Park News September 23,2008

Intermountain/Midwest Regions

Recovery operations continue at Big Thicket, but sufficient headway has been made to warrant demobilization of the Central incident management team and transfer of the incident to a park team:

Big Thicket NP – Lake Meredith’s saw crew cleared the Sundew Trail in the Hickory Creek unit on Friday, and moved on to clear Cotton Road within the Lance Rosier Unit. The Chickasaw bucket truck crew removed hazard trees from an employee residence and assisted the Lake Meredith crew. Support for the nearby Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas has been transferred to BIA. FMSS assessments continued The Central incident management team turned the incident over to a park Type 3 team on Sunday and demobilized.

Jefferson NEM – The Mississippi River began to recede from flood stage last Thursday and was expected to drop below flood stage by Sunday. Both Jefferson NEM and nearby Ulysses S. Grant NHS experienced some basement flooding at their sites from recent heavy rains.  The interpretation office at the former sustained damage to computer equipment and office furniture when storm waters from the rainfall entered the basement via storm grates.

William Howard Taft NHS – The park reopened on Thursday, September 18th.

 

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Garfield County dispatch received a 911 call around 5 p.m. on September 10th reporting that a flashflood had swept through Egypt Three, a narrow slot canyon within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which borders the park. The caller said that two canyoneers had been injured and that two others had been swept away. A Garfield County deputy and the county SAR team responded. They were assisted by Glen Canyon rangers Jeff Kracht, Lance Mattson, Grant Stolhand, Chad Hunter, Steve Luckesen and Gordon Olson and Bryce Canyon rangers Mark Hnat, Rayne Rohrbach and Tim Sveum. A Classic Lifeguard helicopter was dispatched to the scene and the crew located the bodies of Kathy and Gordon Chapple, both 60, of Walnut Creek, California. They were found approximately a quarter mile downstream from the point where they’d been swept away. Their bodies were recovered the following day by a Utah Highway Patrol helicopter, personnel from the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, and a local canyoneering guide. The Chapples were canyoneering with their son, daughter-in-law, daughter, and son-in-law when the flash flood occurred.  Both the daughter-in-law and son-in-law were injured and had to be flown to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St George, Utah, where they were treated and released. Egypt Three is visited by canyoneers from all over the world. Flash floods are common this time of year.

 

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Dates: 09/18/2008 - 10/09/2008

The NPS Fire Management Program Center has issued an announcement for a GS-0401-14/15 national fire management officer. It closes on October 9th.

The person in this position serves as a principal staff leader at the national level as an expert program manager for the Service's wildland fire management activitites.

For full details on duties and guidance on how to apply, please click on the link below.



 More Information...

 

Curecanti National Recreation Area

Curecanti National Recreation Area, located 16 miles west of Gunnison, Colorado, is actively seeking a contract specialist. The position is being offered via both merit promotion – SEUG(CURE)-MP-08-20 – and all sources – SEUG(CURE)-DEU-08-19. The person selected must obtain and maintain federal acquisition certification in contracting.  For copies of the announcements, got to www.usajob.opm.gov and search for these announcements. For information on working for Curecanti NRA and living in the area, visit both www.nps.gov/cure and www.visitgunnison.com.

For further information on this position, contact Liz McConnell at 970-641-2337 ext. 229 or Liz_McConnell@nps.gov. The announcement closes on September 26th.

 

Virgin Islands National Park

The park has issued an announcement for a GS-13 facility manager. The announcement closes on October 3rd. Click on "More Information" below for a copy of the announcement.


 More Information...

 

Alaska Region

Debora Cooper has been selected as the National Park Service's Alaska Region associate regional director for resources and subsistence.

Cooper, 43, comes the the NPS job from a 21-year career with the U.S. Forest Service, most recently as the USFS Alaska Region group leader for fire and fuels. She recently completed training assignments with the state of Alaska's Division of Forestry and with the Department of the Interior, and has served as the Forest Service's director for state and private programs in Alaska. She served as the district ranger on the Kenai Peninsula portion of the Chugach National Forest for 21/2 years, the area superintendent for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in Idaho for 41/2 years and as the ecologist for the Bridget-teton National Forest in Wyoming for 5 years.

"Deb brings very strong management skills, a passion for resource protection, and Alaska experience to our team," said acting regional director Vic Knox. She will begin her National Park Service work in late October.

She began her career after completing an M.S. from the University of Idaho in wildlife and range management and a B.S. from the University of California at Davis in wildland science.

 

Pacific West Region

Les Inafuku, a 33-year veteran of the National Park Service, is the new superintendent of Manzanar National Historic Site. He replaces Tom Leatherman, who transferred to the position of deputy superintendent for the NPS areas in San Francisco's East Bay – Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park, John Muir and Eugene O’Neill National Historic Sites, and Port Chicago National Memorial.

“I admire his careful attention to visitors and the community and his keen listening skills,” said regional director Jonathan B. Jarvis, in making the appointment.  “Les is very interested in the history and resource management of Manzanar.”

Currently serving as the acting superintendent of Manzanar, Les will permanently relocate to Manzanar in January from his post as chief ranger at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park and Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park—significant archeological and cultural sites dedicated to perpetuating the traditional Native Hawaiian culture, located on the Big Island of Hawai‘i.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Manzanar team,” Les said in accepting the position.  “Working with the warm and welcoming community here in Owens Valley, plus the park’s superbly dedicated staff and partners, and our park visitors, who are all so touched by the history of this evocative place, is truly inspiring.”

Les previously served as a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park,  Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and, during college at UC Santa Cruz, as an interpretive intern at Año Nuevo State Reserve in California.  He is a graduate of the NPS mid-level management development program class of 2007.

Les, his wife Dawn, and their younger daughter expect to move to Bishop from Hawai‘i at the beginning of the new year.  Their elder daughter is attending college in Colorado.

Manzanar National Historic Site was established in 1992 to tell the stories of the relocation of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.  Manzanar was the first of ten war relocation centers built for Japanese Americans excluded from the West Coast. With a peak population of more than 10,000, Manzanar was the largest wartime “city” between Los Angeles and Reno. After the war, all but three of the camp’s 800 buildings were sold for scrap lumber or relocated for other uses. Numerous features from the camp remain, including elaborate rock gardens. The historic high school auditorium now serves as the site’s interpretive center and features exhibits, audiovisual programs, and a bookstore. Nearly 500,000 people have visited the center since its April 2004 grand opening.