NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, July 22, 2010

INCIDENTS

Gulf Coast Parks

Resource Advisors Assure Careful Cleanup Of Sensitive Lands

The Department of the Interior recognized from the very beginning of the oil spill event that the cleanup effort had the potential to create additional impact on the fragile shorelines of the Gulf of Mexico. Early on, the NPS and other federal agencies, specifically the US Fish and Wildlife Service, created a “sensitive lands” branch as part of overall incident management. The keystone of the sensitive lands approach to the cleanup effort is the cooperative effort between work crews on the beach and the resource advisors (READs) assigned to accompany them. READs are specially-trained natural resource professional employed by land management agencies, including the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, who are on the ground with the crews to identify known nesting sites and dune vegetation as well as looking for new nesting sites of sea turtles, birds and beach mice. READs also assist when new ecologically sensitive resources are documented, assist managers in the sensitive lands office to develop amended recommendations for the critical area, and communicate those recommendations back down to the people doing the work. The Department of the Interior believes in using techniques and tools that are effective to get the job done while impacting the landscape the least. According to JD Swed, branch chief for the sensitive lands office at Mobile Incident Command, the national parks and wildlife refuges are being treated like the sea pods of the future. If these areas can be cleaned up while still preserving the biology and ecology of the area, they can be the catalysts to speeding natural recovery of other coastal areas which have been impacted more deeply. The goal of the sensitive lands branch is to clean these areas effectively, and carefully. Meanwhile, here's what happened in the parks yesterday:

Gulf Islands NS - Cleanup in the Mississippi District closed down early yesterday due to weather.

South Florida Parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, Desoto, Dry Tortugas, Everglades) - No new developments.

Jean Lafitte NHP&P - No new developments.

Padre Island NS - No new developments.

For more information on the NPS, DOI and national oil spill responses and for a link to the BP online oil spill safety training needed by all incident staff, please see the following sites:

HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doctype/2931/53023/" Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/index.cfm" DOI Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm" NPS Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/" National Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.restorethegulf.gov/" Restore The Gulf

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Conferences&id=1957" Oil Spill Safety Training

HYPERLINK "http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/" GeoPlatform

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custommenu.cfm?lv=3&prg=1006&id=9336" NPS ICS 209 Incident Status Summaries

HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/documents/NPS%20-%20Public%20Health%20Notice%20SIGNAGE%206-26-10.pdf" Gulf Islands Public Health Precautions Notice

HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/archive/features/oilspillresponse/OilSpillSafety/index.htm" Public Health Service Oil Spill Safety Video

HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/archive/features/oilspillresponse/" Oil Spill Media Page

[Jeff Wolin, Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response]

Yellowstone NP

Body Of Missing Man Discovered

The body of an Oklahoma man missing since May has been discovered. On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 14th, a group of researchers working off trail in the park's backcountry came upon human remains. They hiked out and notified rangers, who then hiked into the area Thursday to confirm the researchers' discovery. They found the body of a young man near the top of Garnet Hill, a prominent summit northwest of Tower Junction. The site is well off established trails and east of the Hellroaring Trailhead, where a rental car belonging to P.K. was discovered abandoned in late May. The body was removed by helicopter, and then taken to Bozeman, Montana, for a forensic autopsy, which confirmed the remains were those of the 25-year-old man. The autopsy revealed that P.K. died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. P.K. had been the subject of an HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=5118" ongoing search since May 31st, when a check on a red Cadillac STS sedan parked at the trailhead showed that the vehicle was two weeks overdue from an Oklahoma City car rental agency. Family members who were then contacted said they had not been in touch with P.K. in recent weeks and reported him missing. A series of searches by ground teams, dog teams, and from the air had failed to turn up any clues to the missing man's whereabouts until Wednesday's discovery by researchers. P.K. had been honorably discharged from the Marine Corps after serving for four years. During his service, he was injured twice by improvised explosive devices while serving in Iraq. He had recently moved to Oklahoma City from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to attend college. [Al Nash, Public Affairs Officer]

Cape Lookout NS

World War II Bomb Found On Beach

On Sunday, July 18th, a visitor advised ranger Devin Seybert that a possible explosive device had washed ashore at the north end of North Core Banks. Seybert tentatively identified the device as an unexploded aerial bomb, marked a wide area as a safety buffer, and informed management of the situation. On July 19th, an explosive ordnance disposal team from the Marine Corp Air Station at Cherry Point was taken to the bomb's location. The Marine Corp team identified the device as a World War II era bomb, possibly containing up to 75 pounds of TNT. The EOD team destroyed the bomb by detonating it in place with C-4 explosives. The coastal areas of North Carolina experienced considerable military activity during World War II, both in training exercises and actual combat involving shipping convoys and German U-Boats. [Shad Dusseau, Protection Operations Supervisor]

Glacier NP

Two Teenage Hikers Injured By Falling Rocks

Two teenage hikers were struck by falling rocks on the Highline Trail on Wednesday, July 21st. Both have been transported for medical attention, though the extent of the hikers' injuries is not known at this time. A park employee heard yelling on the trail about two-and-a-half miles east of the Granite Park Chalet and notified the park's dispatch center. Park staff immediately responded from the chalet and from the Swiftcurrent fire lookout and gave the hikers first aid. The hikers are described as 13- and 19-year-old boys. Additional staff staged to respond with Minuteman Aviation of West Glacier, and the park requested an ALERT helicopter from Kalispell Regional Medical Center. A thunderstorm initially kept both helicopters from flying into the area. Rangers on the ground worked together with both helicopter crews to transport the hikers off the mountain. Around 4:30 p.m., the 19-year-old hiker was flown out of the park, transferred to Three Rivers EMS, and taken to North Valley Hospital in Whitefish for medical treatment. ALERT flew the 13-year-old hiker to the medical center in Kalispell. Initial investigation of the rock fall indicates that the rock fell from a cliff about 100 feet above the trail. The exact cause is not known, but there appears to be no immediate hazard and the trail remains open. [Wade Muehlhof, Public Affairs Officer]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

Port Chicago Naval Magazine NM - Last Saturday, 700 people gathered at Port Chicago Naval Magazine NM, the newest unit in the National Park System, to honor those who lost their lives in the 1944 Port Chicago tragedy.

National Capital Region - Youth from Second Nature, a partnership program between the NPS and the Art and Media House of the Latin American Youth Center, are visiting and camping in parks in NCR this summer. Photo.

Uniform Program - The month of August will see the return of the trench coat to the uniform program. The black trench coat will be available to order on August 1st.

NPS incident submission standards can be found online at the HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" serious incident notification web page.

* * * *

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).

--- ### ---