NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Monday, February 2, 2015
INCIDENTS
Rocky Mountain NP
Trail Ridge Road Walker Rescued
The search for a New York man who disappeared while attempting to walk over the Rockies on Trail Ridge Road last week came to a successful conclusion late last Thursday when rangers found him lying on a rock along the road's shoulder.
J.S., 34, of Cohoes, New York, was found in poor condition and was initially uncooperative. He was nonetheless provided care and assistance, and, because he'd been exposed to the elements above tree line over several days, was flown by Flight for Life to the Medical Center of the Rockies. As this is a continuing investigation, no further information is currently being released.
On Monday, January 26th, rangers contacted J.S., who had entered the park on foot and said he was planning to walk westbound over Trail Ridge Road. Rangers advised him against this based on his behavior and his lack of preparedness for winter alpine conditions. J.S. was wearing tennis shoes, jeans or tan canvas pants, and a black/blue jacket. He had neither hat nor gloves, and was carrying a plastic grocery bag.
Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, with its highest point reaching 12,183 feet. Over ten miles of the road are above 11,500 feet. The road closed to vehicles for the season last November and is not maintained during the winter. Conditions on the road range from bare windblown asphalt to deep snow drifts.
Rangers on skis contacted J.S. above Many Parks Curve on last Tuesday afternoon. They were concerned for his welfare and were attempting to assist him. J.S. fled from rangers up a dry section of the road and continued to elude rangers until darkness fell.
Beginning early on Wednesday, two teams of rangers again attempted to locate J.S. One team came from the east side of the park and the other team came from the west side of the park. Rangers faced wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour; these high winds and blowing snow hampered their efforts to follow J.S.'s footprints. Aerial operations were not possible due to high winds. The entire road corridor was checked
Rangers were assisted by a Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer with an ATV equipped with snow tracks and by an over-snow tracked vehicle and operator from Estes Park Light and Power. The motorized equipment was only used on Trail Ridge Road.
[Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer]
Death Valley NP
Rangers Successfully Intervene In Attempted Suicide
On January 26th, law enforcement rangers received a report from the Inyo County Sheriff's Office regarding a possible suicidal person in in Death Valley. The sheriff's office had few details other than that he was posting ominous messages to Facebook about his intention to end his life in the park, adding that he was just searching for the right location.
Through investigation, rangers determined that he owned and might be in possession of three handguns, a 12 gauge shotgun, knives, and medieval weaponry. It was also learned that he might be intending to harm law enforcement officers.
Rangers monitored the man's Facebook page and began searching areas with enough connectivity to post messages and pictures to the internet. Drawing from the terrain features in the background of his photographs, rangers put together a likely search area. They also contacted the man's cell phone provider and requested that they attempt to geo-locate the phone through “pinging”, which was unsuccessful.
On January 27th, the man posted a photograph of himself pointing to his chosen area. Rangers quickly identified the area where the photograph was taken and responded. A short time later the cell phone provider located the man's cell phone in the same area identified in the photograph.
The rangers found him and made a high-risk traffic stop. An Inyo County Sheriff's Office deputy arrived on scene after the stop was made and placed the man in custody on a California Welfare and Institutions Code 5150 for a mental health assessment.
[J.D. Updegraff, Supervisory Park Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers):
• Natural Resource Stewardship and Science - The National Park Service has developed guidance on its benefits sharing program through a director's order (DO 77-10) and a new handbook that provides detailed directions on implementing its policies.
• Biological Resource Division - Inspired by the June 2014 Presidential memo which called for creating a national strategy to promote the health of pollinators, the NPS Pollinator Workgroup has developed a pollinators subject site.
• Office of Communications - On January 21st, Director Jarvis hosted a webchat to discuss the year ahead and preparations for the NPS centennial. The webchat transcript and the director's blog, which contains additional details, are both now available.
• Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings, newly introduced bills, and the status of legislation of interest to the Service. This report covers activities in Congress through January 30th.
• Intermountain Region - Lisa E. Eckert, a 33-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been named superintendent at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. She will assume her new duties in mid-March.
• Ozark NSR - Larry Johnson, former chief ranger for Ozark NSR, has been selected to serve as the park's acting superintendent following the retirement of Bill Black on January 3rd.
To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites:
NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/
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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