NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Friday, December 8, 1995

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-762 - Vicksburg (Mississippi) - ARPA Violations

Relic hunters have illegally excavated 180 holes at five significant Civil War
sites in the park.  The ARPA violations began during the government shutdown,
stopped for a few days, then resumed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. 
The first site excavations were found on the afternoon of November 19th, when a
patrol ranger found 24 holes in and around the Railroad Redoubt fortification. 
Checks of other park areas led to the discovery of another 26 holes in and
around Fort Garrott and nine more near the Georgia Monument.  No new
excavations were discovered until November 25th, when 30 more were found along
Kentucky Avenue.  Surveillance was begun, but no illegal activity was detected. 
On the following morning, a dozen new holes were found on Railroad Redoubt, 15
more in the woods just north of the site, and nine at South Fort.  All
excavations were similar; some appeared to have been dug with a full-size
shovel, others were apparently hacked out with a small folding shovel.  In each
incident, it appears that the relic hunters entered the park on foot from a
nearby city street.  Access to the 36 miles of park tour road typically
requires less than a 50-yard walk through privet hedge or forest.  Although the
initial violations occurred during daylight hours, investigation indicates that
the remaining excavations took place at night.  Southeast Archeological Center
archeologists have conducted a site survey.  Their preliminary assessment is
that this is one of the worst ARPA cases their office has seen in a Civil War
area.  A damage assessment is currently underway.  The investigation continues. 
[Greg Zeman, VICK]

95-763 - Voyageurs (Minnesota) - Poaching Conviction

On the morning of November 4th, rangers Larry Johnson and David Little and
pilot Scott Evans discovered a man hunting in an area south of private land
within the park.  The man, M.G., was cited for possession of a
weapon.  M.G. then left the area.  On the following day, the rangers
discovered evidence that a boat had returned to that area; upon investigation,
they found a drag trail and gut pile and were able to associate this evidence
with a cabin on another parcel of private land.  Following an interview with
Jeffrey Walker, the occupant of the cabin, and the acquisition of a telephonic
search warrant, the rangers recovered two deer that had been poached in the
park by M.G. and Walker, then illegally tagged and transported.  Earlier
this week, a federal magistrate judge found both guilty of poaching.  M.G.
was fined $750 and Walker $500.  Both were ordered to pay $500 restitution to
the park, prohibited from hunting on private lands within the park for two
years, and had large fines and 90-day jail sentences stayed.  [Bruce McKeeman,
CR, VOYA]

95-764 - Coronado (Arizona) - Poaching

A park maintenance employee reported shots being fired in a remote and rugged
section of the park near the international boundary on December 3rd.  The
responding ranger employed a spotting scope to scan the area and observed a man
field dressing an animal.  Further investigation revealed that three javelinas
had been killed and dressed at the site.  The ranger recovered one, but the man
escaped into Mexico with the other two and his rifle.  The state game and fish
department was informed of the incident.  [Bill Smith, CORO]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

OBSERVATIONS

"The national park idea represents a far-reaching cultural achievement, for
here we raise our thoughts above the average, and enter a sphere in which the
intangible values of the human heart and spirit take precedent.  Freedom
prevails.  The foxes are free to dig burrows where they will; to hunt
ptarmigan, ground squirrels and mice as the spirit moves.  The grizzlies wander
over their ancestral home unmolested; dig roots and ground squirrels, graze
grass, and harvest berries according to whatever menu appeals to them.  The
'bad' wolf seeks an honest living as of yore.  He is a respected citizen,
morally on par with everyone else.  Our task is to perpetuate this freedom and
purity of nature, this ebb and flow of life."

                                                   Conservationist Adolph Murie

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

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