Park News July 15,2008

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

Quick action by a Pocono Environmental Education Center counselor and park lifeguards saved a five-year old girl from drowning at Milford Beach on the morning of Wednesday, July 9th. The girl was at Milford Beach as part of a day camp group from PEEC, a park partner with facilities in the Pennsylvania District. The group included 34 children and 10 counselors and instructors, two of whom were certified lifeguards. The girl was swimming in about five feet of water approximately 10 to 15 feet from the beach with several counselors and other children when she began to struggle. Within seconds, a counselor, who was within arm’s reach, noticed the child’s difficulties and was able to grab her and take her to the beach. Alerted to the incident, the two on-duty lifeguards met the counselor and the girl at the water’s edge. The girl was unconscious and was not breathing. Lifeguards administered back blows and opened the girl’s airway. Her breathing was restored and she regained consciousness, making CPR unnecessary. The child was taken to Bon Secours Community Hospital by the Milford Ambulance Corps and later transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at a Morristown hospital. She was treated there and has since been released. Rangers also responded and are investigating the incident.

 

Cape Lookout National Seashore

Protection rangers put their recently developed emergency response team training into effect during the pre-dawn hours of July 5th when they dealt with a domestic violence incident that took place near the lighthouse on South Core Banks. Lead by chief ranger Barry Munyan, protection rangers Lance Herman, Meredith Riester, Pete Duncan and Joe Lamm responded from the park’s mainland headquarters in a 25-foot open patrol boat during a severe thunderstorm that produced lightning and high winds. The assaulted victim was safely secured at the Lighthouse Keepers Quarters and the rangers took her attacker into custody without incident. The assailant has a long history of domestic violence and resisting arrest. At the time of the incident, he had custody of his four-year-old son, who was with him in their tent. Excessive alcohol consumption was a contributing factor in the incident. A second boat with rangers Shad Dusseau and John Bland was dispatched to move the victim to the mainland, where she received medical treatment and was taken to a hospital. The man remains in custody pending trial. This is his third domestic violence arrest in the park since April.

 

Colonial National Historical Park

The York County Sheriff’s Office called park dispatch on the morning of July 11th and asked that rangers be on the lookout for a possibly suicidal woman. The woman had just fled from the county courthouse in Yorktown after losing custody of her children. She’d reportedly told family members that she was going to commit suicide and said that she had a plan in place to do so. Her children were currently at home in nearby Williamsburg with a teenage babysitter, and family members were concerned that she might harm the children as well as herself. The park’s chief ranger immediately headed west on the Colonial Parkway from Yorktown toward Williamsburg, looking for the woman’s red Chevrolet pickup. He spotted it westbound on the parkway just a couple of miles from Yorktown. Using a regional radio system, he was able to talk directly with county deputies and coordinate a high risk stop along the parkway. The woman was taken into protective custody without incident. The regional law enforcement/emergency services radio system has proven to be very useful on special events and in other, similar emergency incidents.

 

73





Tom Nichols has been named chief of the Division of Fire and Aviation Management. He succeeds Mike Wallace, who retired on April 30th.

As the chief of the Division of Fire and Aviation, Nichols will be responsible for the overall leadership, policy and program direction for the wildland fire, structural fire, and aviation management programs for the National Park Service. This national office position is located at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

“Tom comes to this position with a high level of expertise and experience gained throughout his 31 plus years in fire and land management planning activities,” said Karen Taylor-Goodrich, Associate Director, Visitor and Resource Protection. “While dedicated to the National Park Service mission, he is a visionary thinker and a strong team player which is critical in the interagency arena.”

Since March 2007, Nichols has served as the deputy chief for the division he will now lead.  He arrived in Boise in October 2005, starting his NIFC career with the NPS Fire Management Planning and Budget Group. Before coming to the National Interagency Fire Center, he was the fire management officer at Yosemite National Park. Prior to Yosemite, he worked in the NPS Pacific West Regional Office for ten years; from 1997 to 2002, he was the regional fire management officer, and from 1992 to 1997, he served as the regional prescribed fire specialist.

In July 2001, Tom was awarded a Department of the Interior Citation for Superior Service in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the National Park Service and excellent service to the American people. Along with numerous other accomplishments, former Director Fran Mainella recognized Tom for being a leader in articulating the important role of fire in ecosystem management, an expert on the use of fire as a tool for resource management and fuel load reduction and that he worked exceptionally well with park staff in crafting an interdisciplinary fire management program.

Nichols began his career with the National Park Service in 1977 at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, where he worked for 15 years in the Division of Resource Management as a prescribed fire specialist, air quality specialist and environmental specialist.

Nichols received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at San Diego in chemistry/earth science and a master of science degree in biology/ecology from San Diego State University. He and his wife Barb Moritsch live in Boise.

 

Intermountain Region

Mary Hinson, chief ranger at Lake Mead, has been selected as the Randy Jones Fellow. 

The Randy Jones Leadership Fellow continues the vision of former Deputy Director Randy Jones to provide opportunities to prepare the future leaders of the National Park Service.  In this assignment, Mary will be working directly for the National Safety Leadership Council, a group chartered by the National Leadership Council to transform safety in the NPS from a discrete function to a leadership practice. 

Mary has worked for the National Park Service for the past 15 years in various visitor and resource protection positions at Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Lake Mead.

For the duration of her detail, Mary will act as the servicewide operational leadership program manager. She emerged as the clear choice among a strong group of applicants. Her passion for instilling a culture of employee excellence and her demonstrated success in implementation of operational leadership at Lake Mead were key to this detail assignment.

As the servicewide program manager, Mary will develop administrative and managerial structures to support the ongoing development, execution, and evaluation of this important program.  These activities will include coordinating and tracking facilitator and student training, acting as the single servicewide contact for NPS staff and the contractor and managing course content and creating an organizational footprint for this program.

When asked what she hoped to do in this detail, Hinson said, "I hope to share what I have experienced first-hand with operational leadership.  This program creates a framework and common language for all employees regardless of title, grade, rank or discipline to assess and manage risk as a team. We all assume a level of risk every day. This program teaches us how to identify and mitigate that risk to an acceptable level. The end result is a safer operation with engaged employees who are happy, healthy and productive. "

Mary can be reached in the Intermountain Regional Office at 303-969-2585 or at Mary_Hinson@NPS.Gov.

 

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Stephen T. Miller, superintendent of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, will be retiring on August 2nd after almost 36 years with the National Park Service.

Steve started his career in 1972 as a seasonal park technician on the Lightship Chesapeake (Washington, D.C.) the summer before his last year of college.  He lived on board during those months with the Sea Explorer Scouts who served as the ship’s crew.  After college, he continued at the lightship, where he conducted environmental education programs for area schools and colleges.

In 1975, he went to Kringle Environmental Resource Center (located in Rock Creek Park) as site manager, where he was involved in regional environmental education programs including youth and community gardens.  One time his staff even dressed up as vegetables!  During his time at Kringle, Steve was detailed to President’s Park (1977) as a supervisory park ranger.  It is said that this was actually “squirrel detail” since one of his responsibilities was trapping (and releasing out of the park) the squirrels who were consuming the plants in Lafayette Park.

When he was called for a position at El Morro National Monument in New Mexico, he and his wife Char had very little time to decide and move.  But move they did—and Steve became the supervisory park ranger at El Morro from 1978 to 1980.

In 1980, Steve went to Navajo National Monument in Arizona as superintendent.  Steve’s two daughters, Jennifer and Rebecca, attended school there, and learned to speak Navajo.  He and Char recount many stories about living in such a remote location (a trip to town and the grocery store was an all-day event).  TV reception was virtually nonexistent, and Steve’s wife tells of a time when he took his black and white TV to the top of the park water tower to try to catch a glimpse of a NY Giants football game! 

After six years as the superintendent of Navajo National Monument, Steve became the superintendent of Ft. Davis National Historic Site in Texas, where he served from 1986 to 1988.  During his time at Ft. Davis, Steve helped to complete the restoration of the Enlisted Men’s Barracks (“Buffalo Soldiers”).  The dedication for the barracks was held on February 20, 1988.  Among the honored speakers at this occasion was Alex Haley.

Ft. Scott National Historic Site in Kansas was Steve’s next park.  He was superintendent there from 1988 to 1996.  While at Ft. Scott, Steve also served as the State Coordinator, and started work on another proposed new park:  Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Steve started coming to the Flint Hills region of Kansas seven years before the legislation for the new park was passed by Congress—giving his time and effort to the project.  In 1996, after Congress established Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve as a unit of the National Park Service, Steve became the park’s first superintendent.  When he first started, he was the only NPS employee at the park, with a card table and folding chair from home and no phone in his office.

It has been an honor to have Steve as the superintendent of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve for the last 11 1/2 years—and it is hard to imagine the park without him!  We all wish him a very happy retirement, and we would like Steve’s many friends in the NPS and elsewhere to join us in celebrating his career.  Any pictures, notes to Steve, stories, or mementos can be sent to the preserve office in care of Heather Brown, 226 Broadway, P.O. Box 585, Cottonwood Falls, Kansas—or better yet, be brought in person.

A barbecue in Steve’s honor will be held on Saturday, August 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. in the barn at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Strong City, Kansas.  We ask that you R.S.V.P. by July 25th by calling 620-273-6034. More information and directions to the preserve can also be obtained by calling this number.

 

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Dates: 06/25/2008 - 07/22/2008

The park has issued an announcement for a division chief for its resources management division. The announcement number is GLCA-MP-08-23 and it closes on July 22nd. For a copy of the announcement, click on "More Information" below.

Page, Arizona, is located on the Arizona-Utah border, 135 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, in the beautiful red rock country of the Colorado Plateau. The area enjoys typical high desert climate with sunshine most days of the year.  Page is a small but full service community.

 



 More Information...

 

Big Cypress National Preserve

Dates: 07/07/2008 - 08/04/2008

Big Cypress is seeking candidates for a position as fire manaagement specialist (prescribed fire and fuels). The announcement closes on August 6th.

For more information, click on:
http://www.nps.gov/bicy/parkmgmt/jobs.htm

For a copy of the announcement, click on "More Information" below.





 More Information...