NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, September 27, 1995

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-620 - Virgin Islands - Follow-up on Hurricane Marilyn

Southeast Field Area director Bob Baker and Gulf Coast SSO superintendent Paul
Hartwig visited St. John yesterday and met with the park's superintendent. 
They also toured hurricane-damaged areas and talked with park staff.  A food
distribution center is now operating out of the headquarters building on St.
Thomas.  Commercial power is being restored to some areas of St. Croix.  The
team is taking care of the needs of personnel from DOI's inspector general's
office.  Steve Sherwood and Mel Sanchez, victims of last Friday's helicopter
crash, were released from the hospital late on Monday and flown home yesterday;
Daryl Rhodes is undergoing therapy for his injured back at Lee Hospital in Fort
Myers, Florida.  Money from ENP&MA's relief fund was distributed on St. Croix
yesterday; not all employees have yet received funds, though, so additional
trips will be made to St. John and St. Croix.  Virgin Islands Group employees
have been actively involved in every phase of the recovery effort.  Even though
they've lost much of their own property, they've been tirelessly working to
restore power and clean up both the parks and their communities.  The IMT
salutes them for their willingness to lay aside some personal concerns in order
to work for reclamation of the parks and the welfare of fellow employees. 
(Note: The IMT is serving as a clearinghouse for messages to and from NPS
employees on the Virgin Islands.  You can send them via cc:Mail to "Hurricane
Marilyn IMT" or by phone to 809-729-6653/6777/6960.  General expressions of
support and good will are welcome and will be passed along).  [Kent Cave, IO,
IMT]

95-641 - Crater Lake (Oregon) - Follow-up on Helicopter Crash

The names of the pilot and passenger who died in the helicopter crash into
Crater Lake on September 23rd have been released.  The pilot was G.C.,
52, of Enumclaw, Washington; his sole passenger was E.T., 45, of
West Linn, Oregon.  The search is continuing for any further clues on the cause
of the accident.  The helicopter, an Aerospatiale As-350 B-1 Astar owned by
American Euro Helicopter of Grand Prairie, Texas, was en route from Seattle to
Las Vegas when the accident occurred.  The helicopter crashed in open water
about a mile from the shoreline of the lake below Crater Lake Lodge.  It broke
up on impact, and pieces of the craft sank quickly to an estimated depth of
about 1500 feet.  Neither body has been recovered.  The park is exploring
methods for determining the location of the wreckage.  Jet fuel and other
contaminants were released into the lake's pristine waters.  Most of the
spilled jet fuel has already evaporated, and it's likely that 99% will
evaporate over the next few days or weeks.  There are also small amounts of
more viscous fluids in the helicopter, which will take longer to evaporate. 
The park will conduct water testing and analysis for hydrocarbons at the crash
site this week.  The cause of the crash is still unknown.  The weather was
clear at the time the helicopter went down.  [Mark Forbes, CCSSO @ CRLA]

95-643 - Glacier (Montana) - Employee Injuries

While tent camping at the Lake Louise campground in Banff National Park in
Canada on the morning of September 25th, two seasonal Glacier NP employees were
mauled by a bear.  Names are not currently available.  The bear, believed to be
a sow grizzly, went to three separate campsites, where it attacked the sleeping
campers through their tents.  Of the six people involved in the encounter with
the bear, four - including one of the two seasonals - sustained serious
lacerations and punctures.  That evening, Canadian park wardens successfully
trapped the female grizzly and cub believed to have been involved in the
attacks.  Both animals were destroyed and taken to a wildlife laboratory for
examination for additional evidence linking them to the attacks.  [CRO, GLAC]

                  [Additional reports tomorrow...]

FIRE ACTIVITY

1) NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II

2) LARGE FIRE SUMMARY

                                                   Tues     Wed    %   Est
State    Area                Fire         IMT      9/26     9/27  Con  Con  

 CA   Riverside RU     * Apache            ST         -    3,500   50  CN 9/27
      Butte RU         * Bidwell           --         -      131  100  CND

 MT   Lewiston Dis.    * Grant Coulee      --         -    5,000   35  CN 9/26

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            0       4        4       0        16       13         37 
Acres Burned      0       1    5,009       0     2,637       21      7,668

4) COMMITTED RESOURCES -

               Crews     Engines     Helicopters     Airtankers     Overhead

Federal            9        46            9               4            327
Non-federal       39        74            2               2             97

5) COMPARATIVE SUMMARY -

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

Number of Fires - U.S.                 68,991                  62,278     
Acres Burned - U.S.                 1,775,880               2,777,634 
Number of Fires - Canada                7,997                       -
Acres Burned - Canada              17,519,075                       -

6) SITUATION - Fire activity remains moderate in all areas except for
California and Montana.

7) OUTLOOK - Minor fire activity is expected.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 9/27]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

1) Interior Appropriations, Part 1 - The Conference Committee marked up the
Interior Appropriations Bill last week.  The bill must now be passed by the
full House and the full Senate and signed by the President to become law.  If
this does not happen by October 1st and a continuing resolution is not passed
and signed prior to October 1st to continue DOI operations for a limited time
under minimal funding levels, the NPS would have to initiate close down
procedures.  Please bear in mind that if our bill is passed and signed prior to
October 1st, any debate over a continuing resolution will not affect the NPS. 
The White House has announced that if Congress sends the President the FY 1996
Interior Appropriations Bill as approved by the Conference Committees, the
President will veto it.  The outlook for FY 1996 funding, per the contents of
the Conference markup, is as follows:

OVERALL APPROPRIATIONS

Total appropriations are $1.319 billion, compared to the FY 1995 level of
$1.412 billion (prior to FY 1995 rescission) and FY 1996 President's request of
$1.490 million. This represents a decrease of 6.6% from FY 1995 levels and a
decrease of 11.5% from the President's request for all appropriations. 
Importantly, park operations were not reduced from the FY 1995 level.  The cuts
were largely in grant programs, with sizable reductions also taken in
construction and land acquisition.  While significant, the cuts did not match
the much-publicized reductions in the Congressional Budget Resolution.

OPERATION OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM

The funding level has been set at $1.083 billion, compared to the FY 1995 level
of $1.078 million and the President's FY 1996 request of $1.158 million.  The
increase is 0.5%, above last year's funding level, but 6.4% below the
President's request.  Funding is maintained at the FY 1995 level, except for an
undesignated $5 million increase in maintenance.  None of our "uncontrollable"
changes were approved, including increases for the FY 1995 and FY 1996 pay
raises, billings for unemployment compensation, the Park Police Pension Fund,
GSA rate increases, or the $80 per person charge to cover buyout costs
governmentwide.  The increases in these areas will have to be covered through
absorptions or reprogrammings.  Our "estimate" for these items is approximately
$20 million in ONPS alone. None of our requested programmatic increases are
provided.  And the NPS was prohibited, through bill language, from operating
Mojave National Preserve.

CONSTRUCTION

The total construction appropriation is $143 million, compared to the FY 1995
level of $185 million (prior to the FY 1995 rescission), and the President's FY
s5 1996 request of $180 million.  This represents a decrease of 22% from the FY
1995 level and a decrease of 20% from the President's request.  The line-item
program is funded at $90 million; 15 of our 20 requests were at least partially
funded; 28 projects were added by Congress.  The NPS priorities funded include:

o full funding of $9.65 million for the Yosemite maintenance facility;

o partial funding of $3.7 million for replacement of Sequoia Giant Forest
facilities;

o partial funding of $4.5 million for the Everglades water delivery system;

o full funding of $4 million for continued rehabilitation of the Lincoln
and Jefferson Memorials;

o partial funding of $1 million for the General Grant NM;

o partial funding of $1.595 million for rehabilitation of visitor
facilities at Jacob Riis Park at Gateway NRA;

o full funding for water and sewer lines at Gettysburg ($2.55 million) and
Sagamore Hill ($0.8 million);

o partial funding for new or enhanced transportation systems at Zion ($5.2
million) and Grand Canyon ($1.0 million);

o full funding of $1.1 million for President's Park for electrical system
replacement;

o full funding of $2.1 million to complete renovation of
headquarters/visitor center complex at Jean LaFitte;

o full funding of $0.85 million to restore Skagway historic district; and

o partial funding of $10 million for housing projects at Crater Lake and
and full funding of $6.05 million for housing projects at Mount Rainier
(full funding of $6.05 million.

The emergency, unscheduled and housing component of the appropriation has been
funded at $14 million, including $12 million for housing.  The total housing
request of $67 million ($37 million for trailer replacement and $30 million for
line item) is funded at $28 million ($12 million for replacement and $16
million for line item).  Construction planning is funded at $17 million;
general management planning at $7.7 million; funds for the Mojave GMP were
specifically eliminated.  The provision for equipment replacement was left in
the construction account (the Senate had proposed moving it back to ONPS) and
funded at $14.365 million.  (Remaining provisions of the legislation covering
land acquisition, state assistance and other appropriations will appear in
tomorrow's Morning Report).  Prepared by Dave Harrington, WASO Budget.

UPCOMING IN CONGRESS

The following activities will be taking place in Congress during coming weeks
on matters pertaining to the National Park Service.  If you would like further
information on any of these hearings or bills, please contact Stacey Rickard in
WASO Legislation at 202-208-3636.

September 28

House Resources' Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Lands (Hansen):
Hearing on H.R. 194, to direct the Secretary of Interior to make matching
contributions toward the purchase of Sterling Forest in the State of New York;
H.R. 1256, to authorize the Secretary of Interior to provide funds to the
Palisades Interstate Park Commission for acquisition of land in the Sterling
Forest area of the New York/New Jersey Highlands Region.

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

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