NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
INCIDENTS
Death Valley NP
Two Day Search Ends With Rescue
On the evening of Monday, March 23rd, rangers received a report that a visitor was stranded on a ledge in Golden Canyon, a popular hiking area in Death Valley. Rangers hiked the trail system by headlamp but were unable to locate the visitor.
On Tuesday, park personnel were able to make voice contact with the nab, who was trapped at the top of a series of dry waterfalls, some of which were greater than 100 feet high. Rangers directed a U.S. Navy search and rescue helicopter to his location, where he was hoisted into the aircraft without incident.
He was flown to the Furnace Creek Airfield, where he was medically evaluated and debriefed. He said that he left the main trail system and began following a series of social trails until he became “cliffed out”. Once he realized that he was trapped he sheltered in place overnight and awaited rescue.
Search and rescue efforts were supported by members of protection, fee collection, interpretation, resource management, maintenance, and management branches, as well as military personnel from the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
[J.D. Updegraff, District 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):
Shiloh NMP - A recent park Facebook posting featuring a then-and-now photograph of the 5th Ohio Cavalry monument reached more than 135,000 people in under 24 hours, far surpassing any of the park's previous posts since it joined Facebook in 2011.
Martin Luther King, Jr. NHS - Secretary Jewell joined other dignitaries at a recent ceremony to announce DOI's vision to increase connections to public lands and to triple the number of volunteers who help care for America's treasured landscapes.
Pacific West Region - The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has presented its Chairman's Award for Achievement in Historic Preservation to a program that connects students to the historic and cultural treasures of the San Francisco area.
Historical Documentation Programs - Nominations are being sought for this year's Leicester B. Holland Prize, a single-sheet measured drawing competition. Entry forms are due by May 31st.
Workforce, Relevancy and Inclusion Directorate - Carlos James, oldest son of Jeffrey Davies, deputy ethics counselor and ethics program director for the NPS, was laid to rest on March 14th following his tragic murder.
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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