- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Monday, June 24, 1996
- Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Monday, June 24, 1996 (released on Sunday, June 23)
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
96-306 - Rocky Mountain (Colorado) - Harassment; Assault Conviction
In July, 1995, V.F., a local climbing guide, advertised for a
female climbing partner in Denver area climbing stores. A school teacher
from California contacted V.F., went climbing with him in the park, and
stayed at his residence. She subsequently alleged that he had sexually
harassed her, stolen her property, and tampered with her motor vehicle, the
latter causing a loss of $750. An investigation resulted in charges being
filed against V.F., but the case was ultimately dismissed because the
woman was reluctant to testify. This past spring, V.F. reappeared,
harassing his ex-wife and her boyfriend, both of whom are employees of the
NPS in Denver. He did so by entering the field area office with an old USGS
ID card which he'd never turned in. Security guards were told to seize the
ID and deny him entry to the building if he returned. Three days later,
V.F. attempted to enter the building with a medium-sized dog. A Federal
Protective Service officer was notified and responded. V.F. refused to
talk to him or produce his identification and attempted to leave the area.
The officer restrained him, and V.F. ordered his dog to attack. V.F.
and the officer fought until two citizens assisted in his arrest. V.F.
went to trial this month, and was found guilty of assault on a federal
officer on June 11th. Sentencing will be in October. An appeal is expected.
[Erny Kuncil, CI, IMFA]
96-307 - Grand Tetons (Wyoming) - Horse Fall Fatality
M.M., 61, a prominent Jackson Hole resident, was fatally injured on the
morning of Friday, June 21st, when the horse she was riding reared, threw her
to the ground, then fell on her. M.M. and her husband, R.S.,
were herding cattle near Mormon Row in the park at the time of the accident.
R.S. flagged down two park employees driving in the area; they radioed
park dispatch, then went to his aid. An NPS firefighter who was in the area
doing field training responded and helped administer CPR. EMS qualified park
rangers, including two park medics, soon joined them and provided advanced
life support. M.M. was taken to a hospital in St. Johns, where she was
pronounced dead upon arrival from massive internal injuries. M.M. was the
daughter of C.H., former Wyoming governor and U.S. senator, and the
mother of a former U.S. attorney who represented the park. The M./H.
family is one of the remaining families with legislatively authorized grazing
rights in the park. [Colin Campbell, CR, GRTE]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level III
LARGE FIRE SUMMARY (through Saturday)
% Est
State Unit Fire IMT 6/21 6/22 Con Con
AZ Coconino NF * Arch T1 - 200 0 NEC
* Hochderfer Cx T2 - 1,525 40 6/30
* Pot T2 - 519 10 NEC
Kaibab NF * Bridger Knoll T2 - 375 0 NEC
State * Dos -- - 100 0 NEC
NM Gila NF LL Cx T1 15,350 18,486 0 NEC
MN Superior NF S. Temperance T2 2,450 3,700 25 6/27
UT Fishlake NF Pole Creek T2 3,200 3,800 100 CND
Cedar City District Ash Creek -- 200 95 100 CND
Richfield District * Little Sierra T2 - 2,000 0 NEC
NV Ely District Maynard -- 1,000 3,000 25 6/25
* Stateline T2 - 1,600 0 6/27
Heading Notes
Unit -- Agency = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA state resource
or ranger unit; RD = state ranger district; District = BLM
district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire -- * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex; LSS =
limited suppression strategy; CSS = containment suppression
strategy
IMT -- T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST = State Team
% Con -- Percent of fire contained
Est Con -- Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report
FIRES AND ACRES BURNED
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Number 11 18 89 1 41 45 205
Acres Burned 3 78 10,688 987 19,917 893 32,566
COMMITTED RESOURCES
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Federal 63 90 29 8 280
Non-federal 26 28 4 0 159
CURRENT SITUATION (Saturday)
Fire activity increased in the Southwest and Great Basin on Friday and early
Saturday, necessitating the mobilization of one Type I and six Type II
incident management teams. NICC also processed requests for numerous
overhead, Type I crews, caterers, showers and helicopters. A Type II crew
was involved in a shelter deployment on the Hochderffer Complex, resulting in
one injury.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK (Saturday)
NICC posted a FIRE WEATHER WATCH for high winds in northwestern New Mexico
and for dry lightning in eastern Arizona.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 6/22]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No submissions.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
No submissions.
MEMORANDA
"Field Actions Needed to Reorganize the Systemwide Archeological Inventory
Program," sent on June 10th from the Associate Director, Cultural Resources
Stewardship and Partnerships, via electronic mail to all field directors,
cluster leaders and SSO superintendents. An copy of the memo (INFORMATIONAL
ONLY) follows:
Over 450,000 archeological resources are thought to exist on lands within the
National Park System. These resources contain valuable, unique, and
irreplaceable scientific information about the Nation's prehistory, history,
geography, and past natural environments. In addition, many resources are
culturally significant to contemporary Native Americans or other ethnic
groups. As every park manager knows, effective management and stewardship of
these resources requires adequate knowledge about their location,
characteristics, significance, condition, and threats. To date, however,
only about 68,000 archeological sites have been discovered and mapped in
sufficient detail to be added to the inventory of known archeological sites
within the park system. A substantial percentage of the mapped sites lack
essential information about their importance, condition, and threats to
enable effective management of the sites.
In 1992, in order to correct these and related deficiencies, the National
Park Service re-examined and improved its systemwide program of archeological
inventories. The program funds investigations to collect and incorporate
into our systemwide archeological database essential information about
archeological resources for park management. It is an important servicewide
program that must be focused on at the park and cluster levels to give park
managers the information they need to effectively protect, preserve, and
interpret archeological resources. In order to continue the program in the
new organizational structure of the Service, we need to reorganize it in the
following ways.
1. Designate Archeological Inventory Coordinators for Each Park Cluster.
Prior to restructuring, each Regional Archeologist was responsible for
coordinating archeological inventory activities. Under the new
organizational structure, each park cluster needs to have a coordinator. The
duties of the coordinator should be:
* working with park superintendents and park cluster leaders, use
existing information from the regional plans to prepare a cluster-wide
archeological inventory plan;
* making recommendations to park superintendents on the nature, scope,
and estimated costs of needed archeological inventory projects in the
cluster's parks;
* making recommendations to the park cluster leadership on the priority
of each park's archeological inventory projects vis-a-vis other parks
with the goal of preparing a cluster-wide ranked order list and long-
term schedule of projects;
* as needed, advising and assisting park units in carrying out
archeological inventory projects and in completing annual
accomplishment reports on those projects; and
* ensuring that annual reports are prepared for each archeological
inventory project and preparing an annual summary report on the
cluster's accomplishments.
Given these duties, cluster archeological inventory coordinators should be
NPS employees who are technical experts in the field of archeology. We
recommend that the park cluster leadership consider designating the former
Regional Archeologist or other archeological staff who have direct knowledge
of and experience with the archeological inventory program as the cluster's
coordinator.
Please provide us by June 30, 1996, with the name and telephone of the
individuals who have been designated as coordinators for each park cluster.
2. Complete Cluster-wide Archeological Inventory Plans.
Beginning in 1992, each Regional Office developed a regionwide archeological
survey plan. Now that NPS management is cluster-based, we need to review the
regional plans and revise them to reflect the new cluster level organization.
All cluster-wide archeological inventory plans should be completed during the
current fiscal year.
These plans establish long-term strategies and priorities for conducting
archeological inventories throughout the cluster. They are part of the
corrective actions that address a declared material weakness in the NPS
archeology program. As required under the Government Performance and Results
Act, they also provide a framework to measure inputs, outputs, and outcomes
at the park, cluster, field, and national levels. In addition, through the
creation of a ranked list and schedule of all archeological inventory
projects, they provide a framework for park managers and the cluster
leadership to reach a consensus on the project needs in each park unit and on
the funding priorities for archeological inventory projects within the
cluster as a whole. This will eliminate the need to negotiate annually on
the priority of projects.
We request that each coordinator provide us with a status report on when the
cluster-wide plans will be completed. The information you provide will be
included in our next Corrective Action Tracking System report to the
Department of the Interior about addressing the material weakness.
We shall work at the staff level directly with each cluster archeological
inventory coordinator on completion of the cluster-wide plan, offering as
much assistance as we can.
3. Update Park Resources Management Plans.
Each project included in cluster-wide archeological inventory plans also must
be included in each respective park's approved Resources Management Plan.
Project descriptions and cost estimates not yet included in the park's
Resources Management Plan should be added using the Resources Management Plan
Software. Each cluster's archeological inventory coordinator, working with
individual parks, should ensure that all archeological inventory projects
identified in the cluster-wide plan are in each respective park's Resources
Management Plan.
4. Complete FY94 and FY95 Annual Reports.
Annual reports are needed for all archeological inventory projects undertaken
in the parks. The information contained in the reports documents the
Service's archeological inventory accomplishments and expenditures. It is
used for Servicewide budgeting and accountability purposes, including
measurement of inputs, outputs, and outcomes at the field level under the
Government Performance and Results Act. Thus, it is important that reports
be completed for all projects, regardless of funding source. Reports should
be completed for all projects designed to identify and document archeological
resources, whether terrestrial or submerged, in park units. Each cluster's
archeological inventory coordinator should ensure that reports not yet
completed for FY94 and FY95 projects are finished and distributed.
We shall work at the staff level directly with each cluster archeological
inventory coordinator on completion of the project reports, offering as much
assistance as we can.
We would appreciate receiving the cluster-wide plans and park project reports
that have not yet been provided by September 30, 1996, or sooner if possible.
Materials should be sent to Dr. Francis P. McManamon, Chief Archeologist,
Archeology and Ethnography Program, National Center for Cultural Resources
Stewardship and Partnerships, National Park Service, PO Box 37127,
Washington, DC 20013-7127. For more information, feel free to contact Dr.
McManamon at 202-343-4101 or Michele C. Aubry, Resource Management Team
Leader, Archeology and Ethnography Program, at 202-343-1879. Both of them
also can be reached via ccMail.
EXCHANGE
No submissions.
TRAINING AND WORKSHOP CALENDAR
Two calendars alternate in the Morning Report on Mondays - this one, which
contains training courses and workshops, and a second, which contains
meetings, conferences and events. If you know of a conference, meeting,
workshop or training session with Servicewide interest and implications,
please send the information along. Entries are listed no earlier than FOUR
months before the event, EXCEPT in instances in which registration dates
close much earlier. Asterisks indicate new entries; brackets at end of entry
indicate source of information. Brevity is appreciated.
7/6-9* -- "Nature and Care of Plastics: Photographs and Recording Media,"
Seminars in American Culture, New York State Historical
Association, Cooperstown, NY. Contact: Beverly Olmstead, 607-
547-1416 (phone) and 607-547-1404 (fax). [Diane Vogt O'Connor,
CSD/WASO]
7/14-19 -- Advanced Wilderness Management Training for Line Officers and
Staff, Trappers Lake, White River NF, near Meeker, CO. REPLY DUE
BY MAY 31st. The workshop is designed to strengthen the
understanding of wilderness values and concepts, and will enhance
line and staff knowledge of current resources and management
issues affecting wilderness. Three days and two nights will be
spent in the Flat Tops wilderness. Contact: Tim Devine at 970-
586-1244, or Greg Kroll at 406-626-5208. [Wes Henry, RAD/WASO]
7/30-8/11 -- Ninth Annual Meeting of Western Archives Institute, Fuller
Seminary, Pasadena, CA. A "how-to" overview of archival
management. Contact: 916-773-3000 (phone) or 916-773-8249 (fax).
[Diane Vogt O'Connor, CSD/WASO]
8/19-21* -- Basic Environmental Crimes Investigations. Sponsored by the
Southern Environmental Enforcement Network. Tuition: $250.
Contact: Lana Burwell, 334-242-7369. [Einar Olsen, NCFDO]
8/19-22* -- Tenth International Stream Habitat Improvement Workshop, Oregon
State University, Corvallis, OR. Contact: OSU, 541-737-2329.
[Frank Panek, WRD/WASO]
9/11* -- "Environmental Monitoring Workshop," Conservation Center for Art
and Historic Artifacts, Richmond, VA. Fee: $50. Contact: CCAHA,
215-545-0613 (phone), 215-735-9313 (fax). [Diane Vogt O'Connor,
CSD/WASO]
9/11-13* -- "School for Scanning: Working in the Digital World," North East
Document Conservation Center, Andover, MA. NPS workshop on
digital jargon, production processes, preservation and equipment,
and other issues. A limited number of free seats are reserved
for NPS staff on a first-come, first-served basis. Otherwise,
the fee is $150. Contact: Gail Pfeifle, NEDCC, 508-470-1010
(phone), 508-475-6021 (fax), nedcc@world.std.com (e-mail).
[Diane Vogt O'Connor, CSD/WASO]
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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