NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Wednesday, January 24, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-018 - Carlsbad Caverns/Guadalupe Mountains NP's (NM/TX) - Death of  
         Employee

Carolyn Sue West, budget analyst for the two parks, lost a three-year 
battle with cancer on the evening of Friday, January 19th, at her home 
on the West Ranch near Carlsbad. She would have completed 29 years 
with the NPS in May. Sue spent her entire career with the two parks. 
She held a variety of positions, including park aid, general clerk, 
clerk typist, budget clerk, and temporary assignments as 
administrative officer and budget analyst, and worked for seven 
Carlsbad Cavern and four Guadalupe Mountain superintendents. A funeral 
service will be held today at the Church of the Nazarene on Church 
Street in Carlsbad. Messages of condolence may be sent to her husband, 
H., and her two daughters, A. and M. For additional details, please
contact the  superintendent's office at 505-785-2251 ext 321. [Diane
Reed, CAVE,  1/23]

01-019 - President's Park (DC) - Special Event

On Sunday, January 21st, President and Mrs. George W. Bush held their 
first special event in the White House, then opened the doors for 
public tours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., concluding inaugural 
festivities. The White House is traditionally not opened for public 
tours on Sundays or Mondays. Tickets for each individual, regardless 
of age, were required. People accordingly began lining up as early at 
7:30 p.m. the day before at the White House VC. Even though snow fell 
throughout the night and temperatures dropped substantially, hundreds 
of enthusiastic people were not deterred from joining the line and 
waiting for more than 10 hours to secure a ticket. A total of  3,900 
persons attended the special event and public tours. Rangers at 
President's Park managed the public tour ticketing and the visitor 
line for both the special event and the tours. The events went well; 
there were no incidents. [Rachel Frantum, Park Manager, 1/23]

01-020 - Golden Gate NRA (CA) - Drowning

Rangers and Park Police officers responded to a report of a drowning 
in progress at Baker Beach on January 2nd. USPP officer Larry Morales 
was first on scene and found an adult male on the beach in full 
cardiac arrest. Morales began ventilations; a bystander assisted with 
chest compressions. Rangers Sam Eddy, Matt Ehmann and Mark Warmerdam 
arrived shortly thereafter. Eddy and Warmerdam took over chest 
compressions, while Ehmann administered oxygen. Presidio paramedic 
Jeff Hubbard and firefighter Matt Buckley took over from them upon 
arrival. The victim's pulse returned and he was taken to a local 
hospital. He never regained consciousness, though, and died several 
days later. The victim and his girlfriend had taken a taxi to the 
beach, then decided to attempt to ride the 10- to 15-foot, 
storm-generated waves in 52-degree water. Other visitors on the beach 
were able to grab the woman before she was swept away by the strong 
undertow, but the man was unable to get to shore and was underwater 
for about 10 minutes before being extracted from the ocean. [Richard 
Danielson, Operations Supervisor, Steve Prokop, SPR, GOGA, 1/19]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

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.

Park Fires

No fires reported.

CULTURAL/NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Yellowstone NP (WY) - Final Snowmobile Regulations Published

The final rule required to implement portions of the record of 
decision (ROD) for winter use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP's and 
the John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway has been finalized and 
was published in the January 22nd edition of the Federal Register. The 
rule provides for interim actions to be implemented to reduce the 
impacts of snowmobile use during the winter use season of 2002-2003, 
and permits over snow access by NPS-managed snowcoach only by the end 
of the 2002-2003 winter use season - with limited exceptions for 
continued snowmobile access to other public and private lands adjacent 
to or within Grand Teton NP. The ROD was published on November 22nd 
following many years of study to determine what kind of winter 
activities are appropriate for the three parks. Based on studies done 
for the EIS that led to the ROD, a decision was made that snowmobile 
use in the three parks so adversely affects air quality, wildlife, 
natural soundscapes, and the enjoyment of other visitors that the 
resources and values of these parks are impaired.  That is contrary to 
the mandate of the Service's Organic Act, which stipulates that parks 
be left "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."  
Executive orders issued by Presidents Nixon and Carter and the 
Service's own regulation on snowmobile use also prohibits snowmobile 
use in national parks where it disturbs wildlife, damages park 
resources, or is inconsistent with the park's natural, cultural, 
scenic, aesthetic values, safety considerations, or management 
objectives.  The decision to phase out most snowmobile use over the 
next three years in favor of multi-passenger snowcoaches best meets 
the legal mandates and protects park resources while offering winter 
visitors a range of experiences.  The phase-in period should help 
mitigate economic impacts to surrounding communities. The draft 
regulations were published in the Federal Register on December 18th 
and were open for public comment until January 17th. More than 5,200 
comments were received and considered in the public process. [Public 
Affairs, YELL, 1/23]

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

"Workforce Challenge for the National Park Service," signed by the 
director on January 19th and sent to all employees. The full text 
follows:

"For over eighty years, the National Park Service has served as the 
steward of some of America's most precious natural and cultural 
resources, either directly or in partnership with others.  The 
responsibility for fulfilling this role has been and continues to rest 
on its workforce. 

"You are the face of the National Park Service.  You are a workforce 
of thousands of men and women located in more than 400 locations 
spanning the 50 states, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, 
Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin 
Islands. You work in densely populated urban centers and remote sites 
reachable only by airplanes; you work in Death Valley and north of the 
Arctic Circle; you work during hurricanes, blizzards, floods, and 
fires. You perform work in over 80 occupations from the park ranger 
who tells the story of the Badlands; the maintenance worker who 
repairs the walls of the historic San Antonio missions; the historian 
who researches slavery in American history; the office assistant who 
responds to inquiries from the public who want to visit a national 
park; the patrol officer of the U.S. Park Police who assists visitors 
to our nation's capital; the engineer at the Denver Service Center who 
perpetuates our high standards of design excellence in park 
infrastructure; the accounting technician at the Accounting Operations 
Center in Herndon who processes the transactions that produce a clean 
financial opinion for our annual audit; and the designer at Harpers 
Ferry Center who uses a variety of media forms to capture the interest 
and the imagination of visitors throughout the land.  

"Our work is not limited to the park units entrusted to our care by 
the American public.  We administer a broad portfolio of financial and 
technical assistance responsibilities that extend to the many corners 
of the fabric that is the American mosaic.  We go beyond our own 
boundaries to assist other countries in fostering stewardship of their 
natural and cultural resources.  We work with states and tribes in 
furthering their historic preservation programs.  Local and state 
governments partner with us in conservation and recreation programs. 
Numerous private and non-profit partners join with us in a variety of 
ways in pursuit of shared stewardship.  

"You do your jobs well.  You are highly motivated and skilled.  I am 
proud to be counted among your ranks. We are faced with a world that 
is changing rapidly. 

"We must be ever attentive to new information and expanding our 
knowledge base in order to continue fulfilling the mission of the 
National Park Service.  Noting that more attention should be focused 
on the workforce and the increasing demands and expectations placed on 
each of you, I called for the development of a Workforce Challenge.  I 
view the development of this challenge as a complement to the natural 
and cultural resource challenges.  It takes commitment to all three of 
these resources if we are to execute our stewardship responsibilities 
effectively.

"We must recognize that the National Park Service's workforce is a 
resource as important as the natural and cultural ones that it 
protects.   The continued success of the Service is dependent upon its 
ability to recruit, retain and support a diverse and high quality 
workforce dedicated to its mission and core values.  I see a National 
Park Service where every employee, irrespective of occupational 
category, organization or geographic location, will have the 
opportunity to develop to his/her fullest potential and where his/her 
contributions to the mission of the National Park Service are 
recognized and valued.

"And so we have developed a plan for all employees, each of whom 
performs duties vital to the mission of the National Park Service.  
The initiatives in this plan will benefit all employees:  those who 
are new to the Service, those who are mid-career, those who are 
nearing retirement, and even those who have retired. The workforce 
challenge addresses a broad range of issues which the organization 
faces and which each of you faces as employees. 

Goal of the Plan

To recruit, retain and support a diverse and high quality workforce 
dedicated to the National Park Service mission and core values.

Five Objectives

1.      Recruitment:  Improve and maintain a proactive process that 
        attracts quality candidates, and provides incentives for       
        growth and continued employment.

2.      Orientation:  Orient each employee to the mission, history, 
        current organizational structure, and core values of the 
        agency,  his/her individual role in fulfilling the NPS 
        mission, and specific performance expectations for his/her 
        current position.

3.      Growth and Development:  Provide professional growth and 
        continuous learning for all NPS employees through a 
        comprehensive, mission-focused, and competency-based training 
        and development program.

4.      Organizational Responsibility:  Encourage all employees to 
        serve as models and leaders and to give back to the 
        organization in order to meet the NPS mission. 

5.      Wellness:  Maintain a work environment that promotes the 
        mental and physical well-being of employees.

"The plan will help direct the National Park Service as it moves into 
the 21st century.  It will ensure that this organization will be able 
to preserve and protect our resources for future generations.

"Many of you have reviewed the draft of this plan and offered 
comments.  I thank you for your interest and involvement.  While the 
plan is not yet finalized to reflect this input, I hereby endorse its 
direction and approach; I wish all of you well in delivering on its 
expectations."

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Glacier Bay NP&P (AK) - The park is recruiting for a permanent, 
full-time GS-11/12 supervisory park ranger (protection) and a 
subject-to-furlough GS-9 park ranger (protection) in the park's Bay 
District, which encompasses all of Glacier Bay proper and the park's 
outer coast. The supervisory park ranger will serve as the district 
ranger and park boating officer, will be actively involved in 
oversight of protection operations, and will have direct management 
input. The STF ranger will work in the park's up-bay backcountry and 
will serve as a certified visible emissions evaluator for monitoring 
cruise ship smoke stack emissions. Both positions will require 
excellent boating skills and the ability to work with diverse people, 
environmental conditions, and rapidly developing park programs. These 
vacancy announcements are currently listed on USA Jobs (GLBA-01-04, 
GLBA-01-05). For more information, contact chief ranger Chuck Young at 
907-697-2230. [Chuck Young, GLBA]

Carlsbad Caverns NP (NM) - The park has an interdisciplinary 
announcement out for a GS-13 chief of natural and cultural resources. 
It's being announced on USA Jobs as a GS-0170 historian, GS-0190 
anthropologist, GS-0193 archeologist, GS-0401 biologist, or GS-1301 
physical scientist. It closes on January 26th. For more information, 
call Pat Courter at 505-885-8884 ext 24. [Pat Courter, CAVE}

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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