NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Friday, February 22, 2013
INCIDENTS
Great Smoky Mountains NP
Rangers Join In Major Interstate Wildlife Operation
State and federal wildlife officials in North Carolina and Georgia have announced an undercover operation that involved about 80 wildlife violators and some 980 violations. Some of these offenses occurred within the park's boundaries and the investigation may lead to the filing of federal charges in coming weeks. Primary violations documented by Operation Something Bruin stem from illegal bear hunting, but include an array of state wildlife and game law charges. The four-year investigation, the largest of its kind in recent years, targeted poachers in North Carolina and Georgia, with work in some adjacent states. Officers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission infiltrated poaching circles to document violations, that included bear baiting, the illegal taking of bears, deer and other wildlife, the illegal use of dogs, the illegal operation of bear pens in North Carolina, and guiding hunts on national forest lands without the required permits. Participation in the operation were officers and rangers from the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. For more information, go to this link: HYPERLINK "http://www.operationsomethingbruin.org" http://www.operationsomethingbruin.org. [Public Affairs Office]
Grand Canyon NP
Hikers Charged With Child Abuse
In October 2012, a couple attempted to take their eight-month-old daughter from the rim of the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River and back to the rim in one day - a hike strongly discouraged by the NPS. They were unprepared for the hike and therefore resorted to eating the baby's food along the way. On the hike out of the canyon, they could no longer carry the baby due to exhaustion, so gave the child to a hiker who was a stranger but had offered to help. When the hiker reached the South Rim - without the family - he immediately went to the Bright Angel Lodge and requested law enforcement assistance. Upon reaching the rim, the family of three flagged down a shuttle bus and reported that their baby had been kidnapped. Rangers responded and called for assistance from the Investigative Services Branch. A joint investigation was conducted by rangers from the South Rim and Canyon Districts, ISB agents, and personnel from Arizona Child Protective Services. The baby was placed in the protective care of CPS and each parent was charged with a felony count of child abuse, recklessly placing a child in a position where its health was endangered. Both parents ultimately pled guilty in court to Arizona Revised Statute 13-3619, permitting life, health, or morals of minor to be imperiled by neglect, abuse, or immoral associations - a Class 1 misdemeanor. [Investigative Services Branch]
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/):
Office of Communications - A ceremony was held this week to mark the addition of eleven more names to the memorial plaque in the main corridor of the NPS suite of offices in Main Interior that lists all of the 226 NPS employees who have died in the line of duty over the past 104 years.
Mount Rushmore NM - Special Valentines arrived early at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. On February 13th, Xanterra Parks & Resorts and the Mount Rushmore staff celebrated Valentine's Day early by hosting a mini gala for the residents of the Black Hills Children's Home.
Voyageurs NP - Voyageurs is engaged in a study of the park's moose population to determine its long-term viability, as there have been climate-related declines of the species in recent years in other parts of Minnesota and adjacent Ontario.
Cape Cod NS - Jason J. Taylor has been selected as the chief of natural resource management at Cape Cod National Seashore. Prior to his selection, Jason served as a landscape ecologist with the Bureau of Land Management at their National Operations Center in Denver.
Training and Conference Calendar - Added to this week's calendar are five new offerings of the introduction to park program management course at various locations around the country.
* * * *
The Morning Report is a publication of the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
--- ### ---