuing the investigation. [Bonnie Foist, Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

Northeast Region - On August 5th, Director Jon Jarvis met with program managers and student interns participating in the NPS ProRanger program, a joint venture with Temple University in Philadelphia.

Pacific West Region - Beginning around noon today and running through the weekend, Pacific West Regional Office will be closing down in concert with the office's move from Oakland to its new location -- Suite 500 at 333 Bush Street in San Francisco. Photo.

Office of Communications - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was named the "Most Beautiful Place in America" by viewers of ABC's Good Morning America today. Online voters selected the park from a list of ten finalists.

Office of Communications - The 2010 Appleman-Judd-Lewis Awards for Excellence in Cultural Resource Stewardship and Management were presented to several park employees at a ceremony this week.

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The Morning Report is a publication of the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, produced with the support of the Office of Communications and 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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