NPS Morning Report - Friday, June 15, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Friday, June 15, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-278 - Glen Canyon NRA (UT/AZ) - Death of Employee

Halls Crossing seasonal fee collector Janet Nielsen, 51, was preparing 
for work on June 7th when she experienced the sudden onset of a severe 
headache. Ranger/EMT David Van Nest and park medic Steve Luckesen 
treated her and arranged a medevac due to the severity of the 
symptoms. During the flight on Classic Lifeguard's aeromedical 
helicopter, she became unresponsive. A CT scan at Page Hospital showed 
that she was suffering from a subdural bleed. Nielsen was transferred 
to Flagstaff Medical Center, where she died the following day of a 
subdural hematoma secondary to an aneurysm. Due to the remoteness of 
the duty station, NPS personnel are currently assisting her husband 
P.N., a concession employee, with logistics for her funeral and other 
arrangements. [CRO, GLCA, 6/14]

01-279 - Lake Clark NP&P (AK) - Hikers Mauled by Bear

G.T., and E.S., both 47, were attacked by a brown 
bear with a cub while hiking in the Twin Lakes area at approximately 
4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 13th. G.T. owns a cabin 
in the area and the two had spent the day climbing nearby peaks. The 
hikers were descending back towards the lake just below the tree line 
in dense brush when a brown bear appeared out of nowhere and attacked 
G.T. The bear grabbed G.T.'S left leg and dragged him to the ground, 
then turned towards E.S.. It grabbed her by the left boot and 
began to drag her down the slope. G.T. hit the bear on the nose and 
it dropped E.S.. The bear then bit G.T. on his right hand and 
ran away from the scene. G.T. sustained severe injuries to his left 
leg and puncture wounds on his right hand; E.S. suffered bruises 
on her left foot. The two were able to hike to his cabin on Upper Twin 
Lake and boat across the lake to the park patrol cabin at Hope Creek. 
Park volunteer K. Schubeck radioed Lower Twin Lake ranger Jana Walker 
for assistance. Walker contacted park headquarters at Port Alsworth to 
arrange for medical assistance and transport. Park and concession 
aircraft flew to the area and transported the pair to Port Alsworth. 
They were subsequently taken to a hospital in Anchorage, where G.T. 
underwent surgery to his leg. E.S. was treated and released. No 
action is planned against the bear, which was protecting its cub. [Lee 
Fink, Chief of Operations, LACL, 6/14]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level II

Eight new large fires were reported in Florida, California and Arizona 
on Wednesday. Three large fires were contained, one in Arizona and two 
in California. Initial attack was moderate in California and light 
elsewhere. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Arizona, 
California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.  

More than 760,000 acres have burned nationwide since January, which is 
slightly below the ten-year average (year to date) of about 785,000 
acres.

National Resource Status (Five Day Trend)

                        Sun     Mon     Tue     Wed     Thu 
Date                    6/10    6/11    6/12    6/13    6/14
        
Crews                   31      96      73      99      46
Engines                 199     279     215     142     84
Helicopters             22      35      24      21      14
Air Tankers             4       3       4       6       2
Overhead                241     390     367     372     339

Park Fire Situation

No new fires reported.

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         Hawaii Volcanoes NP, Dinosaur NM, Crater Lake NP, 
                Guadalupe Mountains NP    
Very High       Grand Canyon NP, Carlsbad Caverns NP, Zion NP
High            Joshua Tree NP, Mojave NP, Everglades NP, Rocky 
                Mountain NP

[NPS Situation Summary Report, 6/14; NICC Incident Management 
Situation Report, 6/14 - the full report can be found at 
http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf]

FILM AT 11...

An episode of C-SPAN's series "American Writers: A Journey Through 
History" will be broadcast live from the Soldiers' National Cemetery 
at Gettysburg NMP at 9 a.m. EDT on Monday, June 18th. The 
two-and-a-half hour program is on Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg 
Address.  Superintendent John Latschar will start the program with a 
brief interview.  Later in the show, Gettysburg curator Mike Vice 
displays and discusses artifacts from the park's museum collection.  
The program will be re-broadcast on C-SPAN on Friday, June 22nd, at 8 
p.m.  (Katie Lawhon, GETT]

The Discovery Channel will air a show entitled "On the Inside - 
Rangers: 'Cops in the Woods'" this evening at 9 p.m. EDT.  The program 
features law enforcement problems in six parks (North Cascades, Mount 
Rainier, Yosemite, Organ Pipe Cactus, Smokies, Blue Ridge, and 
Shenandoah), including illegal border crossings, poaching, and 
wildfire. [Dale Thompson, ORPI; Clayton Jordan, SHEN]

PARKS INTERNATIONAL

A Friday supplement to the Morning Report for news about parks, park 
professionals and park protection and management issues outside our 
borders.

Along with formally chartered international conservation organizations 
like IUCN and non-governmental organizations such as the World 
Wildlife Federation, there is now an umbrella organization called the 
International Ranger Federation (IRF) which is linking ranger 
associations from around the world. The federation, now in its ninth 
year, is not sponsored by any national or international organization, 
but is instead funded and supported by rangers in its member 
associations. IRF's mandate includes improving ranger training, 
communications and interchanges around the world. It has had three 
world congresses - one each in Poland, Costa Rica and South Africa - 
and will meet again in Australia in 2003. 

At present, there are member associations in the following countries: 
Argentina, Australia (a national organization, plus associations in 
Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland), Canada, Costa 
Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England/Wales, Finland, 
Germany, Iceland, India (Tamilnadu and Assam), Ireland, Italy, Ivory 
Coast, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, 
South Africa, Sweden, the USA (a national organization - ANPR - and a 
state organization in California - CSPRA), and Uruguay. Some of these 
associations have web sites:

Australia               http://www.ranger.org.au
Czech                   http://www.krnap.cz/asociace
Denmark                 http://www.natur-vejleder.dk
England                 http://www.countrysidemanagement.org.uk
Italy                   http://users.iol.it/ecopol
Scotland                http://www.scotranger.freeserve.co.uk
United States           http://www.anpr.org
US - California         http://members.aol.com/cspraweb/
Uruguay                 http://geocities.com/custodios_uy

Additional addresses will appear in the future. You can also obtain a 
copy of IRF's newsletter, "The Thin Green Line," on the web. The 
address is http://www.anpr.org/IRFnl.htm

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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