NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date: Thursday, October 5, 1995 

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-653 - Gulf Coast Parks - Follow-up on Hurricane Opal

Reports have not yet been received from Gulf Islands or any other areas struck
by Hurricane Opal last night and this morning.  The superintendent of DeSoto
reported yesterday afternoon that the park had been closed due to power outages
and threats of severe flooding.  The Northeast Field Area's Type II team (Skip
Brooks, IC) and the Service's national Type I team (Jim Northup, IC) are on
standby for dispatch to the area.  A summary report of the storm's impacts on
parks will appear tomorrow.  NOTE: Any park experiencing significant impacts
from the remnants of Hurricane Opal should send in a brief report in accord
with established incident reporting procedures.  Copies should go to this
office and to appropriate SSO and field office representatives.  [Steve Smith,
RAD/SEFO; Barbara Goodman, Superintendent, DESO; Rick Gale, RAD/WASO]

95-665 - Kenai Fjords (Alaska) - Flooding; Closure

Exit Glacier was swept off its terminal moraine during the recent Alaska
floods.  Fifty feet of the leading ice edge and one third of the terminal
moraine washed away.  Kettle ponds disappeared under an avalanche of sediment;
ice chunks now dot the outwash plain.  A 150-foot section of the Exit Glacier
road was washed out, and the road has accordingly been closed at Resurrection
Bridge.  Work is also underway to repair Exit Glaciers trails, all of which
were affected by the flooding.  Segments of the newly-constructed upper section
of the Harding Icefield trail sustained heavy damage, and the bridge and
trailhead sign-in station at the beginning of the trail were buried under 15
feet of sediment.  The entire Exit Glacier area remains closed.  A six-person
maintenance crew from Denali began about four weeks of road and trail rehab
work on Tuesday.  They brought two dump trucks and a D3 bulldozer from Denali
with them.  Damage has been estimated to be in excess of $100,000.  [Peter
Fitzmaurice, KEFJ]

95-666 - Lincoln Home (Illinois) - Property Damage

On the evening of September 30th, S.W.-J., 28, lost control of
her 1991 Camaro while driving through Springfield, struck several parked
vehicles, entered the park, and drove through a stansion, several sections of
reconstructed curbing, a large section of wood fencing, and two $800 decorative
bollards.  Her vehicle caught fire as she passed through the park, then finally
came to a stop a block east of the site after striking four more parked
vehicles.  S.W.-J. was uninjured, but had a very high (.20) blood alcohol count. 
She was arrested for drunken driving.  Overall, S.W.-J. damaged property over a
15-block section of town.  State and federal charges are pending.  [Dan Banta,
SPR, LIHO]

95-667 - Wupatki/Sunset Crater (Arizona) - Pursuit; Search

On the night of Sunday, October 1st, county, state and Flagstaff officers
pursued B.W., a well-known game poacher with several outstanding felony
warrants against him, from Flagstaff through Sunset Crater and into Wupatki. 
The high-speed chase began when B.W. made an illegal left turn in Flagstaff. 
Rangers from Flagstaff Area parks also responded.  B.W. eventually ran off the
road while trying to turn into a housing area at Wupatki, jumped out of his
truck and fled into the desert, leaving his seven-year-old son in the vehicle. 
Although helicopters were utilized in the effort to find him, B.W. eluded
searchers and left the area.  A set of freshly sawed-off elk antlers were found
in his truck along with camping and hunting gear.  The search continued into
the morning.  At daybreak, rangers were able to follow his tracks for several
miles as they left the park and headed south towards Flagstaff, about 35 miles
away.  Investigation also revealed that B.W. fled from Grand Canyon rangers who
happened onto his camp while investigating a smoke on Forest Service land
earlier that Sunday.  B.W., a known survivalist who lives in southwestern
Colorado, has a history of escapes and is considered to be armed and dangerous. 
U.S. Marshalls and Arizona and Colorado authorities have expressed a keen
interest in B.W. and are assisting in the on-going investigation.  [Bill
Hudson, WUPA] 

FIRE ACTIVITY

1) NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level I

2) SIGNIFICANT INCIDENT/FIRE SUMMARY

                                                   Wed      Thur  %   Est
State    Area            Fire/Incident      IMT    10/4     10/5 Con  Con  

 CA   Marin County       Mt. Vision         ST1     700    8,000   20  NEC
      Mendocino RU     * Guntly             ST1       -    1,000    0  NEC

 GA   Atlanta            Hurricane Opal      T1   Damage assessment, relief
                                             T2   Damage assessment, relief

 FL   Gulf Coast         Hurricane Opal      T2   NPS team on standby
                                             T1   NPS team on standby

 VI   St. Thomas/John    Hurricane Marilyn   T2   NPS team - repair, support
 
 AK   Anchorage          River flooding      T1   Damage assessment, relief
      Soldotna               "     "         T2   Damage assessment, relief
      Seward                 "     "         T2   Damage assessment, relief

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       2        2       0        40        8         52 
Acres Burned      0       5        5       0     8,543        0      8,553

4) COMMITTED RESOURCES -

               Crews     Engines     Helicopters     Airtankers     Overhead

Federal         12          11            1               6            148
Non-federal     48         133            3               5            199

5) SITUATION - Initial attack and large fire activity continued yesterday in
northern California.  Little activity occurred elsewhere.  National Type I and
Type II IMTs have been staged in Atlanta for deployment in support of Hurricane
Opal relief efforts; NPS Type I and Type II IMTs are on standby.

6) OUTLOOK - A fire weather watch has been posted for the coast ranges of
central California and parts of western Arizona for gusty winds and low
relative humidities.  Fire activity is expected to increase in California.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 10/5]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Gettysburg/Eisenhower (Pennsylvania) - White-tailed Deer Management

After more than ten years of deliberation, scientific study and the completion
of an environmental impact statement, the two parks began implementing a deer
management action on October 2nd.  Park employees are now engaged in shooting
white-tailed deer in both areas.  The NPS determined that the deer population
in the two parks, estimated at 350 per square mile of forest last April, needed
to be reduced.  At Gettysburg, the high level of browsing was preventing a
sufficient number of tree seedlings from becoming established to maintain
historic woodlots; at Eisenhower, deer were decimating crops grown to interpret
the historic character of the farms during the Eisenhower era.  Between 300 and
400 deer will be shot each year over a span of several years.  Annual
monitoring of deer damage will determine when a maintenance population level
has been achieved.  All deer that are shot are being given to regional food
banks through a partnership with Pennsylvanians for Responsible Use of Animals
(PRUA).  As of this date, animal welfare groups have not attempted to
demonstrate or disrupt the work.  One organization, Last Chance for Animals,
has recorded audio/video footage of the deer reduction and plants to distribute
it to the national media to increase opposition to the action.  [Mac Heebner,
CRM, GETT/EISE]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

OBSERVATIONS

Today's quote was sent along by Steve Elkinton (Recreation Resources Assistance
Division, WASO):

"It cannot be escaped that environmental management to perpetuate the Nation's
park and recreation lands provides the action crucible for public involvement
in the larger across-the-land environmental reform movement...Only if the
public sees the Nation's park and recreation lands as the first line of defense
against general environmental decay, gets involved at the action level to save
them, and begins to see the local, regional, and national implications in such
saving - only then will environmental communications begin to mean something. 
The statement that park and recreation lands are the first line of defense
against general environmental decay deserves analysis: It is because
environmental quality is so finely balanced that quality environments are so
vulnerable.  It is just because the struggle for life in degraded urban
environments is so hard that park and recreation areas tend toward
expendability."

                                       William E. Brown, "Islands of Hope:
                                       Parks and Recreation in Environmental
                                       Crisis," 1971

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


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