NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Monday, July 13, 2009

INCIDENT

Independence NHP

Park Staff Manage Numerous Freedom Week Events

Visitors enjoyed beautiful weather as the park hosted one of the largest Freedom Week celebrations in its recent history. The activities were a great cooperative effort among the City of Philadelphia, the National Park Service, and many other private groups and organizations. This year's celebration included regularly scheduled events such as the Music on the Mall concert, the Philly Pops on Independence concert, the City of Philadelphia's Independence Day ceremony and the Let Freedom Ring ceremony and bell tapping. Added this year were the City of Philadelphia's Independence Day parade past Independence Hall, the Lincoln 200 event on blocks two and three of Independence Mall, and many first amendment activities. Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter were in attendance at many of the weeks events. A unified command system was used to manage the events. Committed to the incident were eight overhead park staff, including incident command, public affairs, safety, and various operations positions. All together, over 150 park staff and volunteers were assigned to ground operations, which included areas such as maintenance, public safety, enforcement, resource management and events. Park staff worked cooperatively with City of Philadelphia officials (police, fire, EMS, etc.) and various park partners, such as the Friends of Independence, Historic Philadelphia and the Philly Pops. In addition to the events already mentioned, staff logged in various incidents, including minor medicals, controlled substance violations, and one person transported to the hospital. Many thanks to a great park staff. They made an outstanding team planning and pulling the weeks activities together. [A. J. Saperstein, Supervisory Park Ranger ]

Mount Rushmore NP

Greenpeace Demonstration Conducted On Mount Rushmore

The park was the site of a demonstration by Greenpeace on the morning of July 8th. Park staff and security detected the unauthorized trespassing on the sculpture early that day, and protection rangers responded within minutes with the assistance of area, state and federal agencies. During this time, several Greenpeace activists rappelled over the face of the Abraham Lincoln carving and unfurled a 65 foot by 35 foot banner to the right of Abraham Lincoln as seen from the rest of the park. There was never any danger to park visitors during the incident and park interpretation and education programs continued without disruption. Although all security measures functioned exactly as designed, it appears there was damage to government property to gain access to a controlled area. All activists were safely apprehended, removed from the mountain, and taken into custody. Twelve were turned over to federal authorities. [Nav Singh, Public Information Officer]

HYPERLINK "http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5id8_Bg2Xtex2-xabDrM1HetgW2NgD99AM1L01" http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5id8_Bg2Xtex2-xabDrM1HetgW2NgD99AM1L01

Cape Hatteras

Park Staff Assist At Fatal Fireworks Explosion

A fireworks explosion on Ocracoke Island resulted in four fatalities and one serious injury on the morning of the Fourth of July. While attempting to unload and test fireworks for the community's holiday celebration, an explosion occurred in a large box truck parked behind a teacher's campus building. One crew member died instantly, and four others were flown to surrounding area hospitals. The local volunteer fire department and EMS crew were already on site as a safety precaution. National Park Service protection rangers and maintenance staff joined them shortly after the explosion occurred to provide assistance. All five crew members were employed by Melrose Pyrotechnics, a fireworks company out of South Carolina. Celebrations were canceled for the entire day and evening, and southbound ferries to the island were suspended until the following day. If there was anything positive that came from this tragedy, it was the reaction of the community, neighbors, and emergency personnel joining together to provide victims with the best possible care. The incident occurred on state property adjacent to NPS lands. State and federal agencies are investigating the cause of the explosion. [John McCutcheon , Acting Chief Ranger]

Pinnacles NM

Thousands Of Marijuana Plants Eradicated In Interagency Operation

On Tuesday, July 7th, rangers from Pinnacles National Monument assisted the Bureau of Land Management and local law enforcement agencies in raiding three different marijuana growing operations near the park in southern San Benito County. This is the second operation this year, and one of many in the past three years in which the National Park Service has participated as part of the interagency task force. The monument has established agreements with the Bureau of Land Management and the San Benito County Sheriff's Office that enable rangers and deputies to work cooperatively in eradicating growing operations on all federal and local lands within the county. During Tuesday's operation, rangers and officers located 32,188 plants with a potential street value of $6.6 million. Participating were 35 officers from the sheriff's office, the San Jose Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the San Jose Drug Enforcement Agency Drug Task Force, the California Department of Fish and Game, the National Park Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Land Management. The plants were initially located during aerial flyovers with the National Guard. [Brett Hergert, Operations Supervisor]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS.

Department of the Interior - President Obama has announced his intention to nominate Jonathan Jarvis as director of the National Park Service. Jarvis, a 30-year veteran of the NPS, currently is the regional director for Pacific West Region.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2413" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2413

Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the National Park Service.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7911" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7911

WWII Valor in the Pacific NM - On Friday, July 3rd, nearly 700 people attended a dedication ceremony for the new Tule Lake Unit of WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument on the site of the former Tule Lake Segregation Center in Newell, California.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7913" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7913

Amistad NRA - Amistad NRA is saddened to report the death of Mellony Roll, facilities operations specialist, following a short fight against cancer.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2412" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2412

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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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