NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Wednesday, December 29, 1999

INCIDENTS

99-749 -  Gateway NRA (NY/NJ) - Employee Arrested

On December 24th, Park Police officers arrested J.D., the park's facility management 
specialist, and charged him with criminal mischief, a class D felony. J.D. was seen throwing 
boxes and furniture through the windows of government quarters. He was to appear before a 
magistrate this past Monday. [Jose Rosario, CR, GATE, 12/25]

99-750 - Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP (CO) - Falling Fatality; Possible Suicide

A search for 27-year-old M.T., reported as missing from East Lansing, Michigan, 
ended on December 26th when rangers spotted his body during an aerial search of the inner 
canyon of Black Canyon. He evidently sustained fatal injuries from a fall from the North Chasm 
view overlook. Rangers became concerned as to his whereabouts when they found his 
abandoned vehicle on December 22nd. A search was immediately begun and continued until his 
body was discovered. An autopsy is being conducted. Preliminary investigation indicates that 
the death was a possible suicide. [Linda Alick, CR, BLCA, 12/27]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, PROTECTION AND EDUCATION

Great Smoky Mountains NP (TN/NC) - Bear Management

The main gateway community to the park recently passed a city ordinance that requires 
residents of designated zones and managers of food-producing businesses to bear-proof their 
trash receptacles, effective June 1, 2000.  The ordinance, passed by the city of Gatlinburg, has 
long been sought by the park and is third prong of a three-prong effort to reduce bear-human 
conflicts in the Smokies.  Over the past ten years, bear-human conflicts inside the park have 
been greatly reduced by the first two projects — improved frontcountry trash management 
through visitor education, bear-proof dumpsters and improved housekeeping, and reduced 
availability of food in the park's backcountry through education and installation of backpack 
suspension cables. Unfortunately, bears are still becoming habituated to garbage outside the 
park.  They cross the park's boundaries, obtain unlimited garbage in outside communities, 
then come back into the park with a "garbage habit" and less fear of humans.  Gatlinburg 
officials had voted down the proposed bear-proofing ordinance for years, but passed it this year 
at least partly because hundreds of bears have been shot in backyards inside the city over the 
past couple of years.  Park staff plan to work with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to 
aggressively manage or relocate any garbage-habituated bears that show up in Gatlinburg next 
spring in hopes of breaking the garbage dependency cycle that is passed down from sows to 
their cubs. The next step will be to work towards an ordinance prohibiting intentional feeding 
to reduce handouts to bears from visitors to the area. [Bob Miller, Management Assistant, 
GRSM]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

No submissions.

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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and support of 
Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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