A high-tech turtle (code name Turtle No. 72) kitted out with radio transmitters at Rock Creek Park near the DC-Maryland border has cracked a pot farming case by homing in on an illegal marijuana farm at the northern end of the park, while on her daily rounds of wandering and foraging for food. 

Turtle 72 is all of six inches in size. The National Park researcher, Ken Freebee, who was monitoring her, followed her to the marijuana patch and called police, who then laid a trap for the suspect, Isiah Johnson, 19, of 2300 block of Washington Avenue in Chevy Chase, who was then busted and charged with possession and intent to distribute. No word yet on whether Turtle 72 will recieve the Congressional Medal of Honor, but we say she’s much more deserving of it than some of the others who have recently been so honored.

Since we’re on the case, let’s poke around Rock Creek Park, and see if it has anything other than pot farms and tiny turtles to spice up your Washington vacations.  Well, for starters, it has a planetorium inside the park, which it seems, is a rarity.

There’s also an amphitheatre - The Carter Barron Amphitheatre - which offers concerts and Shakespearean theater during summer. There’s an 18-hole golf-course, hiking and bicycling trails, a section for rollerblading, 15 tennis courts, a large playground, picnic areas, ranger led programs and a boat center - The Thompson Boat center - where you can rent bicycles, kayaks, canoes, small sailboats and rowing shells. If you have time, definitely worth adding Rock Creek park to the list of things to do in Washington DC. Oh, and there are no bears at the Park.

Which brings us to Frazee, Minnesota, where Rob Naplin, the Department of Natural Resources’ area wildlife supervisor in Park Rapids, is now officially a villian for animal lovers across the world. If you haven’t been living in a cave the past week, you should know all about the 2 year old male black bear who got his head stuck in a 2 gallon clear plastic jug, wandered into the town of Frazee in search of food (which he was unable to eat on account of the jug) and got himself shot dead for his troubles.

Points to be noted - The poor bear wandered around northern Minnesota for six days (6 friggin days!), unable to eat or drink anything, before it was shot dead. Naplin, the wildlife supervisor, says that they made efforts to trap the bear inside Itasca State Park, and they also were ready to tranquilize it. But Frazee Police Chief Mike Lorsung said they didn’t have ready access to a tranquilizer gun so they just shot him. Photo credit & copyrights - Adam Guy, Itasca State Park/ Star Tribune 

Bottom line - The wildlife guys didn’t care enough about the bear to really mount a serious effort to take the jug off its head. That led it in desperation to Frazee, and you can’t really blame the cops for what happened after that, cause their job is to protect residents, which they did.

Is somebody going to be held responsible? Maybe someone in the area wildlife department? Maybe the someone who left a plastic jar in the wild where a bear could sniff into it? Don’t think so, even though newspapers across the world (not to mention organizations like PETA) are accusing the people involved of gross incompetency and a heartless attitude. Maybe they could give the Congressional Medal of Honor to Naplin for getting rid of one more pesky bear.

Posted on August 2nd, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News