NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, February 1, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-029 - Olympic NP (WA) - Search and Rescue

On Saturday, January 27th, F.H., 82, became separated from his 
son and grandson while hiking up the Queets trail. He was lagging 
behind them and could not catch up, so turned around and headed for a 
river crossing near the trailhead with the objective of waiting there 
for his companions. F.H. missed the crossing point, though, then 
lost the trail. He became disoriented while searching for the trail 
that evening, so camped under a tree near the river and the crossing. 
He had a Holofill sleeping bag, a poncho, a bag of bread and some 
cookies with him. On Sunday, F.H. continued hiking up a creek he had 
crossed, traveling in very dense forest with many downed trees, 
tangles of brush, and swamps. Saturday night had been very cold; 
Sunday brought heavy rains. F.H. had forgotten he had a poncho and 
slept in the rain in the sleeping bag that night. On Monday, he again 
began his search for the trail, hiking up the creek, out of the park, 
and into a dense second growth forest. He stopped and lit a fire after 
a park helicopter flew over his location but failed to see him due to 
the thick canopy. A television crew spotted his smoke while filming 
area shots for a search story that was to appear that night. They were 
able to identify him by zooming in with their camera, then direct the 
search helicopter to his location. F.H. was in very good condition 
and was reunited with his family. Twenty-five searchers and four dog 
teams participated in the search along with the helicopter. Two of the 
dog teams alerted to a canteen left behind by F.H. and had pointed 
the searchers in the right direction. [Curt Sauer, CR, OLYM, 1/31]

01-030 - Big Bend NP (TX) - Drug Seizures

Rangers intercepted drug smugglers in separate instances last week. A 
park employee noticed several white sacks in the bed of Alamo Creek 
near the Castolon area on January 23rd. Rangers and a Border Patrol 
agent investigated and found 15 bales of marijuana weighing 519 
pounds. The street value has been placed at $415,200. Tracks indicated 
that two riders with a total of four horses had crossed the Rio Grande 
from Mexico. A pack train accident occurred about a half mile from the 
river, with one of the hoses bolting and spilling its cargo while 
running back to Mexico. A pack saddle with eight bales was cut off 
another horse and cached near a park road. These were the sacks the 
employee first spotted. The rangers and agent backtracked down the 
horses' trail and recovered the other seven bales. On January 24th, DR 
Cary Brown stopped a vehicle for speeding. The vehicle had what 
appeared to be an altered temporary tag in the rear window along with 
Texas license plates, and was found to registered to an individual 
other than the driver. The driver, a 20-year-old criminal justice 
major, also gave inconsistent statements about his visit to the park. 
Brown conducted a consent search of the vehicle and found just under 
21 pounds of marijuana in ten bundles in a nylon bag in the trunk. The 
driver said that he had no money, so had agreed to drive to a border 
crossing area in the park, leave the car and take a walk, then deliver 
the vehicle to Odessa, Texas. [Mark Spier, Acting CR, BIBE, 1/29]

                [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

No submissions.

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

WASO Interpretation and Education Division Update - A number of 
activities are underway in the division:

o       A request for proposals has been issued for environmental 
        leadership education projects. Parks that have active 
        environmental programs are being encouraged to develop 
        education, outreach and interpretive and/or public information 
        programs that highlight their efforts and encourage visitors, 
        communities and schools to become environmentally aware. 
        Grants for up to $25,000 will be available to successful parks 
        out of a total of $250,000 in fee demo project money. More 
        information is available from Bob Huggins.
o       The Service's historic weapons advisory team will meet at the 
        end of the month at Springfield Armory NHS. Major items on the 
        agenda include designation of regional inspectors, planning 
        for the FY 2002 certification course, and a determination on 
        the advisability of allowing demonstrations of modern 
        smokeless powder weapons. Several team members are also 
        planning to stay on for an extra day or two to finish up the 
        revisions of the various drill manuals for the DO-6 reference 
        manual.
o       As a result of last year's VIP program management training on 
        how to succeed with VIP's, regional training teams are in the 
        process of planning their VIP program management training 
        courses. NCR and IMR will hold theirs separately from March 
        27th to the 29th; AR and PWR will hold a joint session in 
        Anchorage from April 3rd to the 5th. NER, SER and MWR are 
        working on plans for their courses.
o       The request for parks to submit their "Parks as Classrooms" 
        annual reports has gone to regional offices. The due date for 
        return to WASO is March 16th. The only parks required to 
        report are those that received funding for that program in FY 
        2000. 

[Corky Mayo, I&ED/WASO]

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

No submissions.

FILM AT 11...

The NPS will be one of the organizations featured in a History Channel 
special entitled "Mountain Rescue" within its on-going series called 
"Suicide Missions." The special will air from Thursday, February 1st, 
to Saturday, February 3rd. Also featured will be the Tenth Mountain 
Division, the National Ski Patrol, and the Mountain Rescue 
Association. Check local times and listings for the History Channel. 
[Tim Kovacs, Mountain Rescue Association]

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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