NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, May 24, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-231 - Canaveral NS (FL) - Drowning

On the afternoon of May 19th, a 46-year-old man drowned at Playalinda 
Beach. He had arrived at the beach with a group of people and decided 
to go swimming by himself. Witnesses at the scene reported that he was 
a long distance from shore and that his friends had motioned him to 
swim back in closer to the beach. Minutes later, he was seen floating 
face down in the water.  A former lifeguard visiting the beach 
retrieved him from the water. CPR was begun by several visitors with 
medical training; responding EMS units continued efforts to revive 
him, but were unsuccessful. He was  pronounced dead during transport 
to the hospital. Ranger John Nichols and the Brevard County Sheriff's 
Office are conducting an investigation of the incident. [Jim Cahill, 
DR, CANA, 5/23]

01-232 - Badlands NP (SD) - MVA with Fatality

The park was notified of an accident about five miles west of Cedar 
Pass on the loop road just before 6 a.m. on May 22nd. Chief ranger 
Scott Lopez was first on scene and determined that the driver and lone 
occupant had died in the accident. Investigation revealed that he had 
been reported missing on Sunday, May 20th, and that he'd last been 
seen drinking at a bar on Saturday night. Evidence at the accident 
scene shows that speed was a factor in the accident. The vehicle left 
the road on a curve, struck a mound, went airborne, and landed about 
100 feet below the top of the mound on its back side. The driver was 
evidently killed on impact. [Scott Lopez, CR, BADL, 5/22]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Plan

Hiring continues for NPS fire positions. The tally as of May 23rd: 
temporary positions - 739 total, 394 hired to date; career/seasonal 
positions - 235 total, 192 hired to date; permanent positions - 416 
total, 245 hired to date. That's a total of 831 people hired for 1,390 
total positions (60%).

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level 1

Moderate initial attack continued in the South yesterday, but was 
light elsewhere. Two new large fires were reported in the South and 
two others were contained. Many of the fires in Florida were active 
yesterday afternoon. Florida and southern Georgia will have mostly 
sunny weather, but there will be a chance of thunderstorms in the 
southern portion of Florida. 

NICC has posted a RED FLAG WARNING  for long periods of relative 
humidity below 35 percent in inland northwest Florida, and a FIRE 
WEATHER WATCH for same but for shorter periods of time in west 
central, northeast and coastal northwest Florida.

The full NICC Incident Management Situation Report can be found at 
http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf

National Resource Status

Date                    5/20    5/21    5/22    5/23    5/24

Crews                   13      12      52      49      60
Engines                 39      36      195     63      103
Helicopters             18      12      20      15      20
Air Tankers             0       0       0       0       0
Overhead                108     107     250     175     253

Park Fire Situation

Big Cypress NP (FL) - The Bear Island Fire (24,242 acres, 95% 
contained, 19 FF/OH) has received significant rain over the past few 
days and is largely contained. It will be patrolled and monitored for 
the next few days before a decision is made to call it controlled. 
Control objectives have nearly been met, with the fire restricted to 
NPS-owned (or soon to be acquired) land, except for a ten-acre 
slopover onto private land and ten more private acres burned to 
prevent further spread. Damages to private property were limited to 
destruction of one backcountry structure of unknown purpose, a shed, 
and two swamp buggies. Suppression efforts were hampered by extreme 
fire behavior and long-range spotting, erratic winds, extreme drought 
conditions, low fuel moisture, poor or no access, slow travel 
conditions, poor visibility due to smoke, and poor communications. The 
fire was caused by a campfire in the Bear Island campground. It may 
have been in the campfire ring for days prior to escaping. It was 
contained on the first day (May 16th) at 30 acres, but spotted to the 
north and exhibited extreme behavior the next day. Crews were pulled 
off the line after the fire spotted around the perimeter and began to 
spread rapidly. Variable winds were replaced by steady sea breezes, 
and the fire made high speed runs for two days. On the third day, 
crews were able to burn and hold the southern perimeter, and the 
southwest breeze failed to materialize. On the fourth day, the 
southeast corner was successfully burned to block in 75% of the fire. 
Soon after the burnout was completed, the fire received widespread 
rainfall, which secured much of the fire and slowed its spread toward 
private property. Crews mopped-up over the next two days.

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         Hawaii Volcanoes
Very High       Lake Mead, Everglades
High            Guadalupe Mountains, Zion, Carlsbad Caverns

[Kevin Walsh, IC, Bear Island Fire, and Larry Belles, BICY, 5/23; 
Debee Schwarz, NPS Fire Information, WASO; Mike Warren, NPS FMPC, 
5/23; NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 5/24; NPS Situation 
Summary Report, 5/23]

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

Mount Rainier NP (WA) - Fee Demo Funds New Bulletin Board Materials

The Division of Interpretation has completed a fee demonstration 
project to upgrade bulletin board postings throughout the park. Visual 
information specialist Patti Wold developed a layout to give all park 
bulletin boards a consistent look. Use of the Unigrid design system 
identifies Mount Rainier with the NPS and other national parks in the 
system, consistent with "Message Project" guidelines. The new 
materials address parkwide and location-specific information and were 
developed with input from area staff. The new postings include a Mount 
Rainier NP banner with the NPS mission statement, a general 
information sign, a map of the park, several campground maps, several 
area trail maps, a campground regulation sign, and visitor services 
guides for the four main areas of the park.  All were printed on a 
plastic weather resistant material called Polydura available through 
J. L. Darling Corporation of Tacoma, Washington (sole source). [Maria 
Gillett, CI, MORA]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

FLETC (GA) - NPS land management training program class 102 graduated 
from FLETC on April 24th. As always, the NPS-specific class 
distinguished itself with superior individual and group achievements. 
JJ Montgomery (INDE) was top driver with a perfect 300 score; four 
other rangers were also recognized for their driving skills. Steve Yu 
(YOSE) scored a perfect 500 on the PEB, while three other rangers 
scored above 95% on the fitness test. Margaret Goodro (NOCA) and 
Austin Konkel (JEFF) tied for high firearms expert with a 297 out of a 
possible 300 points, and were joined by nine other rangers who 
qualified as expert shooters. David P. Fox (PEFO) was the class 
scholar with a outstanding 96.26% academic average.  He was joined by 
two other rangers who scored above 95% in the academic portion. The 
overall class average was an outstanding 91.69%. Kevin B. Fox received 
the class nomination for the Director's Award as the outstanding 
ranger of the class.  Congratulations to LMTP-102 - the bar has been 
raised even higher.  LMTP class 104 is scheduled to graduate June 
27th. [Don Usher, NPS-FLETC]

Bandelier NM (NM) - Ranger Dale Coker has been awarded a heritage 
preservation award from the New Mexico State Historic Preservation 
Office. The award was presented at a ceremony at the 130 year-old 
Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe by Elmo Baca, the state's historic 
preservation officer (SHPO). Dale received the award in recognition of 
his dedication to the protection of archeological resources in 
Bandelier and on adjacent federal Department of Energy lands. The 
award was given for a two-year investigation that he conducted which 
resulted in a felony ARPA plea and for establishing a GPS-based field 
survey program to monitor sites utilizing the backcountry SCA patrol 
staff he supervises. Coker accepted the award, in his own words, 
"...on behalf of all the rangers doing lonely patrols out in the 
backcountry to protect resources." [CRO, BAND]

HOT LINKS

NPS historian Harry Butowsky has again updated the Service's history 
web page (http://www.cr.nps.gov/history) with a variety of links. Due 
to the length of the web addresses, they alternate lines with the 
entry descriptions:

USS Arizona: Submerged Cultural Resources Study -
http://www.nps.gov/usar/scrs/scrs.htm

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument: An Administrative History - 
http://www.nps.gov/gicl/adhi/adhi.htm

Battling for Manassas - 
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/adhi.htm

In the Land of Frozen Fires: A History of Occupation in El Malpais 
Country - http://www.nps.gov/elma/hist/hist.htm

Moores Creek National Battlefield: An Administrative History - 
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mocr/index.htm

Manassas National Battlefield Park Historical Handbook (1953) -
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/15

ADDITIONAL SECTIONS

Regular sections not appearing today (due either to lack of 
submissions or time constraints in preparing this edition) but are 
available at all times:

o  Natural/Cultural Resource Management - Significant developments in 
   these fields.
o  Operational Notes - Any information of consequence to the field on 
   operational matters.
o  Memoranda - Memoranda from WASO to the field on all operational     
   matters.
o  Interchange - Requests or offers from any park or office for 
   materials, information or any other operational needs.
o  Film at 11 - Reports on current or upcoming print or electronic 
   media stories on the NPS.

                                    *  *  *  *  *

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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