Tuesday, September 17,1985/The Battalion/Page 7
i
Welfare officials to take
steps to make department
aware of missing children
Associated Press
DALLAS — A Texas welfare offi
cial said Monday steps will be taken
to make staff members more aware
of missing children following the
mistaken return of a kidnapped
child to his abductor last month.
The child, 21-month-old Michael
Fitzgibbon, is now back with his real
motner in Waldorf, Md., after a six-
week odyssey with a hitchhiking 14-
year-old babysitter.
Their reunion might have taken
place earlier had he not been mistak
enly turned over to Tammy Lynn
Giles, of Waldorf, the babysitter
who, according to police, took the
boy from his family while baby-sit
ting him.
Bob Hayworth, program director
for child welfare in the Texas De
partment of Human Services, said
there are no plans to reprimand the
case workers who returned the little
boy to Giles about a month ago.
Hayworth said he does not expect
to make changes in the documenta
tion required of people claiming to
be a child’s parent.
“I can’t think of anything of
fhand” that could be done, Hay
worth said.
“We’re going to review with the
staff the situation of children that
are missing,” he said. “I hope that
will make us more aware. . . . We at
tempt to look at whether a child is
maltreated. When they’re not, it’s
difficult.”
Hayworth noted that there are so
many missing children it is difficult
to be aware of every case.
He said he was unable to discuss
the specific case of the Fitzgibbon
child. But earlier, Bill Betzen, a
night supervisor with the welfare
agency, had said the little boy
seemed to know Giles when she ar
rived to get him.
He said no documentation other
than personal identification is re
quired.
"This one obviously slipped
through,” Betzen said.
Workers did not question Giles on
the basis of her age, he said, because
“there are many 14-year-old kids
that can pass for older.” Plus there
are people that age that have chil
dren in this town, Betzen added.
Police records show that on Aug.
14, four days after Giles arrived in
Dallas, the child was found wan
dering on a busy south Dallas street.
Police turned him over to welfare
workers.
The following day the boy was re
turned to Giles because she was able
to identify the boy, Betzen said. He
said the child also seemed to know
her.
Beetles destroy
$51 million in
Texas timberland
Associated Press
NEW WAVERLY — Southern
pine bark beetles in East Texas for
ests have infested about 55,000 acres
of pine forests during the past year,
destroying a record $51 million
worth of timberland, officials said.
The loss represents 55,000 acres
of pine forest, including about
25,000 acres of national forest land,
experts said. The lost acreage equdls
about 15 percent of the forest’s new
growth each year.
“The general public does not real
ize this beetle is destroying more
wood than forest fires,” said Gordon
Steele, a spokesman for the U.S.
Forest Service.
Steele said that since Oct. 1, for
esters have detected 5,460 acres of
pine beetle infestation in Texas’
665,112 acres of national forest,
2,400 more acres than the previous
year.
The problem, however, is not lim
ited to national forest lands. Bruce
Miles, director of the Texas Forest
Service, said about 14,960 infesta
tion spots in about 12 million acres
of commercial forest land in East
Texas has been detected.
Officials said the Sam Houston
National Forest, which cuts through
arts of Montgomery, Walker and
an Jacinto counties, has been hit
hard with 2,516 reported infesta
tions — more than double that of
any other forest in the state.
Many believe the outbreak can be
explained by the history of national
forests in the South. Steele said most
pines in the national forests are
nearing 60 years of age and there
fore more susceptible to insect dis
eases.
Pine beetles mate and nurture
young in a pine tree’s cambium layer
and strips the tree of its water and
nutrient supplies in the process. The
beetles can kill a mature pine in a
week, and a swarm of the insect can
move 50 feet per day, officials said.
George Russell of the Sierra
Club’s Lone Star Chapter said na
tional foresters made the forests
even more attractive to pine beetles
by emphasizing pine cultivation over
other types of trees.
“By destroying the natural diver
sity of the forest, they are creating a
natural environment for the beetles
to thrive,” Russell said. “We don’t
have an epidemic of pine beetles; we
have an epidemic of pine trees.”
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Vacancies
Now is your chance to be a part of a Dynamic Student Voice with
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