Celebrate Autumn and National Public Lands Day! In celebration of National Public Lands Day, Olympic National Park will join other National Park Service units and eight other federal land management agencies by waiving entrance fees on Saturday, September 30, 2006.
Volunteers Honored for Service Over 100 of Olympic's volunteers were recognized at a late-summer lunch hosted by park staff. Many park volunteers (aka Volunteers-In-Parks or VIPs) have finished their summer season of donated time and labor, while others live in the area and contribute time throughout the year. Volunteers at Olympic work in a wide variety of roles, from presenting education programs to trail maintenance and from serving as campground hosts to creating digital image files for the web. Over 1,000 volunteers worked in Olympic during 2005, donating over 60,000 hours of their valuable time. Rangers Crack Burglary Case Over the course of this past summer, rangers from Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks conducted a successful investigation into a rash of auto burglaries that occurred in May and June at trailheads in the two parks. Rangers identified 27 victims in the spring car clouts – 21 at Olympic and another six at Mount Rainier. Investigators discovered that credit cards stolen from park visitors had been used in several stores in the Aberdeen and Olympia areas, allowing them to trace a purchase made by Michael Pickering of Aberdeen, already a suspect in previous burglary and larceny cases at Olympic. After obtaining an arrest and search warrant, Olympic rangers assisted officers from the Aberdeen Police Department in searching Pickering’s residence. Numerous stolen items including backpacks, tents, clothing and wallets were found in Pickering’s room. During the search, an entrance receipt for Mount Rainier was seized, allowing investigators to place Pickering and a female companion, identified as Alisha Crespo, at the park on the date of the larcenies. Pickering has been charged with identity theft and possession of stolen property in state court; Crespo has been charged with identity theft. During interviews with Pickering, rangers obtained written statements admitting to the crimes. Rangers from the two parks are jointly managing the case. Federal charges against Pickering and Crespo are pending. |
Last updated: February 28, 2015