RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
                           MORNING REPORT

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

Day/Date:  Friday, June 25, 1993 

Broadcast: By 0830 ET

INCIDENTS

93-318 - Glacier (Montana) - Follow-up on Special Event: Commercial Filming

More than 50 NPS employees and campground hosts participated on the ICS team
overseeing the filming of "Beethoven's 2nd" in the park between June 7th and
19th.  The filming ran very smoothly; all management objectives were met,
there was no resource damage, and normal visitor activities met with only
minimal interference.  The director and producers allowed extensive behind-
the-scenes access to the public, media and employees.  Countless visitors
had their pictures taken with Beethoven (a.k.a. Chris) and the scores of
puppies on hand throughout the filming.  All park expenses for oversight and
management of the filming will be recovered through a commercial filming
agreement.  [Amy Vanderbilt, PAO, GLAC, 6/23]

93-388 - Olympic (Washington) - Follow-up on Search

The search for J.H., 30, of Philadelphia, continues.  It's now been
almost 12 days since he parked his car near Hurricane Ridge and went for a
hike, and searchers are in their sixth day of looking for him.  About 120
people, three dog teams and a helicopter looked for him yesterday, but found
no clues.  Survivability charts indicate that it is unlikely that he is
still alive.  The incident commander reports that the search effort will be
scaled back today unless additional information is acquired indicating
J.H.'s whereabouts.  A limited search will then continue through the
weekend.  [Bill Pierce, CR, OLYM, 6/24]

93-404 - Lake Meredith (Texas) - Drownings

On June 24th, R.J., D.N., and D.N.'s two-year-old son
Cameron were boating on Lake Meredith when the boat capsized and all three
fell overboard.  The park was asked to look for the trio at 7:30 p.m. and
found R.J. in the water a half hour later.  The body of C.N. was
found near the Blue West area at 11:30 p.m.  As of 6 a.m. the following
morning, searchers had yet to find D.N.  About 50 people were
still searching for him by boat and foot along with a Texas DPS helicopter
from Lubbock.  [Patrick McCrary, LAMR, 6/24]

93-405 - Rocky Mountain (Colorado) - Special Event

On June 21st, the "Ride The Rockies" bicycle tour came through the park and
over Trail Ridge Road.  This was the second stage of the five-day event,
which runs from Estes Park to Granby, Colorado.  About 2,800 bicyclists are
participating this year.  Through a special use permit, the tour organizers
prepaid entrance passes, funded the printing of informational brochures and
paid for the overtime costs associated with the administration of the event. 
The event was managed under the incident command system, which employed 60
people, 25 of them volunteers.  There were few problems, primarily because
of an extensive media effort to encourage bicyclists to leave Estes Park at
first light on Monday morning.  At the same time, motorists and campers in
and around the park were encouraged to leave late in the morning to avoid
delays and conflicts with cyclists.  [Joe Evans, CR, ROMO, 6/22]

93-406 - Big South Fork (Tennessee) - Rescue

On the afternoon of June 18th, ranger Frank Hicks was on a foot patrol along
the river above the Blue Heron Complex in the Kentucky District when he
heard a group of people shouting for help.  Hicks saw them pointing at two
young girls floundering in the swift, deep center portion of the river
channel.  Hicks had spent the two previous seasons in the park as a
lifeguard at the park swimming pool, and recognized that the girls were in
immediate danger of drowning.  He entered the water along with Tim Atkins,
the girls' uncle, and they were together able to reach and separate the
panic-stricken girls, then tow them to safety.  No further emergency
services were necessary, but the girls were emotionally quite shaken.  A
review of the incident revealed that the girls would certainly have drowned
without the quick actions of Hicks and Atkins.  The younger of the girls,
age eight, had panicked and grabbed onto the older, age 14, and was pushing
her under the water prior to the rescue.  The two girls were at the river
with several related adults who were lounging on a shallow shoals bank when
the girls accidentally drifted out into the dangerous current.  [John
Diefenbach, Acting CR, BISO, 6/23]

93-407 - Yellowstone (Wyoming) - Car Clouting

Eight vehicles in the Bridge Bay campground were broken into some time
before 5 a.m. on June 20th.  Most of the vehicles were found with passenger
side windows down and items such as cash, video cameras and some jewelry
missing.  The total value of merchandise taken has been placed at about
$2,000.  The vehicles were either slim-jimmed or had their windows pushed
down in some manner, possibly with a mechanic's claw.  Tool marks were found
along the molding on the upper part of the passenger side front doors on
most of the vehicles.  The marks were in pairs and were spaced about three
inches apart.  Most vehicles had wallets, purses, backpacks or belt pouches
in plain view on their front floors or between their seats.  Except for a
1993 Dodge Dynasty, most were two to three years old.  New American vehicles
nearby that are notably hard to slim-jim were not entered.  Possible
suspects are three white males between 25 and 30 years old; at least two of
them have southern accents, have dark hair pulled back into pony tails, and
are about 5'9" tall.  The two pony-tailed males were wearing windbreakers -
one maroon, the other blue - and tan shorts.  They claimed that they were
art school students on an art tour.  The third male was about 5'9" tall,
wore dark clothing and possibly a baseball cap, and introduced himself as
"W.".  It's believed that the trio moved through the campground on foot
sometime between midnight and 5 a.m.  [CRO, YELL, 6/22]

FIRE ACTIVITY

1) FIRE SITUATION - Preparedness Level II

2) FIRE SUMMARY

State  Agency     Area            Fire              6/24     6/25    Status

 AZ    USFS    Coronado          Graham
                                  Complex - T1       600       610   CND    

 NM    BLM     Roswell           Bear                500     2,050   CN 6/25
       USFS    Cibola            Crosby              106       106   NEC

 CO    BIA     Southern Ute    * Piedra - T2           -       200   NEC

 FL    FWS     Okefenokee        Gnat Catcher - T1 5,711     5,711   CN 6/26

NOTES:

- Fires - Asterisk indicates newly reported fire (on this report). T1 and T2
  indicate assigned Type I and Type II Teams.
- Status - The following abbreviations are employed:
  NR - No report received      MS - Modified suppression strategy
  CL - Controlled              MN - Being monitored
  CS - Confinement strategy    NEC - No estimate of containment
  CND - Contained              CN (date) - Expected date of containment

3) PARK FIRE REPORTS - 

* Carlsbad Caverns - At least 530 acres of the total consumed in the Bear
  Fire are within the park's boundary.  It's expected that the fire will be
  contained this morning.

* Mesa Verde - A new fire formed on Moccasin Mesa 40 yards outside the
  park's boundary Wednesday.  The park supplied initial attack and contained
  the fire after midnight.

* Big Bend - There was severe lightning in the Panther Junction residential
  area with little rain on Wednesday.  A fire is reported just west of the
  junction.

* Grand Canyon - Western Region has mobilized eleven employees from
  Yosemite, Lava Beds, Golden Gate and Lassen to the park to augment park
  resources.  The detail is not expected to exceed two weeks.

* Sequoia/Kings Canyon - Two monitors and a firefighter have been flown into
  the Buck Peak prescribed natural fire (PNF), which made a downslope run
  Wednesday and put up quite a bit of smoke.  The Copper Creek PNF is still
  small and displaying little activity.

4) ANALYSIS - Initial attack continued in the Southwest yesterday, and
significant progress was reported on large fires.  Demobilization has begun;
more suppression resources will be released today.  Initial attack is
continuing in California and at various locations in the Rockies.

5) PROGNOSIS - A red flag warning remains in effect for strong north winds
and low humidities in the Sacramento Valley.  Initial attack activity will
likely occur in the South.  Most of Arizona and New Mexico will continue to
be hot and dry.  There will be widely scattered afternoon and evening
thundershowers - some dry - in eastern and southern New Mexico.  Initial
attack activity can be expected there.

[NIFCC Intelligence Section, 0530, 6/25]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Yukon-Charley Rivers (Alaska) - Floral Surveys

During the period from June 14th to the 18th, NPS and Nature Conservancy
botanists carried out a survey of vascular plants in the remote Ogilvie
Mountains, which extend into the preserve from Canada.  Of particular
interest were south-facing scree slopes and limestone/shale/dolomite rock
outcroppings.  A small population of springbeauty, Claytonia ogilviensis,
was found growing literally on the U.S. - Canada border.  This taxon is
restricted to only one other location, which is in Canada.  The survey also
turned up Podistera yukonensis, a member of the carrot family which is a
candidate for federal listing on the endangered species list.  The preserve
harbors the only other U.S. population of Podistera.  A rare grass, Poa
porsildii, and two endemic mustards which await laboratory confirmation were
also found.  The Alaska rare plant work group and the Nature Conservancy
consider the Ogilvies to be one of the most promising areas in Alaska for
discovering rare or undescribed plant taxa.  [Peter Fitzmaurice, YUCH]

NOTES

1) Date Clarification - Yes, yesterday's morning report was dated August 24,
1993.  Yes, we in WASO generally know what month it is.   No, there won't be
a directive from us requiring you to move your calendar up two months in
order to conform with our misstatement.  Thanks for the calls.

STAFF STATUS

Division Chief: No leave or travel scheduled.

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

Branch of Fire and Aviation: Hurd on fire reviews at Yellowstone and Glacier
(6/21-6/27); Erskine at fire review at Yellowstone (6/23-6/25); Cook at
extreme fire behavior workshop (6/20-6/25); Swain at administrative workshop
(6/14-6/25); Gale and Broyles at incident management training exercise
development meeting (6/21-6/26).

Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities

Telephone: Branch of R&VP - 202-208-4874
           Branch of F&A (WASO) - 202-208-5572
Telefax:   Branch of R&VP - 202-208-6756
           Branch of F&A (WASO) - 202-208-5977
cc:Mail:   Branch of R&VP - WASO Ranger Activities
           Branch of F&A (WASO) - WASO Fire and Aviation
SkyPager:  Emergencies ONLY (numeric message) - 1-800-759-7243, PIN 2404843 
SkyTalk:   Emergencies ONLY (voice message) - 1-800-759-8255, PIN 2404843