NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Wednesday, December 13, 2000

ALMANAC

On this date in 1890, the first issue of Paul Laurence Dunbar's 
newspaper, The Dayton Tattler, was printed by Wilbur and Orville 
Wright in their printing shop, now part of Dayton Aviation Heritage 
National Historical Park in Ohio.

INCIDENTS

00-741 - Lassen Volcanic NP (CA) - Environmental Crime

North District rangers, assisted by criminal investigator Alan Foster, 
are investigating a malicious act of resource damage that occurred 
near the Cinder Cone in the northeast corner of the park. Five 
motorcross cyclists were seen crisscrossing through the 
resource-sensitive Painted Dunes in mid-October. They left miles of 
tire scars through the dunes, adjacent cinder fields, and along eight 
miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. The majority of the area traversed 
was designated wilderness. This destructive act was witnessed by three 
off-duty park employees who were able to photograph four of the five 
participants. Solid leads have been established. The investigation is 
on-going. [Mark McCutcheon, DR, North District, LAVO, 12/12]

00-742 - President's Park (DC) - Special Event

President Clinton delivered his Christmas message to the nation and 
lit the national Christmas tree for the eighth and final time in his 
administration before a packed audience on the Ellipse on the evening 
of Monday, December 11th. Other than the cold weather, the ceremony 
went smoothly. [Phil Walsh, CR, PRPA, 12/12]

00-743 - Gulf Islands NS (FL/MS) - Suicide

A 31-year-old Ocean Springs man shot himself in the chest in the Davis 
Bayou Subdistrict on the afternoon of December 11th. He had been 
suffering for several years from severe pain as a result of a back 
injury that he sustained while serving in the Marines. He left a 
suicide note at home addressed to his common-law wife. [Mark Lewis, 
DR, GUIS, 12/12]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Plan

No new information. Please check the NPS Fire Management Program 
Center web page (www.fire.nps.gov) for further information on fire 
plan projects.

Fire Management Programs

A new computer software application called ROSS is being developed to 
automate the resource ordering, status and reporting process at 
interagency dispatch centers. This software application, sponsored by 
the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, is being developed by an 
interagency project team and will operate in nearly 400 interagency 
dispatch and coordination offices throughout the nation. When 
completed, ROSS will track all tactical, logistical, service and 
support resources that are mobilized by incident dispatchers. 
Newsletters are published monthly and posted on the ROSS web page. The 
current issue (November, 2000) can be found at the site: 
www.nwcg.gov/ross/news/november_newsletter.PDF. [Nancy DeLong, FMPC]

Park Fires

No fires reported.

CULTURAL/NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

San Antonio Missions NHP (TX) - The park has a lateral reassignment 
opportunity for a GS-9 commissioned ranger. For more information, 
please contact Dan Steed, chief of resource management and visitor 
protection, at 210-534-8875 x 224. [Dan Steed, SAAN]

FILM AT 11...

The Sunday New York Times carried an article entitled "How Historic 
Sites Can Matter in the Here And Now." It discusses the interpretation 
of history to promote social change and reports that the Lower East 
Side Tenement Museum (an NPS affiliated area) and the NPS itself are 
signatories to the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of 
Conscience. Several other NPS areas are also mentioned. According to 
the president of Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the coalition's 
purpose is "to really change the role of historic sites from one of 
passive history-telling to places of engagement for citizenship." 
[Marty O'Toole, GATE]

FOOTNOTE

Department of Misplaced Parks: From time to time, your editor 
inadvertently relocates various units in the system, generally due to 
either 1) a certain amount of unwarranted smugness about his knowledge 
of the system, 2) a subliminal desire to move parks to the states 
where they ought to be, 3) an inability to accurately read the system 
map posted above his computer without stronger glasses, or 4) 
pre-Starbucks morning fog. Apologies to Ninety Six NHS for putting 
them in Georgia yesterday (the park remains in South Carolina) and for 
moving Mount Rainier NP to Oregon last Thursday (it's still in Texas). 

                             *  *  *  *  *

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed 
by 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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