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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Friday, September 12, 2014 INCIDENTS Great Smoky Mountains NP Five Ginseng Poachers Apprehended Rangers came upon an unoccupied vehicle parked along Little River Road in an area known for ginseng poaching in July and began surveillance of the area. After more than two hours, three men returned to the vehicle with dirty clothing and hands, which indicated that they'd been crawling on the ground on their hands and knees. Field Training Ranger Will Jaynes and Field Trainee Zebulon Whitaker contacted the men. During the ensuing interview, the rangers observed several digging tools in the vehicle. All three subsequently admitted to illegally harvesting ginseng from the park. Several bags containing ginseng were located within the car. In all, 870 roots, more than five pounds, were recovered. All three men were issued mandatory appearance citations. A week prior to this incident, Jaynes and Whitaker were working in the Greenbrier area of the park when they saw two men in possession of a tool that could easily be used for digging in the ground. An investigation revealed that both men were also in possession of illegally harvested ginseng from the park. In this case 29 roots were recovered. Both men were issued mandatory appearance citations. Acting Cosby Area Supervisor Chuck Hester assisted. Over the past 12 months, rangers have seized 2,345 illegally harvested ginseng roots from both North Carolina and Tennessee areas of the park and charged 26 individuals in connection with these crimes. In each case, once the roots were processed as evidence, rangers worked closely with staff from the park's division of resource management and science to replant suitable roots elsewhere in the park. [Jared St Clair, Acting Tennessee District Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers): National Capital Region - The White House Visitor Center is reopening following two years of transformative renovations. First Lady Michelle Obama joined Secretary Jewell, Director Jarvis and others at a ceremony to mark the completion of $12.6 million in improvements to the building, which reopens to the public tomorrow. Intermountain Region - On September 4th, Great Sand Dunes National Park welcomed a record-setting number of visitors to the ceremonial launch of the Great Sand Dunes quarter, the 24th in the United States Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters Program. Northeast Region - Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area has joined with authors, historians and the New Jersey Education Association to create a new Revolutionary War history web site. Fort Washington Park - The first week of school is often hectic for students starting the new academic year. For one Washington, DC, school, the first week of school also incorporated lessons in watershed preservation at Oxon Hill Historic Farm and Oxon Cove Park. Upcoming Training Calendar - The following have been added to this week's calendar - three offerings of a webinar on use of live online learning sessions, three offerings of a webinar on engaging audiences with interactive webinars, a conference on preserving the work of non-traditional artists, and a class on fiber identification and analysis in conservation. To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites: NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/ The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov). --- ### --- |