RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
                           MORNING REPORT

Attention: Directorate
           Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC
           Ranger Activities Division Information Network

Day/Date:  Friday, October 9, 1992

Release:   0830 EDT

INCIDENTS

92-451 - South Florida Areas - Follow-up on Hurricane Andrew

Management of all further recovery efforts at Big Cypress has been turned
over to the park, so the ARM team is now focusing on repair and
rehabilitation of facilities at Everglades and Biscayne.  Important
information regarding payment of employees who worked on the incident
appears in operational notes below.  [Bill Adams, ARM team, 10/8]

92-544 - Glacier (Montana) - Follow-up on Bear Mauling Fatality

While hiking down the loop trail on the afternoon of October 7th, rangers
came upon tracks of an adult grizzly with cubs and numerous fresh diggings
in the area near where J.P.'s body was found.  It's believed that
these are from the family group of bears responsible for J.P.'s death.  
Rangers and Montana state biologists plan to return to the scene as soon as
possible and resume their efforts to locate and destroy the adult female
grizzly and her two cubs.  An attempt to snare the bears failed late on
Tuesday when a lone adult grizzly took the road-killed deer meat left as
bait and ran off with it.  The bear met the description of one seen by a
hiker on Highline trail on October 3rd and is not the adult implicated in
J.P.'s death.  [Amy Vanderbilt, PIO, GLAC, 10/8]

92-554 - Padre Island (Texas) - Drug Seizure

At 2 a.m. on October 5th, an observation team spotted two blacked out
all-terrain vehicles travelling south on the beach north of Mansfield Channel. 
The method of operation was recognized as one used previously by drug
smugglers in this area.  An NPS law enforcement team stationed in the area
was accordingly sent north on the beach to search behind mile markers for a
cache of drugs.  At about 10 a.m., they found a cache of packages a half
mile inland at mile 55.  The camouflaged cache was photographed, and
surveillance of the area was initiated.  Activity was observed at the cache
at 11:30 p.m.  Responding rangers came upon a truck parked in the dunes and
saw two males fleeing the area.  They secured the location until backup
arrived.  The bed of the truck contained 18 bundles of marijuana valued at
over $1 million; the total seizure came to 685 pounds.  Investigation has
revealed that the organization involved in this smuggling effort is the same
one that brought in the 1,400 pounds of marijuana which rangers confiscated
in July.  The seizure was a result of intelligence gained from the joint
task force working along the Southwestern border.  The case has been turned
over to the FBI for further investigation and forfeitures.  [Daniel Wirth,
PAIS, 10/8]

FIRE ACTIVITY

1) FIRE SITUATION - Preparedness Level I

This is the last regular report of the year.  NICC reports will now be
produced on Mondays and Fridays through the end of the month or as activity
dictates.

2) FIRE SUMMARY

State  Agency     Area           Fire/Incident        10/8     10/9  Status

 FL    NPS     South Florida    Hurricane Andrew - T2 ARMT      N/A      N/A  --

 CA    CDF     Riverside RU     Banning                350      411  CND

 NM    State   -              * Ironhouse                -      175  CND

Notes:

* - New fire/incident (this report)  T1/T2 - Type 1 or Type 2 team committed
ARMT - All-risk management team      CN - Expected date of containment
NEC - No estimate of containment     CND - Contained
NR - No report received              DM - Demobilizing

3) FIRE ACTIVITY - 100 fires for 860 acres in past 24 hours.

4) ANALYSIS - Many areas in California and the Rockies are reporting very
high to extreme indices.

5) PROGNOSIS - Increased fire activity in California is possible if
predicted weather occurs and extreme indices persist.  

[NIFCC Intelligence Section, 10/9]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

1) New Ranger Activities Division Staff - Carl "Chip" Davis has been
selected as the new special agent for Eastern area ARPA investigations. 
Chip comes to Ranger Activities from Big Cypress and will be duty stationed
in SERO in Atlanta.  He reports for duty in early November.  Joe Johnson has
been selected as the Service's national weapons program manager.  Joe will
EOD on November 15th.  He will represent the NPS during the transition from
the revolver to the new semi-automatic weapon, and will be working out of an
office provided by the firearms division at FLETC.  His last assignment was
at Ozark NSR.  [Bob Marriott, RAD/WASO]

2) Hurricane Recovery Payroll - Payroll coding information provided last
week that stated that code 98A should be used to lift the bi-weekly pay cap
was in error.  The Central Payroll Office has confirmed that 98A codes
submitted without the appropriate remarks information stating "exempt
employee performing non-exempt work" for hurricane recovery will be
processed with the correct code of 8F.  Many timekeepers already realized
that the earlier information was not right and took necessary action. 
Appropriate uses of these codes are as follows: Code 8F will lift the
bi-weekly pay cap for a GS-15; code 98A should only be used for exempt
employees performing non-exempt work.  The Interagency Fire Business
Management Handbook (page 12.7-4) lists the approved non-exempt incident
positions.  If an exempt employee performed in one of these positions, then
he or she should request payroll correction to obtain proper payment as
non-exempt.  Known assignments that should be paid under 98A are security
personnel, helispot manager, deck coordinator (air operations),
documentation unit leader, documentation recorder, dispatcher, and personnel
time recorder.  The majority of exempt employees working on the hurricane
recovery were performing exempt duties and should be paid under 8F.
Non-exempt employees will automatically receive the appropriate pay based upon
changes to the payroll system that occurred in PP 12 under pay reform
regulations.  Please verify earnings statements for exempt employees sent in
response to the south Florida parks to ensure that they have received the
right payment for jobs performed.  If corrections are required, please
submit them to your regular CPO contact person as quickly as possible. 
Contact me at 307-344-2040 if you need further clarification of this issue. 
[Marcia Blaszak, ARM Team/YELL]

STAFF STATUS

Division Chief: Brady on annual leave (10/8-10/9).

Branch of Resource and Visitor Protection: No leave or travel scheduled.

Branch of Fire and Aviation: Mattingly moving IHC equipment to Rocky
Mountain NP from Rapid City, SD (10/4-10/17).

Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities

Telephone:  Branch of R&VP - FTS 268-4874/6039 or 202-208-4874/6039
            Branch of F&A (WASO) - FTS 268-5572/5573 or 202-208-5572/5573

Telefax:    Branch of R&VP - FTS 268-6756 or 202-208-6756
            Branch of F&A (WASO) - FTS 268-5977 or 202-208-5977

CompuServe: Branch of R&VP - WASO-RANGER
            Branch of F&A (WASO) - WASO-FIRE-WO

cc:Mail     Branch of R&VP - WASO Ranger Activities
            Branch of F&A (WASO) - WASO Fire and Aviation