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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Tuesday, March 10, 2015 INCIDENTS Golden Gate NRA Two Vandals Rescued And Arrested By Rangers Proactive ranger patrols and a vigilant public made this last week one of the more successful in apprehending vandals in the park. Rangers arrested five people and issued two more several citations on graffiti-related charges. Two of the vandals arrested attempted to flee when contacted by rangers. While fleeing, they became stuck on a cliff face and needed to be extracted by a helicopter and technical rope rescue system. Click on this link for a news video of the rescue: HYPERLINK "http://abc7news.com/536624/" http://abc7news.com/536624/. Golden Gate NRA protects a large number of historic coastal defense structures that span the nation's military past. These structures date back as far as the mid-1800's and include red brick fortifications, concrete gun batteries, and cold war Nike missile sites. Graffiti at these sites has become an increasing and costly problem. In addition to historic military sites, vandals have defaced rock walls, trees, roadways, signs, fences, benches, and more. The cost to restore all historic structures to their pre-graffiti state would cost well over a million dollars. In addition to the financial cost of graffiti abatement, vandals frequently enter closed areas, which can be not only hazardous but also damaging to natural resources. Over the past two years, the park has conducted 20 operations focused on both the apprehension of vandals and graffiti abatement. During this two year period, 22 vandalism suspects have been arrested and 39 have been issued citations. State and federal charges are currently pending for $20,000 in damages performed by two vandals at various sites throughout the park. There are also four open investigations for similar damage amounts. Rangers have worked closely with the District Attorney's Office, Assistant US Attorney's Office, Facebook/Instagram, Google, and many others in these investigations. [Chad Marin, Deputy Chief, Law Enforcement & Emergency Services] 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 Mall and Memorial Parks - Despite sub-freezing temperatures, more than 350 visitors turned out on the National Mall last weekend for a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration. Office of Communications - On February 18th, Director Jarvis hosted a webchat to discuss the President's budget and how it will support our operations and centennial plans. The transcript and the director's blog with more details are now available. Geologic Resources Division - The Geologic Resources Division has issued a call for proposals from parks and central offices for Geoscientists-in-the-Parks (GIP) positions for the fall and winter of 2015. They are due by April 15th. Denver Service Center - Terri Urbanowski announced will retire on March 20th after more than 30 years with Denver Service Center. Terri is a landscape architect and project manager with the Design and Construction Division. 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). --- ### --- |