NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, January 15, 2010
INCIDENTS
Mount Rushmore NM
Greenpeace Activists Sentenced In Court
On July 8, 2009, 11 people were arrested after gaining access to a closed area of the park and climbing to and on a closed area on the face of the memorial. Several of them hung a banner stating “America Honors Leaders Not Politicians Stop Global Warming Greenpeace” to the right side of Lincoln's face, while several others chained themselves together in areas which impeded the ranger's response to the top of the memorial. At the same time that the individuals were climbing and setting up the protest banner, live video was being streamed through the website HYPERLINK "http://www.greenpeace.org"www.greenpeace.org. This video was being recorded by an unknown person who had parked in the Mount Rushmore parking garage. During the live video stream, Kert Davies, research director for Greenpeace, was narrating the activities and making statements about global warming and its harm to the environment. Soon after the banner was cut down, the narration and live video stream ended. On July 21st, the eleven were indicted for trespassing in a national park, climbing Mount Rushmore as prohibited by law, interfering with a government official, and aiding and abetting others in those offenses. Greenpeace, Inc., was also charged with aiding and abetting eleven individuals trespassing in a national park by entering an area not open to the public without permission, aiding and abetting nine individuals with climbing Mount Rushmore as prohibited by law, and aiding and abetting six individuals with intentionally interfering with a government employee or officer engaged in an official duty. This was one of the first times that the corporation Greenpeace had been indicted for the actions of its activists. This month, Greenpeace agreed to a civil settlement of $30,000. Of that sum, $25,000 is to go to Mount Rushmore to promote conservation activities within the memorial. The remaining money is to go to the cooperating agencies that responded during the incident. On January 4th, the eleven people involved in the demonstration pled guilty to one count each of climbing Mount Rushmore. Each was given a $450 fine. Five who had prior misdemeanor arrests were each sentenced to 100 hours community service to be served at Mount Rushmore or another NPS unit; one who had an extensive criminal history was sentenced to two days in jail and 100 hours community service in a park unit; the remaining five were each sentenced to 50 hours community service at a park unit. All climbing and recording equipment seized during the arrests were forfeited over to the government. [Beth Shott, Special Agent]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:
Martin Luther King Jr. NHS - A celebration will be held in the park today to mark the 81st birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 25th anniversary of the national holiday in Dr. King's honor.
Historic Preservation Training Center - The Historic Preservation Training Center's FY2009 annual report is now available on-line at the center's website.
Southeast Region - Following 34 years of federal service, including three years in the Navy, Southeast Regional Deputy Director Art Frederick is "going coastal" and retiring to the fine fishing waters of northern Florida.
Independence NHP - Mary Jenkins, interpretive program specialist at Independence National Historical Park, will retire at month's end. Photo.
National Mall and Memorial Parks - Rosanna Weltzin has been selected as deputy chief of interpretation and education at the National Mall and Memorial Parks. Photo.
Training Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses offered by the NPS and its partners across the nation. Added to this week's listing are the following - a series of on-line wilderness training classes, a national wilderness stewardship training course in Montana, two more Fundamentals II classes at the Grand Canyon, interagency regional wilderness stewardship training in Colorado, two NAGPRA courses (one in IMRO, the other at WACC), and wilderness first responder and wilderness first responder refresher courses at Great Smokies
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/
NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504
* * * * *
Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
--- ### ---