NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, December 17, 2010
INCIDENTS
Big Bend NP
Rangers Seize A Ton Of Smuggled Marijuana
While on patrol on River Road on the morning of December 14th, one of the rangers assigned to the East District encountered a 1996 blue Chevrolet pickup truck driving towards him at a high rate of speed on a narrow dirt and gravel road. The truck, which was coming from an area of the international border where illegal crossings have been known to occur, was traveling so fast that it reached the ranger's location in a very short time. The driver suddenly realized he was coming up on a marked ranger patrol truck and immediately turned around and fled south at high speed. The ranger called for assistance, followed the pickup briefly, then stopped and waited for backup from other nearby rangers and Border Patrol agents. Although the truck reached the Rio Grande, conditions barred a quick crossing, so the occupants bailed out and fled on foot, leaving the pickup at the river's edge. Rangers and agents cleared the area, then returned to the truck and found just over a ton of marijuana on boar. It was turned over to DEA. [Allen Etheridge, Chief Ranger]
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/):
Everglades NP - Staff and volunteers at Everglades have been learning how to round up invasive, exotic pythons. A training session was recently held to teach them how to safely capture these snakes and transfer them to park wildlife biologists. Photo.
Joshua Tree NP - Mark Butler has been appointed as the new superintendent for Joshua Tree National Park. He replaces Curtis Sauer, who retired in September. Photo.
Denver Service Center - Bob Welch, chief of DSC's Transportation Planning Branch, will be retiring on January 1st after 32 years with the National Park Service. Photo.
Denver Service Center - Manuel “Manny” Sais, construction cost estimator with the Design and Construction Division's Branch of Quality Assurance, is retiring on December 31st with 39 years of service, 29 of those with Denver Service Center. Photo.
Servicewide Training and Conference Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses and conferences across the nation. Added to this week's calendar are the following - the year-long facility manager leaders program (May 2011 through April 2012), an asset management course in Santa Monica Mountains in February, and three offerings of fundamentals of special park uses - two at NCTC and one in Albuquerque. Also noted is the cancellation of a fee supervisors' training class in March.
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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).
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