NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Thursday, March 10, 1994

Broadcast: By 0900 ET

INCIDENTS

94-114 - Assateague Island (Maryland/Virginia) - Poaching Conviction

On December 26, 1992, Mark McGee, a refuge officer at Chincoteague NWR,
which is adjacent to the park, radioed rangers Clay Bunting and Scott Kalna
to report that he'd seen two individuals hunting waterfowl from a duck blind
within the park.  McGee told the rangers that the two - subsequently
identified as C.C. and D.S., both of Chincoteague, Virginia - had
apparently exceeded their legal take and had also committed other waterfowl
violations.  Bunting and Kalna contacted the two men.  Both hunters, unaware
that they'd been under surveillance by McGee, said that they hadn't fired
any shots.  No waterfowl were found in their possession at that time, and no
violations were noted.  The rangers subsequently went up a small canal to
C.C.'s outboard motor repair shop, where they found five freshly killed
black ducks on C.C.'s dock.  C.C. was again contacted and questioned about
his hunting activity; C.C. denied any knowledge of the birds and stuck to
his original story.  Bunting went to the blind where the two had been
hunting the next morning and recovered ten freshly fired 12 gauge shotgun
shells, a tertial feather, and another feather of unknown origin.  The
tertial feather had a speck of blood on the tip.  All evidence was sent to
the National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, where a
serology examination matched the blood on the feather to one of the ducks. 
Lab technicians also found that all of the ducks were struck by lead shot,
which is illegal.  C.C. and D.S. were consequently charged with
possession over the legal limit, wanton waste, hunting with lead shot, and
hunting after hours.  On February 25th, both appeared in federal district
court.  Upon learning about the DNA match and consulting with their
attorney, the two agreed to plead guilty to all charges.  Each was fined
$300, ordered to pay $175 to the park's wildlife protection fund, banned
from hunting anywhere in the United States for 18 months, and banned from
the park for three years.  According to the veterinary medical examiner at
the forensics lab, this is the first time that they have successfully
matched a single tertial feather to a duck through DNA typing.  [Mel Olsen,
DR, Tom's Cove District, ASIS, 3/8]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

MEMORANDA

"Streamlining the National Park Service", signed by Assistant Secretary for
Fish and Wildlife and Parks George Frampton and Director Kennedy on March
8th and sent to all National Park Service employees.  Because of the
significance of the memorandum, its full contents follow:

The purpose of this memorandum is to explain further to all of you the
rationale for the current planning effort aimed at "streamlining" the
National Park Service; to clarify its relationship to FTE cuts targeted for
the Department by Presidential directive; and to give you some information
about discussions of the past ten days at the Departmental level.

Streamlining:  A Necessity and An Opportunity

First, we want to emphasize that the primary reason for the "streamlining"
initiative is not FTE reductions, but rather to strengthen park and NPS
program management, resource protection and visitor services, and our
servicewide science and technical support functions.  We want to reposition
the National Park Service for the challenges of the 1990's and beyond by
making it (a) a more efficient organization, (b) focused on the increasing
demands of ecosystem management, cultural context, and partnership-building,
with (c) resources and authority placed in locations near the places where
services are most effectively and efficiently delivered.

Examination of how to achieve these goals began early in the fall in
conversations among the Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Chief of Staff, the
Director, and other senior NPS officials.  Because the Director felt that
the Directorate should be fully involved in this planning, a series of
meetings in November, December, and January canvassed a wide variety of
approaches to reorganization, streamlining, and repositioning functions and
resources.

In late January, the Directorate recommended after a multi-day meeting that
streamlining targets be adopted that included reducing the Washington, D.C.,
office by approximately 25%; reducing the regional office level overall by
approximately the same amount, including serious consideration being given
to reducing the number of full service regional offices; reducing the number
of employees at service centers approximately 15-25%; and relocating many of
these functions to Parks.  In many instances, it was contemplated that
"ecosystem offices" or new teams would be established at the Park level to
provide professional advice and support to clusters of Parks or on a
regional basis.

We are committed, as is the Secretary, to advancing these goals.  We believe
these numerical (percentage) targets for moving people and functions closer
to the field (to be phased in over approximately 2 years) are appropriate.
They underlie the intensive planning process we are undertaking in the next
60-90 days. Final decisions about whether reductions of this magnitude will
indeed strengthen the Service will, however, depend upon the outcome of the
analytic process now being undertaken.

What this does not signal is any intention to cut or "mash down" every
office, division, and installation by 15% or 25% across the board.  On the
contrary, functions and programs will be examined individually.  Some will
not be appropriate for any relocation; others might be substantially (more
than 25%) relocated.  While the trend obviously is toward decentralization,
a few professional and support functions may be further centralized, or
moved to different central locations.

Moreover, some functions and programs will clearly grow as well as withstand
decentralization.  For example, the FY 94 budget as enacted includes
approximately 290 new FTEs, of which about 100 are in Resource Management
(most slotted for Park units).  Thus the streamlining targets do not signal
an intention to deemphasize Resource Management, or resource protection
generally; to the contrary, these functions will be enhanced.  The same is
true of Cultural Resources and Concessions Management, where new FTEs are
also budgeted.

FTE Cuts

Second, all departments and bureaus are involved in conceiving plans to
reduce FTEs in response to an Executive Order calling for government-wide
FTE reductions of 100,000; and the recommendations of the National
Performance Review ("Reinventing Government") embodied in a Presidential
Memorandum to reduce FTEs Governmentwide by a total of 252,000 by 1999. That
Memorandum, for example, urges the consolidation of functions such as
administration and support, and decentralization of service delivery to
customers.

Although the Department of the Interior has been given an overall FTE
reduction target, both the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service have enjoyed significantly increased appropriations enacted
for FY 1994 and requested for FY 1995.

After considering the possible interrelationships between the "NPS
streamlining" agenda, increasing budgets, and probable FTE reduction
targets, we had a number of meetings and discussions at the Departmental
level last week at the Assistant Secretary's behest, including discussions
with the Secretary, Chief of Staff Tom Collier, and Bonnie Cohen, Assistant
Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget.

As a result of these discussions, the Secretary has reemphasized his
intention that the Park Service, in his words, put "a larger share of the
delivery of services onto the ground in the Parks, at the same time as you
power up the professionalization and resource protection areas," in order to
create a more efficient management structure for the Service. At the same
time, he has pledged that to the extent we can accomplish these goals with
streamlining, we will not have to bear a pro rata share of departmental FTE
cuts in FY l994 or FY l995, and may hold our own in FY l996 as well. 

In other words, the Secretary has made it clear that the extent to which we
are able to avoid FTE reductions is directly tied to the extent to which we
move forward immediately and aggressively with streamlining, including
shifting of people and functions to where they can work most efficiently. 
Similarly, partnership programs must be designed to be delivered as close as
possible to the point of impact.

The Secretary also directed that because both streamlining and FTE
reductions must be coordinated Department-wide, the Assistant Secretary
should become directly involved in overseeing these efforts in both the
National Park Service and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, reviewing and
approving plans as they are developed.  

The Process

The two of us expect to work closely together over the next several months
to make sure that sound streamlining options are developed that will
strengthen the National Park Service, win Secretarial approval, and help us
advance the most effective argument that we need to retain and increase the
number of people working to protect our National Parks.

As you know from the Director's video and Deputy Director John Reynolds'
recent cc:Mail to all employees, the streamlining process will be
spearheaded by John, on behalf of the Director.  Maureen Finnerty,
Superintendent of Olympic National Park, will be spending full-time for the
next 90 days helping John.  Three teams have been formed to analyze
functions in the Washington, D.C. office, regional offices, and Centers,
respectively.

A special Advisory Group representing a variety of parks, regions, grades,
and offices will be selected to review the recommendations of the teams and
provide additional input to the Directorate and the Assistant Secretary.

Joe Doddridge, Assistant to the Assistant Secretary, will be the principal
contact point for the Assistant Secretary working directly with the teams,
the Advisory Group, and the Deputy Director.

Our goal is for the teams to conclude their work by April 30, and for the
Directorate to present options to us by May 15, with a final decision that
we will recommend to the Secretary by May  30.

A task directive laying out the process and the people involved is being
prepared and will be distributed by cc:Mail early next week.

We are acutely aware of the concern and anxiety these initiatives have
caused.  We understand that until a final streamlining plan is adopted,
uncertainty (and therefore a high level of anxiety) will continue.  At the
same time, we are convinced that significant changes in the National Park
Service are required to prepare this organization for the challenges it must
face just in the next few years, and especially the 21st century.   We have
a small window of opportunity to begin to effect these changes now, and we
intend to seize that opportunity.  We pledge to you that in so doing, we
will work diligently to strengthen the Service, to minimize the disruption
and hardship to employees, and to advance the case for retaining and
increasing the number of positions dedicated to protecting park resources
for future generations. 

Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities

Telephone: 202-208-4874
Telefax:   202-208-6756
cc:Mail:   WASO Ranger Activities
SkyPager:  Emergencies ONLY: 1-800-759-7243, PIN 2404843