NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Thursday, November 30, 1995

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-761 - Capitol Reef (Utah) - Resource Thefts

Last April 8th, rangers observed and photographed two people digging and
removing minerals from a remote section of the park.  A consent search of their
vehicles led to the discovery of more minerals and detailed notebooks
containing GPS coordinates and travel records.  Ranger Bob Kreiling and special
agent Pat Buccello coordinated an extensive, seven-month investigation
involving staff from eight Colorado Plateau Cluster parks and the Bureau of
Land Management.  Investigators found that the two were members of a group that
sells rocks and minerals commercially, and that the group collects specimens
from throughout the west, some from parks and public lands.  Undercover
operations in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming resulted in purchases of minerals and
an offer to provide larger specimens as soon as they could be secretly taken
from Capitol Reef.  One of the recent sales included shipment of 500 pieces of
selenite to Brazil.  On November 16th, NPS rangers, criminal investigators and
a special agent served search warrants on two Salt Lake area homes and found
further evidence of thefts from parks.  They discovered large amounts of rocks
and minerals, Native American remains, drug paraphernalia, a large quantity of
unsecured dynamite, and a backhoe.  A variety of felony and misdemeanor charges
are pending.  [CRO, CARE]

95-762 - Grand Canyon (Arizona) - Aggravated Assault

South Rim rangers responded to a report of an unconscious person at a park
residence on the evening of November 11th.  They found 36-year-old J.J.
unconscious; soon after their arrival, J.J. stopped breathing and began
experiencing seizures.  The rangers provided advanced life support and took him
to the park clinic.  He was subsequently flown to the Flagstaff Medical Center. 
Investigation revealed that J.J. had been beaten by 28-year-old J.W.,
who was arrested later that evening.  Aggravated assault charges are pending
against J.W.; the county sheriff's office is handling the case.  J.J. and
J.W., both park residents, were highly intoxicated at the time of the
assault.  [CRO, GRCA]

95-763 - Jefferson National Expansion (Missouri) - Assist to Agency; Homicide

Ranger Dave Tyroler heard gun shots immediately adjacent to park property at 5
a.m. on November 27th and saw a car speeding from the scene.  Tyroler pursued
the vehicle, which was being driven erratically and in the wrong direction on a
one way street, and stopped it after a couple of blocks.  The passenger, a 19-
year-old male, had been shot several times by the occupants of another
unidentified vehicle.  Responding rangers Jim Jackson and Holly Rife provided
basic life support until city paramedics arrived and took over care.  Tyroler
protected the scene until city police officers could arrive (local gangs have
been known to return to crime scenes and shoot at police officers).  The
rangers then assisted city patrol officers and homicide investigators in
securing the several crime scenes, searching for evidence, and providing
statements.  The victim later died at a local hospital.  Police have no
suspects in custody at present.  [CRO, JEFF]

95-764 - Redwoods (California) - Structural Fire; Probable Arson

Just before 2 a.m. on November 29th, a passing motorist called the county
sheriff's office to report that a structure along U.S. Highway 101 near Wilson
Creek was on fire.  Local and state firefighters and rangers responded and
found that a recently vacated, park-owned use and occupancy residence in poor
condition was fully engulfed in flame.  It appears that the fire started in an
attached garage and spread to the house, which was completely destroyed.  Arson
is suspected; the investigation is continuing.  [Andy Ringgold, Superintendent,
REDW]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

1) Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission Public Meetings - The time for
one of the meetings listed in yesterday's Morning Report has changed.  The
session in St. George will be held at 5 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.  If you're
planning on attending, you can obtain a summary of key "talking points"
regarding visibility issues from Carl Bowman (602-638-7817) or Karen Malkin
(202-219-3384).  Both are also on cc:Mail by name.  

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
quote.  A mailing list has been created for periodic dissemination of the
master list of quotes to date to interested parties.  If you'd like to be on
that list, please send a note to this address. 

Here's today's entry - another submitted by Sue Garland:

"(C)laimed conflicts are often less intractable than they appear at first
view...by forcing alternatives explicitly into the open, and by pursuing the
facts behind the claims, we can often resolve concrete cases without having to
weigh competing values in the abstract.  The tension between service of
conventional recreation and the preservation of national parks will never
wholly disappear, but the problem is not aided by posing questions such as: 
How many acres of wilderness are enough?  Like the question of how many books a
library should have, or how many Brahms symphonies are sufficient, these are
empty canards.  If the public accedes to the preservationist position, the task
will be to hold on to as much national parkland as other irresistible public
demands will tolerate.  In dealing with conflict, one must always have a
starting point.  If the goal is to encourage contemplative recreation in the
parks, the way to do it is diligently to look for ways to meet other
recreational demands more effectively at existing sites, and to scrutinize more
carefully claims of need and demand.  The strategy is to increase the burden of
proof that there is no alternative except the use of parklands..."

                                             Joseph Sax, "National Parks in
                                             Crisis", 1980

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

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