After the holiday melee on the Upper Reach of the Parkway, the Nature Center Park Rangers and staff in Ancil Hoffman Park were able to help out the victims; and focused attention on the need for more nature centers in the Parkway as it becomes more heavily used.
The Parkway’s Lower Reach, where the problems revolve around illegal camping and the oft reported physical attacks associated with the campers, could certainly use a nature center and the Park Rangers based there.
An excerpt.
First-aid skills put to the test
Effie Yeaw nature workers help rafters hurt in July 4 rock-throwing fight
By Bill Lindelof -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, July 13, 2006
When a rock-throwing melee broke out on the banks of the American River, some unlikely good Samaritans were called into service to stanch the blood and steady the situation.
More accustomed to caring for a raptor with an injured wing, naturalists from the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Ancil Hoffman Park helped rafters who were injured in a melee along the river on July 4.
They responded with cold packs and bandages, setting up sort of an impromptu MASH unit under a big tree.
"Usually, we look after a child stung by a bee or the injured animal," said Marilee Flannery, the center's director. "This was pretty serious."
Flannery said the scene was frightening, with tempers flaring and blood flowing when naturalists got to the banks.
But she praised her staff members, who used first-aid skills and later helped guide medical personnel to the scene so that two of the victims could be taken to the hospital.
About eight others were injured but did not require hospital care.
