NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

INCIDENTS

Badlands NP

Two Convicted In Deer Poaching Incident

On November 24th, South Dakota Game & Fish received a report from two concerned citizens regarding suspicious hunting activity within the Conata Basin, which is located in the northwest part of the park. Rangers conducting the ensuing investigation discovered a blood trail measuring over 700 yards and recovered a shell casing from a .308 caliber rifle within the park's boundary. Working with a special agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, rangers conducted interviews of two Rapid City residents, L.V. and T.E. These interviews resulted in both men admitting to having killed two mule deer inside the park. Rangers confiscated the heads and capes of both deer along with a rifle used by T.E. L.V. and T.E. were charged with misdemeanor HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_Act" Lacey Act violations, resulting in $2,000 in fines and restitution totaling $3,000. This is the second successful Lacey Act conviction of illegal hunting activities at Badlands National Park since January of this year, when rangers closed a 2010 buffalo poaching case. [Casey J. Osback, 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/):

Eastern Areas - On October 29th, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in the greater New York-New Jersey area, causing serious damage to parks throughout that region, particularly the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Gateway and Fire Island. Now, more than five months later, recovery operations continue, with some areas now open or soon to reopen.

Natural Resource Stewardship and Science - The NPS recently released three web-based videos about white-nose syndrome in bats and created a mobile website featuring the videos and a set of QR (quick response) codes that link to the mobile site.

Visitor and Resource Protection - Jill Hawk has been named the new superintendent of the National Park Service unit at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, located in Glynco, Georgia.   She succeeds Don Usher, who retired on January 1st.

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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@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).

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