NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                              MORNING REPORT
   
   
   To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices
   
   From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
   
   Day/Date:   December 31, 1999 - FINAL EDITION 
   
   
   This is the last edition of the Morning Report for 1999, not to mention 
   those other two imminent and much-discussed time thresholds. Much of the 
   cc:Mail system will be shutdown tomorrow in preparation for whatever Y2K 
   may or may not bring, so this is coming out a day early. . .
   
   This would normally be the time for a year-end summary of Morning Report 
   incidents, but time constraints preclude such a compilation this year. 
   Maybe next millennia. Instead, I'd like to offer a few thoughts about this 
   undertaking we're all involved in from the perspective of someone who's 
   received, edited and published an estimated 10,000 or so incident reports 
   over the past 13 plus years.
   
   It's hard not to wonder at times whether the incidents that occur in the 
   national parks are a microcosm of the nation at large or are for some 
   reason unique to this agency.  So much pathos, so many strange, even 
   bizarre, events.  At times it seems that the parks are a magnet for people 
   prone to misdeeds, mishaps and misadventures, but, in truth, we're 
   probably not much different from the rest of the country.  Except that we 
   perhaps oversee more places where you can get yourself in trouble.
   
   Those of you who have been regular Morning Report readers over the years 
   have undoubtedly been struck by the repetitive nature of many of the 
   incidents that occur in the parks, sad refrains sung over and over again. 
   Even though none of us knows for sure what the year 2000 will bring, we 
   know with a high degree of certitude that a climber will commit a fatal 
   mistake, that an unprepared hiker will disappear in some park, that a 
   despairing soul will end his or her life in a remote area, that a swimmer 
   will misestimate his abilities and be pulled from a lake or river by park 
   divers. We also know that someone will be saved in a hair-raising rescue, 
   that a criminal who thinks he's clever will be outsmarted by a ranger 
   who's smarter and more dedicated, that a wildfire will be contained 
   through the hard and unstinting efforts of firefighters.  And we know that 
   there'll be a half dozen incidents which will leave us shaking our heads, 
   wondering at their oddity or incomprehensibility.
   
   It's therefore important to keep a few things in mind when reading the 
   Morning Report - that there are scores of millions of visits to the parks 
   each year that don't end up in tragedy, during which people from the 
   United States and a hundred foreign lands experience vignettes from our 
   history, explore and wonder at the last fragments of wild America, and 
   share in a common heritage; that the work of the National Park Service is 
   done not only by rangers, but by thousands of dedicated employees in all 
   divisions, offices and centers; that, despite encroaching cities, global 
   warming, declining ecosystems, preservation funding shortfalls and other 
   tribulations, we still successfully protect the majority of what has been 
   passed on to us and which we will pass on to the next generation.
   
   The latter is not always evident, nor something we appreciate when dealing 
   with the sometimes overwhelming challenges of protecting parks and leaving 
   them unimpaired for our children. But think what your area would look like 
   if neither you nor the National Park Service was present - the battlefield 
   subdivided and filled with tract housing; the park wilderness area 
   crisscrossed with billboard-lined highways, its flora and fauna decimated; 
   the historic structure torn down for a fast-food restaurant. 
   
   The same applies to your efforts to protect park visitors. The Morning 
   Report too often is a summary of instances in which someone could not be 
   saved or protected.  But that's only rarely through lack of effort by 
   rangers and other park staff. Not everyone can be educated on park 
   dangers, protected from their own ignorance or foolishness, or stopped 
   from willful criminal activity. The Morning Report, moreover, doesn't 
   report on the people who are still walking this earth because they were 
   successfully protected from themselves or their environment.  There's no 
   reporting system that tallies the cases in which visitors didn't become 
   victims for the obvious reason that those incidents never occurred.  
   They're out there, though, and you are the invisible guardian angels at 
   their shoulders. 
   
   Similarly, there's no statistical summary that quantifies the artifacts 
   protected, the mitigation of impacts to natural resources, the reduction 
   in threats or dangers, much less the attitudes changed or values imparted. 
   But you accomplished all those ends as well.
   
   This country is blessed with public employees in every sector who still 
   believe in service to America and its people, who work with heart and 
   dedication for the common good. But you'd have to look hard to find people 
   more dedicated than those in the National Park Service.  Despite moments 
   of discouragement, frustration and outright anger at conditions that stem 
   from reduced staffing and funding and increased burdens (particularly 
   paper burdens), you press on, doing more with less, innovating, wheeling 
   and dealing, unwilling to give up hard-gained ground, impatient to resolve 
   problems - despite everything, still dedicated to the mission of the 
   Service.  You're one hell of a crew.  
   
   Over the years, a lot of people have paid tribute to the employees of the 
   National Park Service. Perhaps it's most fitting, though, to close this 
   last Morning Report of the year with the closing words of Horace 
   Albright's 1933 farewell letter to his friends and co-workers:
   
   "We have been compared to the military forces because of our dedication 
   and esprit de corps.  In a sense this is true.  We do act as guardians of 
   our country's land.  Our National Park Service uniform which we wear with 
   pride does command the respect of our fellow citizens.  We have the spirit 
   of fighters, not as a destructive force, but as a power for good.  With 
   this spirit, each of us is an integral part of the preservation of the 
   magnificent heritage we have been given, so that centuries from now people 
   of our world, or perhaps of other worlds, may see and understand what is 
   unique to our earth, never changing, eternal."
   
   Godspeed, hang in there -
   
   Bill Halainen
   Editor
   
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   park, office and/or regional cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please address 
   requests pertaining to receipt of the Morning Report to your servicing hub 
   coordinator.  The Morning Report is also available on the web at 
   http://www.nps.gov/morningreport
   
   Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation 
   and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
   
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