NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Tuesday, May 25, 1999

INCIDENTS

99-187 - Mount Rainier NP (WA) - Follow-up: Search in Progress

The search for missing hiker J.R. has been scaled back following eight
days of concerted efforts to find him.  Good weather over the weekend
provided excellent visibility and rapid snow melt exposed hidden crevasses,
rocks, stream beds and other openings.  No clues were found.  J.R. was a
group leader on a Camp Muir hike sponsored by One Step At a Time (OSAT), an
outdoor recreation club which stresses alcohol and drug free activities.  He
became ill and was last seen by his companions in a white-out around
mid-afternoon on Sunday, May 16th, at approximately 8,000 feet on the Muir
Snowfield. Numerous OSAT members joined other searchers on the weekend,
during which park staff saved the life of another hiker (see incident 99-207
below).  More than 20 feet of snow remains on the ground in the Paradise
area.  Rangers will remain alert to potential emerging clues as the summer
melt continues. Randy Brooks was IC for the incident.  The search drew a high
level of attention from the media and J.R.'s friends and family.  The park
employed its voice mail system to provide updated information on the
operation to interested parties.  Callers were directed to dial a specific
number for current reports on the search, which significantly decreased the
volume of media calls and kept all parties fully informed of developments. 
People from all involved and interested groups expressed their appreciation
for the new system.  [Maria Gillett, Incident IO, 5/23]

99-205 - Denali NP&P (AK) - Rescue of British Climbers

Two members of a three-man British expedition were rescued from the 19,500-foot
level of Mt. McKinley at approximately 11:30 p.m. on the night of
Thursday, May 20th.  A.H., 33, from Shropshire, and N.V.,
29, from Derbyshire, had been stranded near the summit since early
Thursday morning.  Extreme winds and clouds thwarted attempts to reach the
pair throughout the day.  As no climbers were on the upper mountain at the
time, ground crews began moving up from the 14,000-foot camp.  A limited
number of climbers were acclimatized for higher altitudes, making a lowering
from 19,500 feet unlikely.  At approximately 10:30 p.m., the weather broke, 
allowing NPS Lama helicopter pilot Jim Hood to long-line a supply bag with
radios, warm fluids, extra gear and a "screamer suit" to the climbers. 
Rangers were then able to make radio contact with the two and obtain a report
on their condition.  A.H. reported that the group had been
descending, roped, near the 20,000-foot level when N.V. tripped and all
three fell 300 feet.  A.H. and the third member, S.B., 42, from
Staffordshire, were able to arrest the fall with their ice axes. 
A.H. injured his shoulder in the fall.  They then descended to the
19,500-foot level, seeking shelter from the winds.  Rangers told the two men
how to put on the screamer suit and attach it to the short-haul rope on the
Lama.  The Lama returned to the site, dropped off another screamer suit, and
picked up N.V., flying him directly to the base camp on the Kahiltna
Glacier.  A second trip was made for A.H.  Both climbers were
suffering from severe frostbite.  They reported that S.B. had left the two at
1 p.m. on Thursday to try to climb up to the West Buttress route and follow
it to the 14,000-foot camp for help.  S.B. was located early on Friday
afternoon by a ground team near the 17,500-foot level.  He had fallen while
descending Denali Pass and sustained an open fracture of his lower left leg. 
He was hypothermic and dehydrated with severe frostbite on his face, hands
and feet.  With weather worsening and the 14,200-foot camp clouded in,
mountaineering ranger Billy Shott was short-hauled from the 7,200-foot
Kahiltna base camp directly to 17,200 feet. Shott and S.B. were then short-
hauled back to the Kahiltna base camp.  S.B. was flown to the hospital in
Anchorage by a waiting National Guard helicopter.  The Thursday night rescue
was the highest short-haul operation ever conducted on Mt. McKinley.  Ranger
Billy Shott's 10,000-foot vertical short-haul climb to 17,200 feet and the 30
minute total elapsed time in short-haul were the longest ever conducted on
Mt. McKinley.  [Ken Kehrer, CR, DENA, 5/22]

99-206 - Pecos NHP (NM) - Special Event; Major NAGPRA Repatriation

On Saturday, May 22nd, eight years of NAGPRA negotiations among Jemez Pueblo,
the National Park Service, the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at
Harvard University, the Peabody Museum of Archeology at Phillips Academy and
several New Mexico museums culminated in the largest repatriation of human
remains in American history to Pecos NHP.  The remains of over 2,000
individuals and numerous culturally significant objects were reburied
according to tribal customs in a private ceremony attended by pueblo members
and invited guests.  More than 600 individuals walked and escorted the
semi-truck carrying the boxed remains the last mile into the park at daybreak
on Saturday.  The crowd at that point swelled to over 1,000. The burial took
place in a large trench excavated by the NPS in an area normally closed to
the public.  An area of the park was "opened" under a special use permit to
Jemez Pueblo leaders, who conducted the reburial and accompanying ceremonies,
which were followed by two hours of presentations and a picnic. Twelve tribes
were present for the repatriation.  A Jemez press release summarized the
significance of the event: "This repatriation has been a success because all
of the parties involved have treated one another with respect, have strived
to prevent politics and publicity from entering into the consultation
process, and at all times have listened to one another and maintained honest
and open lines of communication...In essence, it demonstrates that
government-to-government relationships can be a reality if all parties work
with, rather than against, one another."  Park staff were assisted by the
Midwest-Intermountain Region incident management and SET team.  The event was
managed under an area command; it included a visit by the First Lady to Mesa
Verde, Grand Canyon and Pecos.  Additional personnel from throughout the
region assisted with the event.  Media interest was considerable and included
the National Geographic, New York Times, ABC World News Tonight, the
Associated Press, CNN and all the state-wide outlets.  [Larry Frederick,
Incident IO, 5/23]

99-207 - Mount Rainier NP (WA) - EMS Incident: Life Saved

Rangers equipped with the park's new automatic external defibrillator (AED)
saved the life of a hiker who went into cardiac arrest on the park's north
side last weekend. J.R., 52, of Tacoma, was near the Carbon River
suspension bridge, three miles from the Ipsut Creek campground, when he
experienced heart attack symptoms. J.R. continued down the trail about a
mile, where he was contacted by a park VIP.  Ranger Nina Stevens and trails
foreman Carl Fabiani were flown to the scene by a helicopter diverted from
the J.R. search.  While J.R. was being carried out to the helicopter, he
went into cardiac arrest three times.  Stevens and Fabiani successfully
utilized the AED each time to restore J.R.'s heart rhythm. Stevens continued
with assisted ventilations all the way to the hospital, where J.R. remains
in stable condition.  [Maria Gillett, Incident IO, 5/23]

99-208 - Gulf Islands NS (FL/MS) - Suspicious Death

The park's dispatch center received a call from county 911 just before 1 a.m.
on May 21st reporting an unresponsive man on the ground in a parking lot in
the Santa Rosa unit.  County deputies and rangers responded.  D.R.,
35, of Newman, Georgia, was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical
personnel.  Due to circumstances surrounding the death, a crime scene
perimeter was established.  The cause of death has not yet been determined. 
The NPS, county and FBI are investigating.  [CRO, GUIS, 5/21]

99-209 - Gateway NRA (NY/NJ) - Special Event

The 1999 Bike New York/Great Five-Boro Bike Tour, a fund-raiser for Hosteling
International and American Youth Hostels, took place on Sunday, May 2nd.  The
finishing festival was held in the Fort Wadsworth section of the park.  About
30,000 participants rode 42 miles to the park.  The event was managed under a
special use permit; no significant incidents or injuries occurred.  A large
number of city and federal agencies cooperated with the NPS and US Park
Police in coordinating the event, including the Coast Guard, Army Reserve,
New York City Department of Transportation, and New York Police Department. 
[Marty O'Toole, Fort Wadsworth Unit, GATE, 5/21]

FIRE ACTIVITY

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II

LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY 

                                                      Wed     Sun    %   Est
State      Unit              Fire/Incident   IMT      5/19    5/24  Con  Con

FL   Everglades NP           Max Fish Camp    --     4,000  10,000  100  CND
                           * County Line      --         -     205  100  CND
     Big Cypress NP        * Charley          --         -     905  100  CND
     Osceola NF            * Friendly         T2         -     820   10  6/5
     Apalachicola NF       * Bay Creek        --         -     300    0  5/25
     State                 * Isolated         --     1,000   1,000   NR  NR

CA   Mendocino NF          * Pass             T2         -     350  100  CND
     Modoc NF              * Bell West        --         -     125   90  NEC

AK   State - Mat-Su Area     Clark Wolverine  --       100     100  100  CND
                             Eklutna          T2       300     300  100  CND

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

Est Con = Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report

NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FOUR DAY TREND)

                    NPS    BIA      BLM     FWS    States   USFS     Total

Thursday, 5/20       3     31         2       1       80     10       127
Friday, 5/21         5      3         2       5       66     43       124
Saturday, 5/22       1      5         4       0       27     17        54
Sunday, 5/23         2      3         4       0       18     44        71

TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FOUR DAY TREND) 

                  Crews     Engines    Helicopters    Airtankers   Overhead

Thursday, 5/20      24         45          11             0           270
Friday, 5/21        19         31           6             0           174
Saturday, 5/22      30         29           9             0           196
Sunday, 5/23        49         35          14             0           285

CURRENT SITUATION

Moderate initial attack was reported in the South, West, Northwest and Alaska
on Thursday and Friday; in the South on Saturday; and in the South and
Southwest on Sunday.  Large fire activity increased in northern California
over the weekend due to low humidity and strong north winds.

Very high and extreme fire indices were reported in Arizona, Texas and New
Mexico on Sunday.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 5/21-24]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION

No entries.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Risk Management - The new director's order and resource manual for risk
management - DO-50B and RM-50, respectively - are now out and available for
review.  Comments on both documents should be sent to Shirley Rowley via
cc:Mail by June 15th.  [Carol Wadlington]

Section 106 Regulations - The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has
published revised regulations for the implementation of the Section 106
process in the Federal Register.  The council's web site (www.achp.gov) has
information about this; it explains that these regs will take effect on June
17th and that the council will be putting additional information about how to
apply the revised regs and how to make the transition to them on their
website.  The web site also talks about the series of briefings the council
will be holding across the country to introduce these regs, and how to
register for these briefings.  For those of you with easy access to the
Federal Register, the date of publication is May 18th and the page numbers
are 27043-27084.  If you have questions or comments, please feel free to
contact either the council's staff or Laura Feller, either via cc:Mail at
NP-WASO-NRHE or via phone at 202-343-9528. [Laura Feller]

Facility Management Web Page Update - The facility management program web
page (http://165.83.218.50/FacMgmt) went on line this week and received
nearly 100 visits on the first day.  Bugs are still being worked out - the
email link to the cc:Mail facility management plan seems to be working only 
intermittently.  If you sent an email via the web page last week and have not
received a personal response, please resend your message directly from
cc:Mail to "NPS Facility Management Plan" or from your web browser to "NPS
Facility Management Plan.nps.gov".  Responses are being sent to most incoming
messages within 24 hours; if you didn't receive a response, you should assume
that your message did not make it.  The hot link to the Maximo web page
located on the FMP web page also appears to be working only intermittently. 
Programmers in WASO are working on this as well.  Meanwhile, you can reach it
directly at http://www.Maximo.com.  All other parts of the web page appear to
be working okay.  More features will be added shortly.  Please keep using it,
as it will contain weekly updates on current features from here on.  [Rick
Shireman]

MEMORANDA

No entries.

INTERCHANGE

No entries.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Great Sand Dunes NM - The park will have a GS-07/9 park ranger vacancy
opening soon.  The position is in the visitor and resource protection
division; the incumbent is primarily a front-country ranger, but is
responsible for EMS, SAR, wildland and structural fire, horse patrol, hunting
patrol and resource management activities such as trail and restoration work. 
The park is at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in south central
Colorado and has a wide diversity of habitats and large mammals.  A
maintenance positions will be announced soon as well, so dual career options
are also possible.  Contact Stuart Schneider at 719-378-2312 x 207.

Appalachian Trail - Between 1,900 and 2,000 northbound through-hikers had
passed through Neels Gap, Georgia, as of May 21st.  Only 1,400 hikers passed
through that location all season last year, which suggests that the volume of
hikers on the trail - at that point, at least - is about 40% ahead of 1998. 
A total of 109 through-hikers had passed through Harpers Ferry as of that
same date, well ahead of the 34 who had passed through by May 21, 1998. 
Looks like a busy year for the AT.  For more info, check their web site at
http://www.atconf.org.

                           *  *  *  *  *

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

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