NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Tuesday, March 26, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET (Delayed Today)

INCIDENTS

96-114 - North Cascades (Washington) - Search and Rescue

On the evening of March 17th, rangers, county deputies and mountain rescue
volunteers began a joint search for a party of five climbers several days
overdue from a five-day ascent of the north face of Mt. Shuksan.  A
helicopter crew located them on the lower flanks of the mountain the next
morning.  The climbers said that they'd experienced difficulties in finding
the route in whiteout conditions.  One of them had suffered a long fall, but
was not injured.  [Pete Cowan, CR, NOCA]

96-115 - Valley Forge (Pennsylvania) - Arrest for Drugs, Stolen Vehicle

Rangers Macri and Volpe came upon two men - D.S. and G.D. -
sitting inside a van with a tarp draped over the front windshield
at Varnums picnic area on March 10th.  Marijuana was found on both their
persons.  A check of the registration and VIN number revealed that the van
had been stolen from Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, on March 6th.  The two were
arrested and face federal and state charges for motor vehicle theft,
receiving stolen property and possession of a controlled substance. 
[Dispatch, VAFO]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Glen Canyon (Arizona/Utah) - Glen Canyon Dam Test Flow

A beach/habitat-building test flow from Glen Canyon Dam will occur between
March 22nd and April 8th.  The test flow is part of the preferred alternative
in the Glen Canyon Dam EIS.  The test flow will provide for one week of
discharge at approximately 45,000 cubic feet per second (cfs).  This is
25,000 cfs higher than the maximum releases under current operations, and
15,000 cfs higher than the maximum release through the Glen Canyon Dam
powerplant.  Four days of low (8,000 cfs flows) will both precede and follow
the high-flow release.  The primary purpose of the test flow is to
redistribute sand from the riverbed to the river's margins and to reestablish
aquatic and riparian habitats associated with sand bars and sand bar-created
backwaters.  The dam eliminated annual flooding and flood-related processes
downstream in Glen and Grand Canyons.  It's hoped that managed flood releases
will provide an effective tool for reestablishing pre-dam river processes and
habitats.  A large research and monitoring program will document the effects
of the test flow on the river ecosystem.  [Abby Miller, WASO]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

NPS-9 Review - The work group established to review comments submitted on the
current draft of NPS-9, the Service's law enforcement guideline, convened at
the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, for three
days last week.  The group was comprised of representatives from parks, field
areas, SSOs, Park Police, and training centers and from all areas of the
country.  All members had extensive experience and expertise in law
enforcement, generally at all levels ranging from field operations to
management.  The consensus recommendations of the group are as follows:

Chain of Command

o Line of Authority: The established line of authority for law
enforcement - Director to Field Director to Superintendent to Chief
Ranger - will be maintained.  Law enforcement specialists in Ranger
Activities, SSOs and other offices will continue to provide expert
advice to these decision makers. 

o Law Enforcement Specialists: Law enforcement specialists should serve
as resource-based advisors to the Director, Field Directors,
Superintendents and Chief Rangers, as appropriate.  The decision on how
many should be utilized and where they should be placed in each field
area should be made by Field Directors and should be based upon actual
required workloads.  These positions are clearly advisory in nature and
do not have decision-making or approval authority, except as delegated
by their respective superiors.

o Work Loads: Law enforcement work loads need to be assessed at each
level in order to determine proper staffing and organization.

o Park Police: The discussion about Park Police will be deleted from the
document.

o Standards Committee: The provision for a standards committee has been
dropped.  The concept nonetheless has considerable merit.  Managers
should utilize the specialists identified in the draft for future
evaluations of the law enforcement program, as they collectively
possess a great deal of experience and expertise.

o Senior Law Enforcement Official: The concept of establishing a senior
law enforcement official as an alternative to the traditional chain of
command is not acceptable.  The role of the senior law enforcement
officer will be redefined and will focus on the provision of expert
advice and technical assistance.  Each area will identify such a staff
position, as required by DM 446, the relevant Department of Interior
manual.

o Boards of Inquiry and Review: The Superintendent, Field Directors or
Chief, Ranger Activities, WASO, will establish boards of inquiry and
review.

o Communications: Staff in Field Areas and Ranger Activities, WASO,
should be notified of all serious law enforcement incidents through the
field incident reporting system outlined in the relevant chapter of
NPS-9 and related directives.

o Position Management: Position management decisions regarding the
issuance of "auxiliary" commissions (now "Type II" commissions) will
continue to be made by Superintendents, with appropriate reviews by the
Field Directors.  Ranger Activities, WASO, will issue appropriate
criteria to guide such decisions and will address concerns pertaining
to Department policies, regulations, liability and related matters.

Composition of Document

o Redundancy: Repetition will be minimized.  Introductory and umbrella
statements will be concise and will not be restated.

o Format: Each chapter or section will be constructed in a similar
format, beginning with (as appropriate) an introduction, definitions,
policy statements and directives.

o Assimilation: NPS-9 will incorporate or cite portions of other
guidelines where appropriate. 

o Roles and Responsibilities: Statements on roles and responsibilities of
all parties involved in law enforcement, including Field Directors and
Superintendents, will be consolidated and placed at the front of the
document.  These will also delineate relationships in terms of
accountability.

o Ethics: The chapter on ethics will be changed to include the mandatory
standards established in the draft DM 446, the code of ethics and the 
oath of office.  The entire list of general and special rules of
conduct and the section on reporting and investigating will be deleted.

Tone of Document

o Balance: Policies and directives will strike a balance between mandates
of law and Department of the Interior policies and the realities of
limited budgets and the need for flexibility in the field.  Words such
as "shall", "will", and "must" will be evaluated to determine whether
they are appropriate or needed.

o Terminology: Many terms will be changed and standardized throughout the
text, including "national park ranger" instead of "U.S. park ranger"
and "commissioned ranger" instead of "officer" or other, similar terms. 
The term "ranger force" will be deleted.  Terms such as "senior law
enforcement officer" which are set forth in DM 446 will be cross-
referenced to traditional NPS functional titles, such as chief ranger. 
Where terminology is required by other authorities, such as DM 446,
appropriate references will be made.  The term "auxiliary commission"
has been changed to "Type II commission."

o Hyperbole: Phrases such as "enormous responsibility," "periodically
place life in jeopardy," "seize upon," "immense power," "going in harms
way," "where others may retreat," and "hostile and life threatening
situations" will be used only if absolutely necessary.

o Role of Law Enforcement: The introduction will restate NPS policy that
law enforcement is but one of the many tools utilized to accomplish the
NPS mission.

Other Issues

o Law Enforcement for Managers: The "Law Enforcement for Managers"
training course should be resurrected.  Superintendents who lack
substantial or recent law enforcement experience should be encouraged
to attend.

o tatus of Document: Management needs to clarify whether NPS-9 is a
guideline, directive or statement of policy - or some combination
thereof.  

o FLETC Curriculum: The FLETC law enforcement curriculum will be
incorporated into the document.

Once decisions have been made on these other issues, work will move forward
with the second draft of NPS-9.  Several small work groups will be convened
over the next three weeks to resolve a few pending technical and tactical
issues.  A team will then convene in mid-April in WASO to prepare the final
draft, which will be issued to the field for comment before the end of May. 
It is important that we have a working document in the field this summer. 
[Maureen Finnerty, Associate Director, Park Operations and Education]

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

No submissions.

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. 

March 28

House Resources Committee (Young): Markup of H.R. 2941, Housing Improvement
Act for Land Management Agencies and other pending legislation; H.R. 2107,
Visitor Service Improvement and Outdoor Legacy Act; H.R. 1999, Augusta Canal
National Heritage Area.

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please address requests
for the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.

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

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