Mississippi River Headwaters parks recognized with safety award

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, recently selected its southern Headwaters recreation section as its 2012 Government Employee Safety Now Award recipient.

The section includes park rangers from Crosslake Recreation Area, Crosslake, Minn., and Gull Lake Recreation Area, Brainerd, Minn. Both areas are highly visited recreation sites, collectively boasting more than 1,000,000 visits in 2012.

The team’s “safety-first” approach led to accomplishing numerous missions with zero lost-time accidents, water-related fatalities or reportable first aid cases. The safety record was accomplished during one of the worst flooding events in the history of Gull Lake Dam. The record-setting May 2012 rainstorm tied the highest reservoir level ever recorded in the 100-year history of the dam.

A key aspect of the team’s plan included implementing an effective, reliable and adaptive use of resources to provide safe and healthy recreational experiences to current and future generations.

“Every year when I look at our nominations, I’m inspired by the many accomplishments our district team is involved with. We have a lot of folks involved in a great many safety related activities,” said Barry Simmonds, St. Paul District chief of safety and occupational health. “Their hard work has paid off in a huge way.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, serves the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. It contributes around $175 million to the five-state district economy. The 700 employees work at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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