NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Tuesday, February 20, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-048 - Crater Lake NP (OR) - Serious Employee Injury

W.W., a program assistant in the park's Resource Preservation 
and Research Division, was seriously injured in an off-duty motor 
vehicle accident near Klamath Falls on February 9th. As of last 
Friday, she was recovering from brain surgery and was improving. There 
was a good chance that she would regain full consciousness over the 
weekend or early this week. Cards and letters can be sent to her at: 
Legacy Emanuel Hospital, WWICU, 2801 N. Gantenbein Avenue, Portland, 
OR 97227, Attn: Patient W.W. [Mary Rasmussen, Dave Brennan,  CRLA, 2/16]

01-056 - Olympic NP (WA) - Search and Rescue

On February 17th, the park received a report of an overdue 16-year-old 
snowboarder who had failed to return after the final run of the day at 
the Hurricane Ridge ski area. He was to have met his mother around 
4:30 p.m.; she waited for him for an hour, then notified rangers. A 
hasty search of areas used by snowboarders was begun by rangers, ski 
patrol members, and Olympic Mountain Rescue personnel. Rangers Mike 
Danisiewicz and Rob Palmer and SCA Kyle Tallmadge found a set of 
tracks heading downhill away from the ski area and the normal 
snowboard areas just before 11 p.m. and began following the tracks. 
They made voice contact with the lost snowboarder about 30 minutes 
later. He was wet, cold and tired, but otherwise unhurt. He thought he 
was headed towards the road and the ski area, but had traveled nearly 
a mile in deep snow the wrong way and was in a deep ravine. He was 
without food, flashlight or survival gear. The temperature was 29 
degrees when he was found and moderate snow was falling; up to another 
half foot of snow was expected. An additional 24 searchers, four dog 
teams, and a helicopter (weather permitting) were on standby for a 
continued early morning search if the snowboarder had not been found. 
[Emergency Operations Center, OLYM, 2/19]

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

Incident Management Program Update - The incident management program 
steering committee met for a second time in Las Vegas between January 
30th and February 1st. Attending along with committee members were IMT 
incident commanders, regional incident management coordinators, and 
the Service's new national SAR and EMS coordinator. 

Steering committee accomplishments from the first meeting include the 
following:

o       A $291,000 base funding request was submitted through OFS for 
        FY02. If approved, this would provide approximately $50,000 
        for each IMT, which would be used for recruiting, training, 
        pre-positioning, and equipment.
o       The newest edition of NPS Management Policies states that 
        emergency operations including extended law enforcement 
        operations, searches and rescues, emergency medical, and large 
        scale special events will be conducted using the national 
        interagency incident management system, which means park 
        managers must use ICS to manage such larger scale incidents 
        and must support employee involvement in incident management 
        training. 
o       The National Wildfire Coordinating Group is expected to sign 
        off on the steering committee's charter to develop an          
        integrated system to include all risk incident management.
o       The Type III incident management task books were completed and 
        will be posted on the NPS website.
o       Attempts have been made to include ICS and incident management 
        orientation in the NPS "Compass" training courses.

Accomplishments from the second meeting include:

o       The differences between Type I, Type II, and Type III IMT's 
        were defined. 
o       A complexity guide was developed to help managers decide if an 
        event or incident warrants a Type III, Type II or Type I IMT.
o       A communication plan was outlined which will distribute 
        information about the benefits, efficiency, and achievements 
        of utilizing IMT's and ICS.
o       Existing funding sources and their limitation parameters were 
        identified.
o       Standard minimum configurations for IMT's were developed. 

Progress was made on many other tasks as well, providing direction for 
future accomplishments. For more detailed information about the 
steering committee's charter or other related issues, contact any of 
the following committee members: Josie Fernandez, chairperson (WORI); 
Dave Lattimore, co-chair (YOSE), Ron Everhart (IMRO); Judy Forte 
(SERO); JD Swed (DENA); Skip Brooks (COLO); Greg Stiles (SHEN); Merrie 
Johnson (NIFC); Mary Furney (HUTR); Ruth Kohler (SOAR); and Bill Adams 
(NIFC). [Mary Furney, HUTR]

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Office of Aircraft Services (ID) - Elmer Hurd, director of OAS and 
past head of the National Park Service's Branch of Fire and Aviation 
Management, will retire in early April. Elmer's 31 years of government 
service began with the Forest Service the day after his 18th birthday. 
He subsequently held various fire and aviation management positions 
for BLM and the U.S. Forest Service and served as deputy director for 
the Division of Forestry, Alaska Department of Natural Resources. He 
became head of the NPS fire program in 1989, operating from the Ranger 
Activities Division in WASO. Elmer became director of OAS in 1994. 
During his career, he served on national incident management teams, 
chaired the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, and was a member of 
the national cadre of wildland fire instructors. A farewell 
celebration in his honor will be held in Boise on March 30th. Those 
wishing to attend may contact either Leslie Laraway or Toni Rohm at 
208-387-5750. [Leslie Laraway, OAS]

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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