RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION MORNING REPORT Attention: Directorate Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC CC: RAD Information Net Day/date: Wednesday, February 13, 1991 INCIDENTS No incident reports received. MIDDLE EAST INCIDENT UPDATE Lincoln Home (Illinois) - The park is considering a request from the Illinois State Museum to house the Illinois Artisans Shop in a park building. The shop, which is presently housed in the governor's mansion, has been closed to the public for several weeks because of the added security measures necessary to protect the mansion and the Edgar family due to hostilities in the Mideast. [CompuServe message from ARD/Operations, MWRO, 1/12] Please advise us through your regional offices of all threats received, permits issued for demonstrations, and demonstrations or incidents that occur which are related to the war in the Gulf. Call Major Schamp at FTS 268-4209 (202-208-4209). RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Yellowstone (Wyoming) - Bison Management As of early this week, there were from 14 to 20 bison outside of the park's western boundary in an elk feeding area. Another group of from 20 to 30 bison was reported in the Undine Falls area, six to eight miles within the northern boundary. No other action has been reported. [CompuServe message from Lissa Fox, Wildlife and Vegetation, WASO, 2/12] OFFICE NOTES 1) The following memo was sent to regional personnel offices from the Chief, Branch of Labor and Employee Relations, on January 25th. The text is being provided for your information: "As we approach the summer hiring season, it might be helpful to address some of the frustrations we have encountered with the Drug Testing Program, as well as to offer some suggestions. The new contractor will have had one year of experience and we anticipate this year's program will operate more smoothly. "The single most delaying problem is phone numbers. As you know, seasonals complete their applications in early January, while they are in school or on other jobs. The telephone numbers that are valid at this time are rarely still valid during the months of April, May and June when the majority of hiring and testing is done. Inaccurate phone numbers represent a minimum of one week's delay during the critical hiring period. Please notify your supervisors of this problem and request that they confirm phone numbers with applicants when they make tentative offers. Alternate phone numbers, i.e. parent's home phone number, may be helpful. "Since all communication is completed either by fax, telephone, or in person, the contractor should have the applicant's information within 24 hours of your request to WASO. The contractor is committed to contracting persons to be tested within 48 hours. There is no way for us to track individual tests unless we are alerted to a problem by either the Department or your office. We have been working with the Department and the contractor to notify us as soon as it is determined that the applicant cannot be reached; however, this system is imperfect. Please alert your Field personnel to contact you immediately if an applicant has not been contacted within 3 days. WASO should then be notified by phone for the appropriate DOI number which the applicant can use with the 800 number to set up the drug test. We will closely monitor the number of these requests for possible failure on the part of the contractor to properly contact applicants for reasons other than improper phone numbers. Our Office will make every effort to contact you within 24 hours of any problems brought to our attention and/or test results that we receive from the Department. "The Department's Drug Program Officer has offered group testing for groups of 20 or more applicants that are located in one location. You are urged to use this service whenever possible to expedite the testing process. This service, however, cannot be used during orientation sessions when applicants are already on board." [Marsha Lee, Employee Relations, WASO] 2) We've received a request from the Justice Department for some information that you can help us collect. We'd like to hear from any area which has had criminal prosecutions which were successfully made for violations that occurred on NPS-held scenic easements. A U.S. attorney in NCR has a felony case pending which concerns tree cutting and would like have some legal precedents to cite. Please advise us via CompuServe or telefax as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your help! [Walt Dabney, RAD/WASO] STAFF STATUS Division Chief: No travel or leave scheduled. Branch of Resource & Visitor Protection: Coffey at inventory and monitoring task force meeting, WASO (2/12-2/13). Branch of Fire: Farrel conducting study of impact of transition of Presidio to the NPS, San Francisco, CA (2/11-2/15); Broyles, Mattingly and Cook at training session, Western Region Fire Academy, Golden Gate, CA (2/11-2/15). Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities Telephone: FTS 268-4874/6039 or 202-208-4874/6039 Telefax: FTS 268-5977 or 202-208-5977 CompuServe: WASO-RANGER (Branch of R&VP); WASO-FIRE-WO (Branch of Fire) SEAdog: 1/650