NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, January 26, 2012

INCIDENTS

Petrified Forest NP

Twelve Arrested Or Cited For Drug And Resource Violations

Ranger Lindsey Pruett responded to a visitor report of other visitors collecting pieces of petrified wood at Crystal Forest on the afternoon of January 9th. She contacted one occupant of a converted school bus who turned over several small pieces of petrified wood. When asked if there was any more on the bus or anything else Pruett needed to know about, he told her that there was also a quantity of marijuana on the bus. Ranger Marc Schlauch then arrived and assisted Pruett. A county sheriff's office canine unit came out and positively alerted on the bus, indicating the presence of a controlled substance. The bus and all twelve occupants were searched. Approximately twelve pounds of petrified wood, two pounds of rocks, three pounds of marijuana, nine pounds of food with THC content, and a small quantity of bath salts and hashish were recovered from the bus along with numerous smoking pipes and $2,941 in cash found with the hashish and marijuana. No one admitted to any knowledge of the drugs on the bus. Two occupants were arrested and brought the next morning to the federal magistrate in Flagstaff; the rest were issued violation notices to appear in court later that week. Seven of the ten individuals showed up for court and were found guilty of class B misdemeanors for the resource and drug violations. The two people who were arrested were each fined a total of $1,025 for the petrified wood and the drugs, placed on a year's unsupervised probation, and banned from all national parks in Arizona for one year. The other seven paid fines of $610 each and were sentenced to the same period of probation and exclusion from Arizona parks. Of the three remaining cited individuals, one was a juvenile and had her tickets dismissed. The remaining two were arrested days later on failure to appear warrants from this case. [Greg Caffey, 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/):

Sequoia and Kings Canyon NPs - Physical removal of non-native fish from a large complex of lakes and streams within Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks allowed a population of imperiled mountain yellow-legged frogs to stage an impressive recovery.

Mississippi NR&RA - The park has received over $1 million for an alternative transportation project that builds on existing public transit, river access and bike share programs and projects.

Home of FDR NHS - On January 20th, the park celebrated the 75th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inauguration as president.

Contracting Office - Heidi Ernst, chief of contracting for the National Park Service in the Washington Office, is retiring on January 31st.

Glen Canyon NRA - Denise Shultz has been selected as the chief of interpretation, education and partnerships for Glen Canyon and Rainbow Bridge.

Fire and Aviation Management - Kathy Komatz has been selected as the new training specialist for the NPS Branch of Structural Fire in Boise.

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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 the Assistant Director for Information Resources 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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