NPS Morning Report - Thursday, July 19, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, July 19, 2001

INCIDENTS

96-418 - Sequoia/Kings Canyon NPs (CA) - Follow-up: Search for Ranger

On July 26, 1996, the park began a major search for seasonal 
backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson, 54, who had not been heard from 
for five days. Morgenson was a skilled and competent ranger who had 
worked for the park for 28 years. The search was suspended due to a 
lack of clues about two weeks later. On Sunday, July 15th, four 
off-duty trail crew members found human remains in a stream drainage 
northeast of Window Peak, a remote, trailless area within Kings Canyon 
NP. A pack and some equipment were found in the same area. Rangers 
flew to the site and conducted a cursory search of the area. The type 
of backpack, style of hiking boot and other items found there were 
consistent with what Morgenson had in his possession when last heard 
from. Rangers and two teams of search dogs were flown to the site the 
next day. The search area focused on a stretch of stream drainage 
about a quarter mile north of the large lake east of Window Peak. 
Among the other items found were a park-issued portable radio and a 
ranger uniform shirt with a badge and Morgenson's name tag on it. The 
remains will be sent to the Tulare County coroner for positive 
identification. It's believed that the remains are those of Morgenson, 
and that he died due to an accidental fall while attempting to cross 
the stream. The place where the remains were found was within an area 
of high probability of discovery in the original search, and had in 
fact been checked numerous times by ground searchers and dog teams. 
It's likely that his body was not seen due to the high amount of 
runoff in the stream that summer. The search in 1996 was a difficult 
one for the park's staff - both emotionally and physically. This 
discovery, although not yet confirmed by dental records, has helped 
bring closure and comfort to those who knew and worked with him. Peer 
support counselors from both Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Santa Monica 
Mountains have conducted CISD sessions for involved park staff. [Kris 
Fister, PIO, and Bob Wilson, LES, SEKI, 7/18] 

01-348 - New River Gorge NR (WV) - Follow-up: Flash Flooding

On July 8th, severe rains caused flash flooding throughout southern 
West Virginia. Due to the impacts on the park, the Eastern IMT headed 
by Bob Panko (Everglades NP) has been assigned to assist with recovery 
operations. A list of at-risk resources is currently being developed 
to assist the Resource Assessment Team (affectionately becoming known 
to the IMT as "RATs"). The list will provide an orientation to the 
team and a starting point for the assessment. The Federal Highway 
Administration inspection team arrived on Wednesday and immediately 
began surveying the damage to Cunard and other park roads and the 
wooden bridge over Wolf Creek at Fayette Station. Another area of 
concern is the Thurmond Visitor Center parking lot, which has 
developed a large and potentially unstable crack in its surface. This 
facility remains closed to the public. Figures are in on the cleanup 
work park crews performed in the neighboring community of Minden - a 
total of 900 cubic yards of debris was removed from the town. A trail 
crew from Shenandoah NP has been ordered. They will be working 
Thursday through Monday to clear downed trees, rocks, and earth from 
park trails. Work crews are also stabilizing the walkway ramp at Stone 
Cliff, along with private boater access at Dunglen. This should be 
completed on Thursday. Initial water quality results from Monday's 
sampling have been received and show good water quality in the lower 
New River Gorge. Even some areas which frequently exceed state 
standards registered relatively good scores. Analysis requires a 
24-hour incubation period, so the results from Tuesday's sampling will 
be available later. Additional sampling will be done in selected 
creeks today. While the Fayette Station day use area has been 
stabilized with rip-rap and gravel, the state-maintained road into the 
area has yet to be repaired. Operations are gearing up to open the 
area for commercial rafting outfitter off-loading and bus pickup of 
passengers by the weekend, depending on the state's progress. There 
was a small amount of rainfall in the area on Wednesday, and the team 
and park staff breathed a sigh of relief when a flash flood watch was 
lifted in the morning. For more information on the flood and IMT 
operations and pictures of the area, see the park's web site at 
http://www.nps.gov/neri/flood2001.htm. [Kent Cave, IO, New River Gorge 
Flood Incident, 7/18]

01-364 - National Mall (DC) - Assault on Officer

While conducting parking enforcement on the National Mall on July 
16th, horse-mounted officer Chuck Nail was assaulted by a woman. When 
Nail asked her to move her illegally-parked vehicle, she began arguing 
with him. During this interaction, the woman drove away, dragging Nail 
a short distance. Two passers-by who witnessed the incident impeded 
her vehicle with theirs until Nail could make the arrest. Nail 
sustained minor injuries to his left arm. [Sgt. R. MacLean, USPP, NCR, 
7/18]

01-365 - Lake Mead NRA (NV/AZ) - Pursuit

Early on the evening of July 12th, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer moving 
van was the subject of a pursuit from Henderson through Boulder City 
and into the park. The driver, who was later found to be driving under 
the influence, had fled from officers. During the pursuit, he had 
forced vehicles off the road with his rig and collided with other 
vehicles at road intersections. Hoover Dam PD officers put out road 
spikes and were able to flatten some of the tries on the truck and 
trailer. The rig was blocked and disabled on the Arizona side of the 
dam with the aid of another tractor-trailer. Rangers assisted in the 
containment of the area around the truck, as the driver had locked 
himself in and refused to get out. Regional SET members from Lake Mead 
were notified and deployed immediately from several remote locations 
to support local officers. The driver was talked into getting out of 
the truck, however, by an offer of a "cold Coke." He was arrested on 
several charges, including DUI. [Dale Antonich, CR, DEVA, 7/18]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level 2

One new large fire was reported yesterday in New Mexico, but it was 
quickly contained. Two other large fires were contained, one in Utah 
and the other in Idaho. Initial attack was moderate in the South and 
light elsewhere. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington 
and Wyoming

NICC has issued a FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry fuels, strong winds and a 
dry, unstable air mass for parts of southern Wyoming.

The full NICC situation report can be found at 
http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf.

National Resource Status (Five Day Trend)

                        Sun     Mon     Tue     Wed     Thu
Date                    7/15    7/16    7/17    7/18    7/19
                        
Crews                   231     238     212     192     166
Engines                 489     462     351     333     263
Helicopters             77      79      69      60      52
Air Tankers             3       6       4       2       0
Overhead                1,128   1,291   1,263   1,136   951

Park Fire Situation

Grand Canyon NP (AZ) - The park reports one new start - the one acre 
Vista Fire - which is being managed for wildland fire benefits.

Dinosaur NM (CO/UT) - The park has an unnamed (in the sitrep) 800-acre 
fire and has ordered a fire use team. The half-acre Outlaw Fire, also 
started by lightning, continues to burn.

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         Lake Mead NRA, Hawaii Volcanoes NP
Very High       Joshua Tree NP, Sequoia and Kings Canyon NPs, Carlsbad 
                Caverns NP, Guadalupe Mountains NP
High            Lassen Volcanic NP, Dinosaur NM, Grand Teton NP, Rocky 
                Mountain NP

[NPS Situation Summary Report, 7/18; NICC Incident Management 
Situation Report, 7/19]

LESSONS LEARNED

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

This season, Olympic National Park's Wilderness Information Center 
(WIC) began an animal resistant food container (ARFC) loan program in 
response to a trend of increasing negative human/animal interactions 
which often resulted in wildlife obtaining human food or trash.  This 
program has been very well received by both backpackers and park 
staff, as the canisters are easy to use, keep food away from all 
wildlife, and minimize the need to place food storage facilities in 
wilderness. Park fee demo monies were used to lease or purchase nearly 
700 containers of various types. Containers are available to 
backcountry visitors through all regularly staffed ranger stations. A 
donation of $3 per container per trip is requested, which most 
visitors willingly give. Some visitors give much more to show their 
support for the program. The program was designed to be simple for 
both staff and visitors alike. The result is that many more visitors 
have available to them a superior means of animal-proof food storage.  
 Since animal resistant containers have become more common, the 
problems associated with raccoons obtaining improperly stored food at 
popular coastal destinations have diminished significantly. 
Furthermore, areas that historically had a high incidence of 
food-conditioned bear behavior have not seen this behavior since the 
implementation of the ARFC loan program. The program was a result of 
inter-divisional planning between rangers and wildlife management 
specialists. If interested in additional information, contact Larry 
Lang, WIC supervisor, via cc:Mail. [Curt Sauer, CR, OLYM]

                           *  *  *  *  *

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" 

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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the 
cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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