Exciting New Changes for the Caribbean Parks

Exciting New Changes for the Caribbean Parks   

Week 6

Hey there! My name is Brennan McAuley from Cohort 5. I am currently down at San Juan National Historic Site for my second summer internship. Here are just a few of the things that took place during my sixth week! 

LE Contacts:

This past week provided me with many opportunities to observe how LE contacts were made here in Jan Juan National Historic Site. Just in this past week, I participated in golf cart, foot and, vehicle patrol. These different patrol styles have their advantages and disadvantages. I learned more about each one more specifically.

I observed several LE contacts performed by Morales this past week. The first contact dealt with a man intending to fly his drone in the park. Morales educated the man on the rules regarding drones in the park. There were several bikers drinking beer in the park. Morales dealt with this by giving a verbal warning. The individuals were happy to see a ranger and even happier to comply with the law. Finally, we had contact with people who were parked in a no parking zone. In this instance all Ranger Morales had to do was flip his lights on and the individuals moved their vehicles.

These several incidences gave me experience working in the 36 CFR. I was able to identify what each individual was in direct violation of. This gained knowledge and experience in the field helped be become better familiarized with my 36 CFR. From there I was able to practice writing my very own report based off of facts and the laws. From there, I familiarized myself with IMARS by reviewing “IMARS 3.0 – Basic Evidence Entry” this practice increased my understanding of how to properly write and organize a report so that it can be easily read and understood.

link to IMARS website

Some new reading Materials, Reads like a novel! 

Patrolling Fort San De La Cruz

A National Park in a state park. That’s right, a part of San Juan National Historic Site is located within a recreational state park by the name of “Parque Nacional Isla de Cabras. While at the fort, I gained experience working with another agency called “Compania de Parques Nacionales” I briefly worked with the fee collection team and learned where and how the money goes back into helping the park.

Fort San Juan de la Cruz is a small fort, especially when compared to El Morro and San Cristobal. Despite its smaller size, San Juan de la Cruz was very important when it came to defending the San Juan Bay by working with El Morro to take down enemy ships.

You have to pose next to these sort of NPS signs 

Working with the state park fee collectors

ProRanger holding down the fort

The inside of Fort San Juan de la Cruz 

Learn more about this small but mighty fort here.

Exciting changes in The Caribbean

The Southeast Regional Director Stan Austin was recently down in San Juan for a couple of days. During his time here big changes were made regarding the Caribbean parks. One of the changes is that there is now one superintendent for the Caribbean parks. This is exciting because it will unify the Caribbean parks and increase the “we're in this together” mentality.  While yes, each park is unique and will need to be managed in its own special way, the National Park Service's mission is the same for all three and will be better achieved with a more unified leadership structure and shared resources.

It was a true honor to meet with, and discuss briefly these new changes with both Southeast Regional Director, Stan Austin and (now) Caribbean Superintendent, Randy Lavasseur.