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| River Surveillance |
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| River Surveillance |
During the past week, the rangers have been working the river
particularly hard. Since the ban of alcohol and mandate of personal flotation
devices, there has been plenty of reason to contact and write many people.
Mammoth Cave operates with two officers on river patrol to increase officer safety. A reason for that is because most parties we
have contacted are clustered between two and five canoes or kayaks. The average
number of people in those contacts were between three and eight people. When
you have that many people involved in a contact and no clean route to or away
from them, it could make for some complications. The Green River bank is pretty
steep, especially with the dropping water levels seen this season. I was
responsible for carrying our pack up and down the slope. If there was further
reason to investigate, my duty sometimes rolled over into securing an evidence
bag, producing a ticket book, and delivering a breathalyzer to the ranger
conducting SFSTs. I also conducted some surveillance by standing in cover and
looking through binoculars for violations or reason to contact visitors.
A separate
instance on the river happened when a park employee reported that he had heard
gunfire while on the river. We waited a day to follow up on the report. In
order to have an idea who we were contacting, we researched back country
permits and then checked up on the vehicles still parked near the reported
location. The bottom centered picture shows four rangers fitted with PFD's,
some long guns, and other gear to contact the reported visitors. After doing a
quick GAR assessment, they went upstream to make the contact. It turns out the
visitors were only lighting off fireworks the night before. However, it is
always good to come prepared.
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| Canoe Search |
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| Riverbank Contact |
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| Response to Report of Gunfire |
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