NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, September 13, 1995

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-95 - Saguaro (Arizona) - Follow-up on Felony Pursuit; Fugitive Arrest

On September 7th, R.V. pled guilty in federal district court to
charges of felony flight from a pursuing law enforcement vehicle and was
sentenced to two years without parole in federal prison and forfeiture of cash
and property seized.  R.V. led rangers in a high-speed pursuit last
February, then ditched his vehicle before being apprehended.  R.V., a
street gang member, was also wanted at the time on multiple felony counts,
including six counts of attempted murder, possession of narcotics, and
possession of a deadly weapon.  He'd been on the run from a multi-agency
fugitive task force for two months until caught by rangers.  R.V. will be
transferred to state custody to stand trial for these charges before serving
his two-year federal sentence.  R.V. has been linked to numerous drive-by
shootings in the Tucson area, and has been identified as the primary trigger-
man.  [Robert Stinson, DR, SAGU]

95-590 - Biscayne (Florida) - Follow-up on SAR

The family of B.D., the diver who has been missing since September
3rd, chartered a plane to search for him last Thursday.  The body was sighted
floating within a mile of the point last seen and just outside the park's
eastern boundary.  Park, Coast Guard and Florida Marine Patrol units responded
and recovered his body.  Metro Dade will conduct the investigation.  [Wayne
Elliott, CR, BISC]

95-599 - Great Smokies (Tennessee/North Carolina) - Follow-up on SAR

The search for 45-year-old D.W., who has been missing since September
1st, continued over the weekend.  A North Carolina ANG helicopter with night
vision equipment overflew the search area for two hours on September 7th, but
found no evidence of him.  Dog teams and ground searchers have not found any
clues, either, so the search effort has been scaled down accordingly.  Local
media have been provided with his description, and he has been entered as a
missing person in NCIC.  Garrett Moynihan is the search incident commander. 
[Jason Houck, CR, GRSM]

95-610 - Glacier (Montana) - Employee Injured in Bear Mauling

Park carpenter Lester Ashwood and his wife Rita were charged by a grizzly bear
in a surprise encounter just north of Fifty Mountain campground around 8 a.m.
on September 12th.  Lester Ashwood, who was not on duty at the time, suffered
puncture wounds to his neck, shoulder, hands and buttocks.  Rita Ashwood was
not injured, and hiked to Granite Park to report the incident, arriving around
6:30 p.m.  Meanwhile, Lester Ashwood received emergency first aid at Fifty
Mountain backcountry campground from a hiker trained as an EMT.  He was flown
out that evening, and is in good condition at a local hospital.  Rangers were
to remain overnight at Fifty Mountain to close trails and contact other hikers. 
The area around the campground is temporarily closed.  [Amy Vanderbilt, PAO,
GLAC]

95-611 - Independence (Pennsylvania) - Unauthorized Event

On September 7th, the park received information indicating that the Kensington
Joint Action Committee, a homeless advocacy group, was planning on relocating
their protects to the park.  Two hours later, a group of from 20 to 30 people,
mostly homeless women and children, set up camp between the Liberty Bell and
Independence Hall, claiming a First Amendment right to do so.  Rangers worked
with the regional solicitor's office, several assistant U.S. attorneys and the
group's attorney to bring the occupation to a peaceful resolution.  Media
interest was very high.  On September 8th, with a rope barricade in place to
control the media, rangers issued a citation to the group's leader.  The group
had agreed in writing to leave the park and not return; they therefore left and
relocated elsewhere within the city.  [CRO, INDE]

95-612 - Yosemite (California) - Search; Victim Found

On July 9th, J.H. disappeared while walking in Summit Meadow
along the Glacier Point road.  An extensive, week-long search was conducted,
but failed to turn up any clues as to her whereabouts.  On September 3rd, two
fishermen found a body in the Bridalveil Creek drainage above the falls.  The
body was positively identified as J.H.'s.  An autopsy was conducted;
preliminary findings are consistent with drowning, and there were no
indications of foul play.  It appears that the body was underwater at the time
of the search.  [CRO, YOSE]

95-613 - Black Canyon of the Gunnison (Colorado) - Search; Probable Drowning

On September 2nd, 28-year-old Q.H. and his hiking companions attempted
to swim across the Gunnison river at a large pool.  The river was flowing at
1100 cfs (cubic feet per second) at the time.  Q.H. was the first to enter the
river, and was quickly swept downstream.  His companions watched him pass
through one set of rapids, then disappear in a second and very turbulent set of
rapids.  Members of the party searched the area for three hours, then climbed
out of the canyon to report the incident.  Park and BLM rangers and members of
a local SAR team searched the river.  Q.H. disappeared at a point where the
rapids are followed by a huge boulder field where the river literally
disappears beneath the surface for about 100 yards.  The river level was
lowered to 300 cfs, and two air-scent search dogs were brought to the area. 
The dogs were flown in by helicopter, then put into backpacks to traverse a
steep cliff in order to reach the site.  The dogs alerted several times within
the area.  Two county divers with experience in whitewater diving and rescue
traversed the river with boogie boards and a pike pole, but were unable to
locate Q.H.'s body.  The remaining portion of the search area is too
treacherous to enter.  It's believed that the body is lodged under a rock in
the rapids or submerged beneath the boulder field.  The search was suspended on
September 5th.  Although Q.H. and his companions were familiar with the area,
they hadn't registered their trip with rangers, as required.  [Linda Alick, CR,
BLCA/CURE]

95-614 - Grand Canyon (Arizona) - EMS Response; Life Saved

Rangers Kris Monsma, Ron Martin, and Kevin Cochary were dispatched to Grand
Canyon Lodge on the North Rim on the evening of September 7th in response to a
report of a patient with chest pain.  The visitor, M.N., 64, a native of
France, went into cardiac arrest as he was describing his symptoms to the
rangers through an interpreter.  Monsma began CPR, while Martin operated a
semi-automatic defibrillator (AED).  Cochary and ranger Pat Suddath provided
advanced life support (ALS) while Martin shocked M.N. twice, successfully
restoring his heart beat.  M.N. was alert and able to speak through the
interpreter, ranger Natalie Suddath, when placed on the medevac helicopter.  He
was last reported in stable condition at Flagstaff Medical Center.  Doctors
ascribe M.N.'s successful recovery to the immediate use of the AED in
conjunction with CPR and ALS.  [CRO, GRCA]

95-615 - Yellowstone (Wyoming) - Climbing Fatality

Around 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of September 8th, G.B., 43, of
Maplewood, Minnesota, fell to his death while scrambling on rocks at Tuff Cliff
north of Madison Junction.  G.B. was apparently free-climbing on the steep,
unstable volcanic rock when he fell at least 100 vertical feet.  G.B.
sustained massive injuries and was in cardiac and respiratory arrest when
rescue personnel arrived on scene about 20 minutes after the fall.  He did not
respond to resuscitation efforts and was pronounced dead at 5:30 p.m.  [Mike
Murray, ACR, YELL]

FIRE ACTIVITY

1) NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level I

2) LARGE FIRE SUMMARY

                                                   Tues     Wed    %   Est
State    Area                Fire         IMT      9/12     9/13  Con  Con  

 NY   Gateway NRA        Big-E-Pond        --       221      xxx   84  CN 9/13

 MA   State            * Shadrack Mountain --         -      500   50  CN 9/13

 ID   Boise NF         * Whiskey           T2         -      200    0  NEC

HEADING NOTES:


Fire     * = newly reported fire (on this report).  Cx = complex.
IMT     T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST1 = state Type 1; ST2 = state Type 2.
% Con   Percent of fire contained.
Est Con Estimated containment date.  NEC = no estimated date of
        containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report.

3) FIRES YESTERDAY -

                NPS     BIA      BLM     FWS    States     USFS      Total

Number            2      10       10       0       123       32        177 
Acres Burned      2       7        5       0       620       90        724

4) COMMITTED RESOURCES -

               Crews     Engines     Helicopters     Airtankers     Overhead

Federal           10        16           11               1             37
Non-federal        6        11            0               0             10

5) COMPARATIVE SUMMARY -

                                      CY 1995            Five Year Average
                                    Year-to-Date           Year-to-Date

Number of Fires - U.S.                 73,284                  59,157     
Acres Burned - U.S.                 1,681,121               2,655,605 
Number of Fires - Canada                7,884                       -
Acres Burned - Canada              18,404,577                       -

6) SITUATION - Fire activity remained very low across most of the country
yesterday.

7) OUTLOOK - Activity is expected to remain moderate.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 9/13]

ESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Gulf Islands (Florida/Mississippi) - Follow-up on Hurricane Erin

A post-storm assessment has been initiated to determine the impacts of
Hurricane Erin, which struck the park on August 3rd.  The evaluation focused on
resource impacts which had direct management implications, would yield the
greatest amount of knowledge, and would add to the body of scientific knowledge
on the park.  Unfortunately, all proposed studies could not be funded.  The
assessment includes the following actions:

* Soundside erosion on Santa Rosa Island - A previous study site has been
reoccupied to make a detailed evaluation of the effects on soundside
shoreline change and sediment transport.  Early indications are that
significant beach area was lost, sizable dunes were completely eroded,
and sand-trapping vegetation was destroyed in this extremely narrow
section of the island.

* Effects on Perdido Key beach nourishment - Beach profiles to the minus
four meter contour will be conducted on the east end of Perdido Key to
determine physical changes to 1989 beach nourishment.  The new profiles
will be conducted on the same transects as the five-year Perdido Key
project in order to make direct comparisons.  The fate of nourished sand
will be valuable information in evaluating future renourishment projects.

* Perdido Key beach mouse survey - A habitat assessment and population
survey has been conducted for the re-established, endangered mouse. 
Trapping data will be compared to pre-storm monitoring data.  It's
conjectured that a previous hurricane was responsible for the extirpation
of the original population.

* Seagrass survey - A "snapshot" survey was conducted of established
seagrass study plots to assess changes in areal density and determine
impacts to beds.

* Aerial photography - The National Biological Survey will conduct photo
missions over the park as part of a larger project to obtain post-
hurricane imagery.  These images will be compared to pre-hurricane
imagery provided by the NPS.

* Nesting sea turtles - A preliminary assessment revealed severe erosion at
several nesting areas and a loss of most nesting markers.  Although it's
thought that a number of the nests were destroyed, a final tally will not
be possible until the end-of-season assessment.  Eggs in one nest,
written-off as destroyed, successfully hatched.

A synopsis of findings will appear in a future Morning Report.  [RMS, GUIS]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

OBSERVATIONS

Quotes submitted for consideration for the Morning Report should pertain to
either the National Park Service or closely related issues, such as wilderness
and conservation, and should include the author and the date and source of the
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Here's today's entry:

"It is no longer a question of whether this great United States can afford to
dedicate a portion of its land to such (NPS) purposes, but rather one of
whether or not the eighty-five hundredths of one per cent of the land area of
the United States contained within the National Park System, together with the
areas under other Federal and state agencies, are adequate to protect that
portion of the Nation's heritage which should logically be devoted to parks and
recreation."

                                        Newton B. Drury, Director, 1940-1951

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.