NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Friday, March 9, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-072 - Grand Canyon NP (AZ) - Follow-up: Falling Fatality

On the evening of February 20th, South Rim District rangers investigated
a reported fall from the edge of the canyon near Grandeur Point and
subsequently found the body of an 18-year-old California woman 400 feet
below the point last seen. Because this was an unwitnessed event, an
investigation was begun to determine the cause of her fall. The fatality
has attracted additional media attention because an employee in the
medical examiner's office improperly disseminated information regarding
the case to a local paper, which in turn passed it on to national wire
services. The information indicates that there may have been some
criminal activity associated with the fall. It's not yet known how
damaging the press coverage will be to the continuing investigation,
which is being coordinated by SA Joe Sumner. [Patrick Hattaway, DR,
South Rim District, GRCA, 3/6]

01-084 - WASO (DC) - Comprehensive Condition Assessment
Incident

In response to President Bush's commitment to reduce the National Park
Service backlog of deferred maintenance, the Service is establishing a
process and systems to validate and verify deferred maintenance cost
estimates as well as measure progress in reducing the backlog. To begin
the implementation of this process, the Park Facilities Management
Division has brought the Service's national Type I incident management
team (Skip Brooks, IC) to Washington to begin a comprehensive condition
assessment program for the Service. The team is operating under a
delegation of authority signed by Dick Ring, the associate director for
park operations and education. As of now, plans are to conduct the
assessment at six pilot parks this year - Redwood N&SP, Santa
Monica NRA, Effigy Mounds NM, Fort Caroline NM, Timucuan E&HP, and Big
Cypress NP. The team is employing subject matter experts from these
parks and throughout the Service to carry out this effort. At some
point, the program will be expanded to 30 parks or more. Once complete,
the program will be reviewed and validated by an impartial, independent
organization so that the public and the Congress can have confidence
that the information is accurate. There are 13 people assigned to the
incident at present, with more subject matter experts en route. [Greg
Stiles, Planning Section Chief, IMT, WASO, 3/8]

01-085 - Petrified Forest NP (AZ) - Fraud Conviction

On the morning of December 24th, L.T. of Flagstaff, Arizona,
entered the park using a Golden Age passport. He was driving a sedan and
had one passenger in the vehicle. Visitor use assistant Rachel Wenger
recognized L.T. as a person who had been found previously to be
running a tour business with one or two passengers at a time in his
vehicle and using his Golden Age Passport for park entry. He had also
been warned on previous visits that this practice was illegal.  Wenger
contacted protection ranger Dave Fox, who then contacted L.T. and
ascertained that L.T. had entered the park illegally, as his passenger
was a paying client. Fox cited L.T., specifying a mandatory court
appearance. Ranger Charles Dorn conducted a follow-up investigation
which revealed that L.T. had a long history (over ten years) of
conducting his tour business and defrauding parks by not paying the
correct fee when entering. Dorn shared this information with ranger Bill
Hudson from Sunset Crater NM, who worked with assistant U.S. attorney
Joe Lodge on the case. L.T. pled not guilty in his initial appearance
in court. A solid case had been built against him, though, due to the
thorough work by involved NPS employees, and he agreed in a pre-trial
meeting to a plea agreement. On February 26th, L.T. pled guilty in
magistrate's court to a plea agreement with the following conditions: a
$2,000 fine; permanent surrender of his Golden Age pass; two years'
supervised probation; a one-year ban on entering Grand Canyon NP, Glen
Canyon NRA, Petrified Forest NP, Wupatki NM, Sunset Crater NM, and
Walnut Canyon NM; and an agreement to have his picture taken. The latter
will be posted in Colorado Plateau fee collection areas. [Greg Caffey,
ACR, PEFO, 3/8]

[Additional reports pending]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Plan

One aspect of the plan is the new rural fire assistance program, an
effort to provide assistance to communities near parks that provide aid
in wildland firefighting. New River Gorge NR in West Virginia has just
graduated 16 volunteer firefighters from the S-130/S-190 basic wildland
firefighter/fire behavior courses. "It was great to see a positive
change in attitude towards wildland fire safety and personal protective
equipment," said park FMO Dave Bartlett. "They learned the 10 standing
firefighter orders and 19 situations that shout 'watch out.'  They
really launched into LCES - lookouts, communications, escape routes
and safety zones." The Department of the Interior's rural fire
assistance program is meant to increase the fire protection capabilities
of rural fire districts.  Safe and effective fire suppression in the
wildland/urban interface demands close coordination within the
firefighting community.  The program will fund training and prevention
activities and purchase equipment on a cost-shared basis.  For details
on the program's criteria, check www.nifc.gov, click on "Federal
Agencies Prepare to Release Funding to Rural Fire Departments"
(2/22/01), and scroll down to the bullets.

Park Fires

Everglades NP (FL) - A red flag warning was posted for the park
yesterday. It's extremely dry in the park. Fuel moistures taken in the
pinelands from hardwood hammocks showed an average value of 80%, even
though they were taken just two days after receiving more than an inch
and a half of rain. A ban on open fires continues.

 [Debee Schwarz, NPS Fire Information, WASO, 3/8; NPS Situation Summary
 Report, 3/8]

CULTURAL/NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

NPS Medical Program - On March 7th, the day-to-day operation of the
medical program was turned over to Ed Clark, a commissioned ranger on
detail to WASO from Hopewell Furnace NHS. Clark has been in Ranger
Activities for the past several weeks and is very familiar with the
medical program. All questions concerning the program should first be
directed to the designated regional points of contact. If you have
further questions or need assistance on specific cases, however, you can
reach him at 202-208-5229 or via cc:Mail at Medical Standards Program
Manager at NP-WASO-POPS. [Dennis Burnett, Acting CR, RAD/WASO]

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Appomattox Court House NHP (VA) - The park is recruiting for an
interdisciplinary GS-11 chief of natural resource management. The
vacancy announcement (SHEN-APCO 2001-10) is posted on USA Jobs. It
closes on March 21st. The park is located about 30 minutes east of
Lynchburg and two hours west of Richmond in a rural community. [Connie
Moody, APCO]

Chickasaw NRA (OK) - The park recently announced tow seasonal GS-5
protection ranger positions on USA Jobs. The announcement closes on
March 23rd. Level II commissions are required. The season will run from
May 20th to September 8th. The park offers training and experience in LE
operations, natural and cultural resource protection, boating, horse
patrol, wildland firefighting, SCUBA operations, criminal investigation,
EMS and more. For more information about the positions and duties, call
DR Ed Cummins at 580-622-3167. [Mark Foust, CR, CHIC]

*  *  *  *  *

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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