NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, May 31, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-234 - Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP (CA) - Follow-up: Presidential    
         Visit

President Bush and Secretary Norton arrived in the park on Tuesday, 
May 29th, and spent the night at the Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia NP. On 
Wednesday morning, they hiked in the Sherman Tree area, where they 
were given an overview of fire ecology and its importance to the 
sequoia ecosystem. The party next climbed the 300 steps to the top of 
Moro Rock, posed for media photos, and learned more about the geology 
of the area. The party then moved to an area outside of the 
soon-to-be-opened Giant Forest museum, where the president delivered a 
20-minute speech to a gathering of 250 NPS employees, concessioners, 
cooperators, contractors and their families, plus 170 members of the 
local and national press. In his speech, the president expressed his 
appreciation to all NPS employees and cooperators for their care of 
the parks. He promised that his administration would be the first to 
fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and to significantly 
reduce the Service's maintenance backlog. He also promised $1.6 
million to finish the work being done in the Giant Forest area, which 
has been undergoing a multi-million dollar restoration that includes 
the removal of 300 buildings and the conversion of the old market into 
a museum. The president ended his visit by shaking hands with all of 
the NPS employees, posing for photos, and signing autographs. The 
event went smoothly and there were no incidents. Demobilization of 
resources is currently underway. The ICP will close tomorrow morning 
following an incident critique with park management. [Hugh Dougher, 
IC, 5/28]

01-239 - Arches NP (UT) - Search and Rescue

On May 25th, a group of 40 college students and professors from 
Juniata College in Pennsylvania went on a hike in a rugged backcountry 
section of the park. Several members of the group began exhibiting the 
symptoms of heat exhaustion following a climb out of the steep, 
800-foot Colorado River canyon. The trip leader decided that the group 
could not descend back into the canyon because the route was too steep 
and exposed, so he lead them cross county to another canyon where 
descent was easier. More members of the group became ill from heat and 
lack of fluids, and two became lost. The leader made a 911 cell phone 
call at 12:30 p.m. and reported the group's situation. A multi-agency 
search and rescue mission was launched which eventually involved 37 
people from Arches and Canyonlands, St. Mary's Air Care, and Grand 
County SAR, EMS and sheriff's office. Although a number of the 
students were suffering from various degrees of heat exhaustion, they 
were able to walk out of the canyon under their own power. Three 
required rescue from the canyon, including one in serious condition 
who had to be medevaced by helicopter; all three were hospitalized. 
Searchers found the two missing people just as the last heat victim 
was evacuated from the canyon. The high temperature for the day was 99 
degrees. The three students who were hospitalized were all released 
later that evening. [Jim Webster, CR, ARCH, 5/30]

01-240 - Mount Rainier NP (WA) - Rescue

Four climbers were rescued from the mountain on Wednesday, May 30th, 
following an avalanche which swept away their equipment. D.S.-S., 
J.F., A.W. and M.S. 
became stranded on Liberty Ridge on Monday evening and called for 
assistance. Rangers began a rescue effort at daybreak on Tuesday and 
contacted the stranded climbers via helicopter. The climbers reported 
that they needed help, so rangers were dropped at the summit and 
descended to their location. Rapidly changing weather forced the team 
to spend Tuesday night near the summit of Mount Rainier, and whiteout 
conditions kept them stranded there most of the day. Breaks in the 
cloud cover late on Wednesday made it possible for a Chinook 
helicopter to extract them from Liberty Cap. Uwe Nehring was incident 
commander. Liberty Ridge is a steep and demanding route, considered a 
classic among climbers worldwide. [Maria Gillett, MORA, 5/30]

                   [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.

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level II

The national preparedness level has gone up one step.  Preparedness 
Level II goes into effect when the following conditions are met: One 
geographic area experiencing high fire danger.  Numerous Class A, B, 
and C fires occurring and the potential exists for escapes to larger 
(project) fires.  Minimal mobilization of resources from other 
geographic areas occurring.  The potential exists for mobilizing 
additional resources from other geographic areas. 

One new large fire was reported in Florida. Large fires in Nevada, 
California and Florida have been contained. High pressure over the 
West will continue to bring sunny, warm and dry weather to the region. 
A weak cold front will bring scattered showers and thunderstorms to 
Florida. There will also be a slight chance of showers and 
thunderstorms in west Texas. Very high to extreme fire indices were 
reported yesterday in Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Texas 
and Utah.

NICC has not posted any warnings or watches for today.

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

National Resource Status (Five Day Trend)

Date                    5/27    5/28    5/29    5/30    5/31

Crews                   50      62      84      113     112
Engines                 153     126     169     237     338
Helicopters             31      32      35      34      40
Air Tankers             2       1       1       0       0
Overhead                353     341     383     598     610

Park Fire Situation

Carlsbad Caverns NP/Guadalupe Mountains NP - The Devil's Den Fire 
escaped containment yesterday and is running unrestrained in timber on 
Camp Wilderness Ridge about a mile from the McKittick Canyon area of 
the park. All park fire resources are committed. The Devil's Den, 
Hidden and Wilderness Fires are now being managed together as the 
Hidden Complex. Complex fires have burned 1,900 acres and are 70% 
contained. A Type II team has been assigned; a total of 409 
firefighters and overhead have been committed.

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         Lake Mead, Guadalupe Mountains
Very High       Hawaii Volcanoes, Zion, Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend
High            Everglades, Joshua Tree

[Mike Warren, NPS FMPC, 5/30; NICC Incident Management Situation 
Report, 5/31; NPS Situation Summary Report, 5/30]

MEMORANDA

"NPS 2002 Winter Olympics Support," sent by the regional director, 
Intermountain Region, to the acting director. It is being disseminated 
via the Morning Report as an FYI:

"This memo is being sent to advise you of the various 2002 Olympic 
activities which the NPS will be involved with in the coming months 
and throughout the 2002 winter games.

"As many of you know, NPS Utah State Coordinator, Vic Knox,  NPS 
Olympic Coordinator, Bob Van Belle and Joan Anzelmo (Grand Teton NP) 
have been working closely with various Olympic planning agencies to 
coordinate the NPS role in Salt Lake City and at several Olympic 
venues before and during the Games.  Additionally, these people have 
been working with the Olympic Torch Relay staff to identify which 
National Park Service sites might be included on the Olympic Torch 
relay route.

"As the scope of our involvement has grown I authorized the IMR/MWR 
Incident Management Team to coordinate NPS activities associated with 
this event. The Team's Incident Commander is Denny Ziemann (Wind Cave 
NP) and the Deputy Incident Commander is Mona Divine (Yellowstone NP). 
 
"The team will be responsible for management and assignment of 100 NPS 
law enforcement rangers to assist the US Secret Service at various 
Olympic venue sites and at key interagency command centers.

"The Team will also staff an interagency visitor information center in 
downtown Salt Lake, which will have an NPS exhibit designed by Harper 
's Ferry Center and assign personnel to various media and broadcast 
centers. 

"The NPS Partnership Office and the Public Affairs Office are being 
asked to assist with various elements of the media, messaging tasks 
and marketing materials.  The National Park Foundation and cooperating 
associations will also likely be involved in assisting us with 
outreach. 

"I view our overall involvement with the 2002 Olympics as an 
extraordinary opportunity for the National Park Service and I am 
asking for your full support and the support of superintendents and 
regional directors throughout the service in meeting our commitments 
to this event. Accordingly, I am asking you to convey this memo to all 
park superintendents and regional directors to gain their support. 

"The Incident Management Team will initiate regular communications 
through the National Park Service web site, the morning report and 
other means available. Please contact any of the aforementioned staff 
with questions you may have."

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Ranger Activities Division, WASO (DC) - The announcement for GS-14/15 
chief of the Ranger Activities Division has been posted on USA Jobs 
(NPS WASO-01-053). It closes on July 7th. [Dennis Burnett, RAD/WASO]

FILM AT 11...

CBS News ran a story on Tuesday about air pollution at Big Bend NP. 
The text and related information can be found at the CBS News website: 
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,293798-412,00.shtml

LESSONS LEARNED

A Thursday supplement to the Morning Report for new ideas, 
innovations, and lessons learned that shouldn't have to be relearned.

Crime Victim Advocate - Gulf Islands NS is now receiving funding under 
the Victims of Crime Act for a crime victim advocate position. The 
funding, arranged through the Florida attorney general's office, will 
be used for a joint project under an MOU among the cities of Gulf 
Breeze and Milton, the University of West Florida, and the park. The 
purpose of the project is to assist the victims of crimes that occur 
within the jurisdictions of the four agencies. The victim advocate 
will ensure that each jurisdiction is better prepared to provide for 
earlier intervention than was previously available. The main focus 
will be provision of assistance to victims of domestic abuse, child 
physical abuse, adult sexual assault, and elder abuse and assault. 
Some of the services that will be provided include crisis 
intervention, assistance in interviewing crime victims, advocacy at 
medical exams involving sexual battery, civil and criminal court 
support, assistance in filing crime victims' compensation claims, 
information on and referrals to social services, accompaniment to 
court, assistance in filing protective orders, and safety planning for 
domestic violence victims. All four agencies are committed to creating 
the safest possible communities within their respective jurisdictions 
by building partnerships that work to prevent crime and to provide 
professional intervention if a crime does occur. [CRO, GUIS]

Split Positions - Organ Pipe Cactus NM and Lake Roosevelt NRA have 
established a partnership in which they have hired two rangers with 
"split" duty assignments. They will work for Organ Pipe Cactus from 
October to March and for Lake Roosevelt from March to October. This 
arrangement avoids all the problems associated with hiring seasonals. 
For more information, contact Dan Mason at LARO or Dale Thompson at 
ORPI. [Dale Thompson, ORPI]

                            *  *  *  *  *

The Morning Report solicits entries from the field and central offices 
for its daily and weekly sections (below). The general rule is that 
submissions, whatever the category, should pertain to operations, be 
useful to the field, and have broad significance across the agency. 
Additional details on submission criteria are available from the 
editor at any time (Bill Halainen at NP-DEWA, or 
Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). Ask for either incident reporting criteria 
(issued by WASO, June 18, 2000) or general criteria. 

Daily and weekly sections are available for news or significant 
developments pertaining to:

Field incidents                 Interpretation and visitor services
Natural resource management     Cultural resource management
Operations (WASO only)          Memoranda (WASO only)
Requests/offers of assistance   Park-related web sites
Parks and employees             Media stories on parks
Training, meetings, and events  Queries on operational matters  
Reports on "lessons learned" 

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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