NPS Morning Report - Saturday, July 21, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Saturday, July 21, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-371 - Gateway NRA (NJ/NY) - Demonstration

When they arrived for work on June 26th, park staff came upon a 
demonstration in progress on park property at both entrances to Fort 
Wadsworth. Featured were two large, inflatable creatures - one a rat, 
the other a cat holding a smaller rat in its paw. [Note: Attentive 
readers will remember the inflatable rat from a prior demonstration at 
Fort Wadsworth in January, 2000 - and that your editor promised a 
digital photo of same to the many readers who expressed an interest in 
seeing said critter. Through the efforts of Marty O'Toole, the picture 
has been acquired and is attached to this edition). As before, the 
issue was a construction contract with the Army Reserve, which owns 
property within the park. The protestors were approached by rangers 
and Park Police officers and agreed to move their demonstration to 
adjacent city streets, pending an appointment to discuss a First 
Amendment permit to demonstrate on park land. Organizers subsequently 
decided to remain outside of park land and returned to demonstrate 
again on June 27th, 28th, 29th and July 2nd. Park staff continue to 
discuss permit opportunities with organizers. [Marty O'Toole, Site 
Manager, Fort Wadsworth Unit, GATE, 7/9 and 7/16]

01-372 - Baltimore/Washington Parkway (MD) - Assault on Officer

On July 18th, Park Police officers assisted Greenbelt PD in stopping a 
vehicle whose driver had assaulted a Greenbelt officer. They joined in 
the pursuit of the vehicle as it headed southbound on the parkway into 
the District of Columbia. The pursuit ended when the operator, 
35-year-old Q.S., crashed into a Park Police cruiser, fled 
on foot, and entered a DC residence. Q.S. was found in the 
building, but resisted arrest and struggled violently with officers. 
During the struggle, Q.S. and a USPP officer fell down a flight of 
stairs. The fight continued outside of the building until Q.S. was 
handcuffed. The officer was flown by USPP helicopter to the Washington 
Hospital Center, where he was treated for an injury to his arm and 
released. Q.S. was also treated for minor injuries, then charged 
with assault on an officer, destruction of property, operating on a 
revoked license, reckless driving, and an outstanding misdemeanor 
bench warrant. [Sgt. R. MacLean, USPP, NCR, 7/19]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level 2

Initial attack was minimal nationwide yesterday. Two new large fires 
were reported in Nevada and a third in Oregon. Very high to extreme 
fire indices were reported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, 
Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
 
NICC has posted a FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry fuels, high temperatures, 
strong winds, and dry unstable air for parts of southern and central 
Wyoming.

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

National Resource Status (Five Day Trend)

                        Tue     Wed     Thu     Fri     Sat
Date                    7/17    7/18    7/19    7/20    7/21
                        
Crews                   212     192     166     153     67
Engines                 351     333     263     216     151
Helicopters             69      60      52      56      53
Air Tankers             4       2       0       3       0
Overhead                1,263   1,136   951     1,110   476

Park Fire Situation

No new fires reported.

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         Lake Mead NRA, Hawaii Volcanoes NP
Very High       Dinosaur NM, Zion NP
High            Joshua Tree NP, Mojave NP, Grand Teton NP

[NPS Situation Summary Report, 7/20; NICC Incident Management 
Situation Report, 7/21]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Appalachian NST (WV) - On July 14th, ANST manager Pam Underhill 
presented 25- and 50-year service awards to 96 volunteers - 25 of the 
former and 11 of the latter. These awards were presented at the 33rd 
Appalachian Trail Biennial Conference in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, 
on July 14th. It's worth noting that many more volunteers qualified 
for both awards but chose not to be recognized. These service awards 
are part of a newly developed volunteer recognition program for 
Appalachian Trail volunteers. [Rita Hennessy, ANST]

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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