Our National Parks: An American Legacy

Exploritas, Adventures in Lifelong Learning (also known as Elderhostel) will sponsor a Day of Discovery On Campus program entitled “Our National Parks: An American Legacy” on March 12 at Kendal in Lexington, Virginia.

Supporters hail them as our best idea. Critics consider them elitist and out of
date. Thus are America’s national parks still divided in a tug-of-war between
progress and preservation. How did we get the parks? Why should we keep
them? Or are they indeed an anachronism for the rich? Only because our
forebears persevered in tackling those questions do the national parks still
exist.

Bruce W. Bytnar, thirty two year veteran of the National Park Service and author of the book A Park Ranger’s Life: Thirty Two Years Protecting Our National Parks, will serve as facilitator for this program. As a National Park Ranger Mr. Bytnar was a speaker in demand by schools and public organizations presenting on such topics as careers as a park ranger, National Park History, traveling in national parks, threats to our parks, hiking and camping, wildlife, and storytelling. In addition Mr. Bytnar served the National Park Service as an instructor on the regional and national level in resource protection, Wildland fire fighting, Incident Command, firearms, leadership, team building, communications, and meeting management.



For more information or to register for this educational experience, go to:

http://www.exploritas.org/programs/programdetail.asp?id=1%2D52M1T7&eCode=

Fall Color Update for the Blue Ridge

These are the latest photos of my indicator tree. We had our first hard frost this morning (October 1) and more color should start to move into the trees during the coming week. If one looks now they can see some examples of color in individual specimins.


All these photos were taken on the Blue Ridge Parkway today from elevations of 2600 to 3000 feet.

Park Rangers Catch More Plant Thieves

The following incident occurred at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park and appeared in the National Park Service Morning Report for Tuesday September 22. One again Park Rangers caught individuals stealing plants from a National Park.

Cumberland Gap NHP

Three Ginseng Poachers Caught

On September 16th, ranger Brad Cope came upon a vehicle parked adjacent to the park boundary in an area known for ginseng poaching. The vehicle was registered to a man who was suspected of ginseng poaching from prior contacts in the park. Rangers launched an operation that consisted of covert surveillance on the vehicle and park boundary, an undercover vehicle, and a take-down vehicle. Three men walked out of the park boundary and placed a backpack in the trunk of the vehicle, which was stopped about a half mile down the road. The three men, identified as Mark Seals, Todd Reynolds and Bryan England, were interviewed and provided conflicting information on their activities. All three had evidence of digging on their clothing and hands. Rangers conducted a search of the vehicle and found the backpack in the trunk with approximately 401 ginseng roots in three separate bags. They also discovered three large screwdrivers used to dig up the roots and a walking stick. In depth interviews revealed that the three men were digging and collected all the ginseng that they could find in the park. They also provided a wealth of information regarding past activities, describing the number of plants and dollar amounts on what they
had earned from digging in the park. The green ginseng roots weighed approximately three pounds. Rangers Cope and Greg Johnston are case agents.

[Greg Johnston, Park Ranger]