Daily Report - Yosemite National Park
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
WEATHER
Yosemite Valley
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. East wind at 6 mph becoming southwest.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 40. Light and variable wind.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 61. Light and variable wind.
El Portal
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. East northeast wind around 5 mph becoming west southwest.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 35. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 6 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. East northeast wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.
Wawona
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 70. East wind around 5 mph becoming southwest.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 22. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 5 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. East northeast wind at 6 mph becoming west northwest.
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PARK AND PARTNER NEWS
Flags at Half Staff, Mourning Bands Authorized in Honor of Margaret Anderson On January 1, 2012, at approximately 11:00 AM PST, Margaret Anderson, US Park Ranger in Mount Rainier National Park, was shot and killed in the line of duty. Ranger Anderson was killed when she attempted to stop a suspect who had failed to yield at a chain control check point. The suspect exited his vehicle and fatally shot Ranger Anderson before fleeing on foot.
In honor of Ranger Anderson, the United States flag will be lowered to half-staff in the Pacific West Region until sunset on the date of interment, as authorized in a January 3rd memo from Pacific West Regional Director Chris Lehnertz. All other regions are authorized to lower flags to half-staff on the day of interment until sunset. Future communication will be forthcoming when arrangements are complete.
Mourning bands are authorized for uniformed employees to honor the life and service of Ranger Anderson until sunset on January 31, 2012.
Ranger Anderson, 34 years old, worked for the National Park Service since the summer of 2000 when she was a seasonal ranger at Bryce Canyon National Park. She did her field training at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and worked at Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park before transferring to Mount Rainier. She is survived by her husband, Eric, also a park ranger at Mount Rainier, and two young children. (J. Jarvis) _________________
Passing of Diane Nicholson, Regional Curator It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that I am writing to inform you that Diane Nicholson, Curator at the Pacific West Regional Office, passed away yesterday afternoon at around 5:30 pm. As she was leaving 333 Bush Street at the end of her work day, Diane had a heart attack. Although medics arrived in a few minutes they were unable to restore her heart beat.
Diane brought to her position a wry sense of humor, kind heart, and deep devotion to the people and resources -- particularly the cataloged ones -- of the national park service. She readily shared her passion and professionalism with other staff, and served as a mentor to countless curators, museum technicians, and even of few superintendents in her chosen field.
We will have more information about Diane in a later message. We just wanted everyone to know.
Will be miss her very, very much. (Deputy Regional Director R. Westberg,
1/4)
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MS6 Data Server and New GIS Data Server (Pubdata) A data server at Yosemite known as "MS6" (inpyosems6) is to be retired (permanently shut down) in the next week or two. This server was the primary spatial data server for the park, though alot of other files had been placed or stored on the server. I think I have contacted all people whose files were on MS6, but this serves as the last notice in case someone was missed. If you think you have important files that were on the MS6 server that have not been moved elsewhere, please contact me immediately.
You can also contact me for information about the whereabouts of your files.
For those who access the spatial data on MS6 (Pubdata) that is the "W"
drive, all this data has been moved to a new server, but will still be accessed via the "W" drive. So, if all goes well, you should not experience any interruptions in data access. However, much of the data has been reorganized which will cause some temporary loss of connections to files in your ArcGIS .mxd documents. If this happens, you'll have to reset the source data to the file at the new location.
In addition, if any of you had shortcuts to folders on Pubdata within
inpyosems6 (instead of the "W' drive), you will have to recreate them to point to the new location of the files.
In you have any problems, please contact Bill Kuhn (379-1157) (B. Kuhn,
1/4)
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Breakthrough for Deaf Services in the Park!
Through a cooperative project between DNC and NPS, Yosemite Valley has installed a new video phone for Deaf visitors. The phone is in the Yosemite Lodge lobby and will be available 24 hours a day. Video phones are replacing TTY communication for Deaf people and function like a standard phone. Through the use of specialized equipment connected to a monitor, Deaf people can call other video phone users directly and see one another on screen. Deaf users can also call a hearing person by using the video phone to call an interpreting service. On screen interpreters have a video monitor as well as a standard phone and can serve as the go between for Deaf and hearing callers. This phone supports the thriving NPS Deaf Services Program in Yosemite which has provided a summer Deaf Services Coordinator in the park for over 30 years. As of 2011, DNC also provides a winter sign language interpreter for any park programming. Questions and
interpreting requests can be emailed to yose_deaf_services@nps.gov Much
thanks to everyone that helped make the project a success! (K. Stella, 1/4) ________________
2012 Group Volunteer Projects sought - You have the work, we have the workers!
Does your NPS program have work you need to get done, if only you had a group of people to tackle it for a few hours one or two days? Let us help you by providing a volunteer group for you to lead! Boy Scouts, families, school groups, church groups, and conservation clubs ranging in size from 5 to 50, and ages of 5 to 90 want to help Yosemite. Last year over 200 groups donated their time to the park, removing invasive plants, building picnic tables, cleaning out fire rings, shoveling snow, painting, doing Leave No Trace education, providing interpretive programming, doing wilderness restoration and trail work, and more. What can they do for you in 2012?
The Volunteer Office is compiling the 2012 Group Volunteer Project Catalog and is seeking projects. Check out the 2011 catalog to see what types of projects we've done before, and the requirements for groups ( http://www.nps.gov/yose/supportyourpark/volunteer.htm ). Then fill out the Group Project Description Form, found on SharePoint (Interpretation
>Volunteers>Forms). Forms are due (email preferred) to the volunteer
>Volunteers>Office
by January 9 COB (to allow time to reserve campsites before the January 15 sale date). The catalog will be posted on January 20. Additional projects may be added later, but campsites may not be available. Contact the volunteer office at 379-1850 or yose_volunteers@nps.gov with questions. (H.
Boothe, 1/4)
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Record-breaking season for the Tioga Road Although many people are disappointed with the lack of snow this winter, there's a positive outcome - the Tioga Road and Glacier Point Roads remain open! This is the latest the Tioga Road has been open in the park's history. The previous record was January 1st, set during the 1999-2000 winter. The historical average closing date is November 1st. We appreciate the work of the Visitor Protection and Facilities Management divisions for keeping the road safe for our visitors. Take advantage of this historic event to visit Tuolumne and hike the high country while the road is still open! (K. Kosick - 1/3)
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CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Utility work at the Tecoya Dormitories
The contractor has completed the installation of the sewer mains and is now completing the new manholes. No work will occur during the Christmas week.
When the contractor returns on January 3rd, 2012 the individual buildings will be connected to the new sewer which will require short term shutdowns of the water/sewer utilities to each building. Work is expected to be completed by mid-January. (G. Rothell - 12/22) ______________________________________________________
Foresta Road Closure - Slide Repair Between Rancheria and Old El Portal Starting Monday, November 14th the Foresta Road will be closed between Rancheria and Old El Portal as crews complete a slide repair from a spring
2011 slide. The Foresta Road will be closed at 7:00 AM on November 14th and remain closed for approximately 2-3 months, while crews complete the stabilization work. The crews are planning to work 6-days per week, Monday thru Saturday, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Due to the safety concerns, it will require a hard closure, meaning that throughout the duration of the project, there will be no access for pedestrians, bicycles, passenger vehicles, trucks, etc... Access will be limited to construction crews and emergency vehicles only. Trucks will also be using middle road to access CA St. Rte. 140, so please be cautious as you are traveling thru this area of Hwy. 140. Also, crews will be bringing in equipment and materials starting Thursday, November 10th, with intermittent single lane traffic control along Foresta Road. (M. Pieper - 11/10)
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ACTING DESIGNATIONS
Bill Kuhn will be the Acting Chief of Physical Science and Landscape Ecology from Tuesday, January 3 through Friday, January 6. Bill can be reached at 379-1157.
Deron Mills will be acting Chief of Fire and Aviation Management through Jan 13th. He can be contacted at 209-375-9572.
Donna Dean will be acting Human Resources Officer while Cindy Whitten is on leave through January 16. You may contact Donna at 209-379-1814.
Jonathan Bayless will be Acting Chief of Interpretation & Education from Dec. 23 through Jan. 8 while Tom is on AL. Tom will be local and available as needed.
Shawn Zumbrunnen will be Acting BCU Supervisor from December 22, 2011 to January 8, 2012. Shawn can be contacted at 379-1250.
Andy Fristensky will be Acting Deputy Chief of Interpretive Operations until further notice. He may be reached at 372-0599.
Jeffrey Trust will be Acting Yosemite Valley Field Interpretation Supervisor until further notice. He may be reached at 372-0307.
Ron Watson will be the Acting Supervisory Information Technology Specialist until further notice. He may be reached at 379-1074.
Brenna Lissoway (379-1283) is on a detail as the Park Archivist. If you have need to access the Archives, or have archive related questions, you can call 379-1282 or 379-1104.
COMMUNITY NEWS
Village Store Sale
Village Store sale, Thursday, 1/12/12 (excluding tobacco and alcohol). The Village Store will be closed beginning Tuesday, 1/17/12 and will reopen on Thursday, 2/16/12 at noon. (W. Kearns, 1/4) _______________
Carabiner (Degnan's Loft) is open to all community members Happy New Year from your friends at DNC Employee Recreation!! Come celebrate with us!! The Carabiner (Degnan's Loft) is open to ALL YOSEMITE COMMUNITY MEMBERS every single day of the week! They open every evening at 5pm with different entree specials each night. They close at 11pm except for Friday and Saturday when they kick it until Midnight!! Come out this Saturday for a boot stompin good time with Andy Roberts (Tresspassers, String Slingers) and his Mountain Men, there's even a chance for more surprise locals getting down bluegrass style! We'll close out this month with Yosemite's favorite...the Pimps of Joytime on Jan. 26th. Stop by the Carabiner or the Wellness Center for more info on any of the great stuff going on this winter. (E. Brosk, 1/4)
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