NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

NOTICE

Glacier NP

Rangers Shoot Habituated Grizzly Deemed Dangerous To Visitors

The “Oldman Lake Bear,” a female grizzly bear that had become highly habituated and had a history of potentially dangerous interactions with humans going back to 2004, was seen heading toward the backcountry campground at Oldman Lake with her two yearling cubs on the afternoon of August 17th. Park staff had been monitoring the bear and rangers were about to close the occupied campground when they saw her approaching. Given her most recent display of over-familiarity and her history of habituation, it had been determined that she presented an unacceptable threat to human health and safety. She was accordingly shot by the rangers, who then darted and tranquilized the two yearlings. One cub died shortly after being tranquilized for unknown reasons. The rangers attempted to resuscitate the yearling by performing mouth to nose CPR, but to no avail. A necropsy (animal autopsy) will be conducted to determine cause of death. The park's internationally vetted bear management plan and guidelines specify that conditioned bears that display over familiarity must be removed from the wild population. No zoos or other federally-authorized captive facilities were willing to take an adult bear at this time. So far in 2009, three separate incidents had been documented wherein the female grizzly exhibited behavior that could be classified as “repeatedly and purposefully approaches humans in a non-defensive situation.” The female was again demonstrating this same behavior on Monday afternoon. Over the past five years, the female had repeatedly frequented the Morning Star and Old Man Lake backcountry campgrounds, both in the Two Medicine/Cut Bank area. During that time, she produced two sets of offspring. Throughout this period, both the mother grizzly and her offspring approached hikers, forcing them off trails, came into cooking areas while people yelled and waved their arms at the bears, and sniffed at tents during the night. Numerous efforts were attempted to haze the female and her offspring away from backcountry campsites. Since 2004, a variety of aversive conditioning techniques were used to discourage the bear and her young from human interactions. Rangers used noise, Karelian bear dogs, and other non-lethal stimuli to encourage the grizzly to keep away from humans and backcountry campgrounds. [Amy Vanderbilt, Public Affairs Officer]

Yosemite NP

Fisherman Dies In Fall

K.R., 62, left his home after work to fish in the park on August 17th. When he failed to return by the following morning, he was reported overdue to park dispatch. Rangers found his vehicle in a pullout near Windy Point and began searching for him. They soon found his body and determined that he'd died from injuries suffered in a fall. Windy Point is a designated pullout along the side of Highway 140 just west of the Arch Rock entrance station. Access to the river from the pullout is through steep and rocky terrain. [Kari Cobb, Public Affairs Officer]

New River Gorge NR

Visitor Drowns In New River

Rangers learned of a possible drowning near McCreery on the afternoon of August 15th. They began a search of the area where the swimmer was last seen with the assistance of a group of rafters from Kentucky. One of the latter found the body of J.P., 33, about 15 yards from shore. Witnesses said that he'd been swimming in the river when he called out for help, then disappeared beneath the surface. Friends and family members had attempted to find him, but without success. J.P. was not wearing a lifejacket. This was the fourth fatality and third drowning within the New and Bluestone Rivers over the past four weeks. [Chuck Noll, Law Enforcement Specialist]

Cape Hatteras NS

Man Drowns After Being Caught In Rip Current

On the afternoon of August 17th, Hyde County dispatch received a 911 call reporting a swimmer in distress near Ramp 67 on Ocracoke Island. Ranger Peter Zahrt responded along with Ocracoke VFD and Hyde County EMS. When they arrived, they found two vacationing doctors performing CPR on S.D., 73. Hyde County EMS continued to provide advanced life support and transported him to the Ocracoke Health Clinic. Efforts to revive him failed. According to witness reports. S.D. entered the water to help his 15-year-old granddaughter and 8-year-old grandson, who were caught in a rip current. Although they made it to shore, he was caught in the current. [Paul Stevens, Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

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

Grand Canyon NP - Three hundred juvenile humpback chub were translocated to Shinumo Creek in June in an effort to establish a satellite population of the endangered fish. The fish, which is endemic to the Colorado River basin, has been impacted by a variety of significant human-caused changes. Early indications are that the translocation was a success.

Park Facility Management Division - On August 13th, the independent oversight review committee, comprised of senior level managers from FERC and USBR, completed its examination of the NPS dam safety program. While the final report to the director of NPS is still pending, a copy of the exit interview presentation is now available.

Lake Mead NRA - Three brand new ambulances will be replacing the park's aging medical response fleet. Photo.

To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):

NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index

Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

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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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