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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Tuesday, December 9, 2014 INCIDENTS Padre Island NS Off-Roaders Pay Over $150,000 For Tidal Flat Resource Damage In July 2011, five people drove their vehicles into a
prohibited area of Padre Island National Seashore, causing extensive
injuries to sensitive tidal flats. Rangers, natural resource specialists
and a damage assessment case officer from the Service's National Damage
Assessment Office subsequently conducted a comprehensive assessment into
the nature and extent of the damage and an investigation into the
identities of the responsible parties. With the assistance of the Department of Interior's Solicitor's Office, the National Park Service submitted claims for costs and damages under the Park System Resource Protection Act (16 U.S.C. § 19jj) to each of the five drivers and their insurance companies. The act provides that any person or instrumentality who injures, destroys or causes the loss of any park system resource is liable for response costs and damages. As of this month, all five drivers and their insurance companies have agreed to pay over $150,000 in costs and damages to the NPS in out-of-court settlements. Wind-tidal flats are a very limited and specialized environment, existing within a few centimeters of sea level. Wind-tidal flats such as those in Padre Island National Seashore support large blue-green algal mats, which host the most productive and diverse benthic communities in the Laguna Madre. This nutrient-rich environment is an important winter and migration foraging habitat for shorebirds, including the federally threatened piping plover and the highly imperiled red knot. The five drivers in this incident created over two miles of vehicle tracks, destroying two acres of algal mats and impacting an additional 11 acres by changing the natural hydrology of the site. The tracks broke through the algal mat crust, sinking as much as 18 inches into the ground. The displaced sediment formed ridges along the outer edges of the tracks. These deep ruts not only destroyed the algal mat within the tracks, but also disrupted the natural surface hydrology or flow of water across the flat, impacting the algal mats over a much larger area. Padre Island National Seashore will use the settlement monies to restore the injured area, including re-grading the tracks by hand, thereby restoring the natural hydrology and monitoring the return of the area to its natural state. [Travis Poulson, Chief 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): Everglades NP - A crowd of over a thousand people, including 600 school children, celebrated the ceremonial launch of the Everglades National Park quarter at a ceremony held in the park on December 4th. Today's Almanac - Heavy rain, flash flooding and snow are forecast for the Northeast. A series of Pacific storms will bring rain and high winds to the West Coast through the rest of the week. Midwest Region - Ruth Ellen Heikkinen, chief of planning for Midwest Region, passed away on November 28th following a courageous eight-month battle with cancer. Santa Fe NHT - The NPS Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program has awarded a grant to the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association to begin telling the stories of Route 66 from tribal perspectives. Land Resources Division - A representative from the NPS Land Resources Division spoke with Girl Scout leaders in Sacramento last month about educational and project opportunities within the National Park Service. Intermountain Region - Dennis A. Vásquez, a 36-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been selected as the new superintendent of Petroglyph National Monument. Parashant NM - Scott Sticha, chief of interpretation and partnerships at Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, will retire on January 2nd after 31 plus years of government service. 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). --- ### --- |