Gettysburg National Military Park (PA)
Monument Hit By Car Restored
On November 12, 2003, the driver of a Ford Expedition lost control of her vehicle on West Howard Avenue and struck and seriously damaging the 74th Pennsylvania Infantry Monument. The monument was broken into several pieces.
Staub was charged with failure to maintain control of a vehicle, and the park sought damages for the costs of the repairs — estimated at $15,000 to $20,000 — from her insurance company. The actual cost to repair the monument, however, came to $41,000 and was paid by Staub's insurance company.
Pieces of the monument were subsequently shipped to Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio, Inc., of Forest Park Illinois, for repairs, which took most of the past year.
On October 27th, the repaired statue was lowered by crane and placed in position by Andrzej Dajnowski of Conservation of Sculptures and Objects Studio and Vic Gavin and Gary Currens from the park's staff.
For the original incident report, click on "More Information"
below.
[Submitted by Katie Lawhon, Public Affairs
Specialist] More Information...
Golden Gate National Recreation Area (CA)
Suicide
On October 24th, park dispatch received a call from a visitor who reported that a man with a rope and noose was walking on the trails around Fort Scott overlook.
Rangers and Park Police officers responded and began looking for him. They found an 18-year-old tied to a tree branch with a rope around his neck and waist about 150 feet down the cliff side. They cut him free and began EMS, but were unable to detect a pulse. Presidio paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.
A team of rangers and officers carried the body up a steep, muddy
slope using a hand line for safety.
The death investigation is
ongoing.[Submitted by John Evans, Acting Operations Chief]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Wilderness Stewardship
Free Leave No Trace Training Opportunity
Leave No Trace is an education program which teaches minimum-impact recreation skills and outdoor ethics. The National Park Service, along with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, promotes and provide Leave No Trace programs under an MOU with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics .
Leave No Trace has partnered with Subaru to provide an exciting educational opportunity — the traveling trainer "Education in Motion" program. In 2005, two team of Leave No Trace educators, referred to as traveling trainers, will journey across the United States providing Leave No Trace education programs and training to all kinds of outdoor recreationists.
In past years, National Park Service sites have taken advantage of this unique opportunity and have scheduled traveling trainers to offer Leave No Trace education and training for staff, concession employees, and the visiting public. The traveling trainers work with a wide variety of outdoor enthusiasts and provide a range of outreach from one-hour slide shows, to overnight, hands-on training courses to large-scale events. Programs are tailored to meet the unique needs of each audience.
The traveling trainers reach millions of individuals annually with a message of stewardship and caring for the outdoors. If you would like to schedule a visit to your park in 2005, please contact Laura Nilo at the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. The traveling trainer schedule fills up quickly, so call now to take advantage of this opportunity.
Laura Nilo
Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Coordinator
Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics
PO Box 997, Boulder, CO 80306
P: 303.442.8222 x106
F: 303.442.8217
laura@LNT.org
[Submitted by Laura Nilo, laura@LNT.org, 303.442.8222 x106]
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Intermountain Region
Len Dems Named Regional FMO
Len Dems, wildland fire management specialist in the Intermountain Region, has been selected as the new regional fire and aviation management officer.
Regional chief ranger Kevin FitzGerald, who recently announced Len's appointment, had this to say: "Len was selected from an excellent pool of candidates. He brings a diversity of wildland fire and incident management experience to this challenging assignment and I am excited to have him in this critical position."
Dems will advise the regional director and the 89 parks in the region on a wide variety of complex programs, including wildland fire suppression, wildland fire use, prescribed fire, aviation, prevention and education. The region spans eight states, has 15 Firepro funded parks, and encompasses four geographic areas and two international boundaries (Canada and Mexico).
Dems began working for the National Park Service in 1978 as a fire control aid at Grand Canyon. He continued in fire management, working summers on the North Rim and winters at the Santa Monica Mountains.
In 1984, he accepted a permanent position in the budget and fiscal office at Grand Canyon. During the period from 1986 through 1989, Dems worked as a park ranger in Everglades and Glen Canyon, remaining current and qualified in fire management programs.
In the fall of 1989, he transferred to Shenandoah as the park's first fire management officer. He transferred to Grand Teton in the spring of 1993, where he was employed as the fire management officer for the Wyoming cluster parks (Grand Teton, Fort Laramie, Fossil Butte and Bighorn Canyon) and represented the NPS in the Teton interagency fire organization with the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
In June of 2001, Dems accepted his current position within the Intermountain Regional Office in Lakewood, Colorado. He is a member of the National Park Service FIREPRO steering committee, S-580 advanced fire use applications steering committee, and incident commander T2 trainee with Rocky Mountain Team A.
Len received his BS degree in forest biology from the the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University.
Dems and his wife Jenny reside in Littleton with their sons Cody and Dylan.
Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.
Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.