NPS Morning Report - Friday, September 21, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Friday, September 21, 2001

                           *** NOTICES ***

Flags lowered to half staff in commemoration of the Pentagon and World 
Trade Center tragedies are to return to full staff on the morning of 
Sunday, September 23rd.

Delays in transmission of the Morning Report are being caused by the 
computer virus that has struck sites around the country, including the 
Service's communications hubs. Concerted efforts are being made to 
resolve the problem. 

INCIDENTS

01-509 - Servicewide - Follow-up: Terrorist Attacks

The National Park Service continues to provide support to its parks 
and employees, gather information on the status of field areas for 
DOI, and deal with security issues throughout the country. Director 
Mainella was in New York yesterday. She held an all-employee meeting 
for staff from the New York area that was attended by over 300 
employees from all park divisions and from the Park Police and 
concessions. Among the issues raised and discussed were security at 
New York sites and employee stress. The latter was caused by many 
factors, including witnessing the disaster from close proximity; 
ministering to hundreds of people fleeing from the towers, many of 
them injured or ill; participating in water rescues on the Hudson 
River; hastily evacuating sites; and losing friends and colleagues in 
the collapsed towers. A number of the staff at Gateway NRA's Sandy 
Hook Unit, for instance, live in a nearby community that lost 65 
people, mostly firefighters and rescue personnel. Director Mainella 
also visited affected parks and participated in discussions on 
security issues in lower Manhattan. She will be meeting with staff to 
examine options for enhancing security there.

The Service's Type 1 incident management team (Skip Brooks, IC) 
continues its operations from the South Interior Building. The 
following summarizes CHANGES in the status of parks around the NPS 
from previous listings:

o       Federal Hall NM (NY) - The site will remain closed until it 
        can be thoroughly cleaned. The asbestos problem has been 
        resolved. Air quality monitoring will be conducted after the 
        building is cleaned. 

o       Castle Clinton NM (NY) - The site will remain closed until it 
        can be cleaned. 

o       Fort Point NHS (CA) - The park will remain closed until 
        September 24th.

o       Boston NHP (MA) - Although the Navy Yard will remain closed at 
        the request of the Navy, all other park areas are open.

[EICC/Type 2 IMT, SHEN, 9/21; NPS Type 1 IMT, WASO, 9/21; Gillian 
Bowser, WASO, 9/21]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level 2

Three national Type 1 teams are supporting FEMA operations in 
Washington and New York:

Bateman's team is supporting urban rescue efforts in New York City and 
is based at the incident command post at the Jacob Javits Convention 
Center in lower Manhattan. The team is operating a mobilization, 
receiving and distribution center in a ware house adjacent to the 
center. They are also supporting a disaster medical assistance team 
and urban SAR operations. A planning group has been assigned to NYFD's 
ICP and the communications unit leader has been assisting with radio 
support. The GIS team is providing detailed maps for SAR efforts.

Stutler's team is managing mobilization centers in Edison and at 
McGuire AFB in New Jersey. Their main objective is to assist in 
handling the movement of supplies, equipment and personnel in support 
of the disaster field office (DFO). The team has been divided into 
three task forces - one is managing the receiving and distribution 
center, the second is developing a plan for long-term offsite 
operations in support of the incident, and the third is providing 
incident information and fiscal guidance.

Gage's team is supporting Pentagon rescue operations. The team has 
merged with a California interagency incident management team. They 
are supporting FEMA's urban search and rescue (USAR) task forces. The 
ICP is at the Pentagon. The SAR teams have completed their work at the 
Pentagon. The incident support team (CIIMT3 and FEMA IST) is preparing 
for demobilization. New Mexico TF1 is also preparing for 
demobilization.

No new large fires were reported yesterday; one fire was contained; 
initial attack was moderate in northern California. 

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in California, Idaho, 
Montana, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington.

NICC has issued a RED FLAG WARNING for strong winds and low relative 
humidity in north central Montana.

Park Fire Situation

Glacier NP (MT) -A backhoe was used for locating a burning coal seam 
on the Moose fire (69,365 acres; 45% contained) yesterday, but none 
was found. Mine waste had caught fire and is expected to burn itself 
out. Current commitment: 639 firefighters and overhead, including 17 
crews; 25 engines and six helicopters; Type 2 team)

Crater Lake NP (OR) - On September 12th, 13th and 14th, about 120 
lightning strikes hit the park, resulting in 17 confirmed fires. Two 
were suppressed because there were located in the full suppression 
zone outlined in the park's fire management plan. Six are being 
managed for resource benefits. The remaining nine have no smoke 
showing and are being watched by lookouts for any activity. They may 
be natural outs, as there were heavy, isolated downpours associated 
with the storms that produced the lightning. 

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 9/21; NPS Situation 
Summary Report, 9/20]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

El Malpais NM (NM) - The park has an opening for a GS-9 protection 
ranger. The position is 6c covered. The person selected will serve as 
the park's lead for programs and field coverage pertaining to 
backcountry resource and visitor protection, including ARPA/NAGPRA; 
backcountry/wilderness; cave monitoring and protection; boundary 
identification and integrity; grazing trespass; cultural resources 
monitoring and protection; backcountry hiking and camping; hunting 
season patrols and compliance; field level park neighbor and adjacent 
landowner liaison, with emphasis on Native American associations, the 
development of written plans, consultation on park-wide development 
and programs; visitor contact/education, and community outreach; and 
maintenance of visitor use statistics. El Malpais NM consists of 
114,748 acres of lava fields, cinder cones, lava tubes, ice caves, 
sculptured sandstone formations, and ponderosa, pinyon and juniper 
forests. Approximately 85% of the park (97,000 acres) is managed as 
wilderness. Elevation ranges from 6,600 to 8,372 feet, and 
temperatures range from 90+ degrees in summer to winter extreme lows 
of below zero.  The headquarters office and duty station is located in 
the town of Grants (population 10,000 +/-) and all services are 
available in the local community, including the Grants branch of New 
Mexico State University. Rental rates range from $350 and up, while 
the real estate market for housing is $60,000 and up. For further 
information about the area contact the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of 
Commerce at 1-800-748-2142 ext. 32 or via the internet at: 
http://www.grants.org.  Park housing is NOT available. Applications 
must be received by October 15, 2001. Submit to: El Malpais National 
Monument, Attention: Personnel Office, 123 East Roosevelt Avenue, 
Grants, New Mexico 87020. For further information about this 
opportunity, contact Herschel Schulz, chief ranger, at 505-285-4641 
ext. 25, or call the personnel office at 505-285-4641 ext. 16. [Sari 
Stein, ELMA]

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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