NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Monday, December 2, 2013

INCIDENTS

New River Gorge NR

Man Drowns In New River During Hunting Trip

G.A., 36, of Pax, West Virginia, drowned on Monday, November 25th, after falling out of his canoe into the New River during a hunting trip. He was not wearing a life jacket.

G.A. was with his two teenage stepsons when his canoe overturned in the Class 2 Meadow Creek Rapids shortly before 5 p.m. G.A. swam after the canoe while one of the stepsons helped the other, who could not swim, to shore. He then swam back out into the river and retrieved G.A. and pulled him to shore.

G.A. was unresponsive, so his stepsons began CPR. Another hunter, hearing calls for help, arrived and assisted the boys. Rescuers were summoned; responding were rangers, Green Sulphur VFD personnel, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources police officers, and local EMS and CSX railroad personnel.

Both stepsons were transported to a local hospital and treated for hypothermia. Rangers recovered the canoe and personal belongings, including hunting firearms, the following day in the middle of a winter storm that brought heavy rain to the park.

The accident happened on the opening day of the state buck deer firearms season. The park is open to hunting and rangers handled a number of hunting-related incidents that day, including this one. Ranger CW Mitchem was IC.

[Frank Sellers, Acting Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's InsideNPS. To see the full text, 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 Morning Report web page ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/):

Office of Communications - On December 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter doubled the size of the National Park System when he signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) into law. Students throughout the country can celebrate the anniversary of this landmark bill by joining President Carter on a live webchat today.

Redwood N&SP - The first large-scale prescribed fire training event in California was hosted by the park during the week of October 22nd, when 35 firefighters from eight states and Spain began their two-week prescribed fire training exchange.

Cuyahoga Valley NP - Cuyahoga Valley National Park has become the first national park site in Ohio to achieve the status of Climate Friendly Park, joining more than 100 other national parks nationwide already in the network.

Air Resources Division - Don Shepherd of the NPS Air Resources Division has been awarded an Environmental Protection Agency Bronze Medal honor award for his contributions in protecting and improving visibility in Voyageurs, Isle Royale, and Pictured Rocks.

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The Morning Report is 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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