NPS Morning Report - Thursday, September 27, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, September 27, 2001

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, including 
the brokering of numerous requests for operational support. The 
Service's Type 1 incident management team (Eddie Lopez, IC) continues 
its operations from the South Interior Building; a regional Type 2 
team from Southeast Region (Bob Panko, IC) is overseeing the NPS 
expanded dispatch operation at Shenandoah NP.

Members of the team in Washington are in the processing of contacting 
every park in the nation to establish a comprehensive list of 
resources that can be utilized in emergencies if needed. So far, they 
have made calls to 368 areas, and should finish making the calls 
today. CISD counselors brought in to work with Washington area staff 
will be demobilizing shortly.

The Department of Interior has notified the NPS that OPM has agreed to 
allow the agency to extend 1039 appointments during this time of 
emergency. Employees may be permitted to work as appropriate. If OPM 
decides that the Service should use a different authority, they will 
inform the agency within a few days. Meanwhile, parks can continue to 
use our current temporary authority.

The closure list posted in yesterday's Morning Report remains the 
same, with two additions:

o       The Discovery Center at Boston Harbor Islands NRA is closed, 
        but the islands remain open for tours.

o       The areas at the north and south ends of Golden Gate Bridge 
        within Golden Gate NRA are closed, and Fort Funston is closed 
        to hanggliding and paragliding launches.

[Terrie Fajardo, Chief, Staffing and Compensation, HRO/WASO, 9/26; 
EICC/Type 2 IMT, SHEN, 9/26; Kris Fister, NPS Type 1 IMT, WASO, 9/27]

01-527 - New River Gorge NR/Gauley River NRA (WV) - Special Event

The World Rafting Championship was held on the New and Gauley Rivers 
between September 22nd and 25th.  Participants included 16 men's and 
women's teams representing a dozen countries. The event was the first 
international sporting event to be held in the country since the 
September 11th terrorist attacks.  The National Park Service took the 
lead for all event security on both rivers. Northeast Region's special 
event team, led by Art North, assisted the park's Type 3 incident 
management team, which was headed by Duncan Hollar. The competition 
involved three days of racing on the two rivers. Time trials and a 
head-to-head sprint through Fayette Station rapid on the New River 
were held on the opening day. On the second day, competitors were 
required to negotiate through slalom gates hung over the same rapid. 
The championship culminated with a downriver race on the Gauley River. 
The normal water flow on the Gauley this time of year is 2,800 cubic 
feet per second; for this event, the Corp of Engineers released 4,000 
cubic feet per second of water from the Summersville Dam. The river 
was extremely challenging, even for the world class rafters, with most 
teams flipping at least once along the course. The Brazilian team 
flipped and recovered three times in one set of rapids. Members of the 
Indonesian team flipped their raft so many times that they had to be 
led down the river by safety personnel in kayaks. NPS rangers Dave 
Finch (NERI), Chuck Noll (NERI), Dave Rapp (ASIS) and Rob Turan (OBRI) 
paddled the park's sweep/safety raft down the whitewater class V plus 
river.  The rangers did an excellent job of chasing the competitors 
through the rapids, with only one rather spectacular flip and long 
swim at Pillow Rock rapid. River patrol ranger Brion Hunter kayaked 
the course and made numerous rescues throughout the downriver event. 
The German men's team and Czech Republic women's team won the 
championships. The park's incident management team and the special 
event team were invited to the  final awards ceremony held at the 
Glade Springs Resort. West Virginia governor Bob Wise publicly thanked 
the National Park Service employees for making it a safe and 
outstanding event. [Gary Hartley, CR, NERI, 9/26]

01-528 - Olympic NP (WA) - Burglary Arrest

On September 25th, rangers arrested T.M., 51, of Florida 
for theft of property from three ranger stations within the park. 
T.M. was arrested along the Elwha River trail about three miles 
from the Whiskey Bend trailhead. He had in his possession about $1,200 
worth of property stolen from ranger stations at Enchanted Valley, 
Hayes River and Elkhorn. The stolen articles included a tent, climbing 
ropes, outdoor clothing, food and other items. The three rangers 
stations, all located within the park's wilderness area, were 
burglarized over the course of the past two weeks. T.M. was charged 
with three counts of possession of stolen property and with providing 
false information to law enforcement rangers. The investigation 
continues. [Barb Maynes, OLYM, 9/26]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level 2

Two national Type 1 teams continue to support FEMA operations in New 
York. The team in Washington has demobilized.

Initial attack was light nationally. Seven new large fires were 
reported, all of them in the Rockies. One large fire was contained.

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

NICC has not posted any warnings or watches for today.

Park Fire Situation

Glacier NP (MT) - The Moose fire was less active yesterday due to 
higher humidity and partial cloud cover. 

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 9/27]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

New Deputy Director - Director Mainella has named Donald W. Murphy as 
the Service's new deputy director. He will come on board next month. 
Murphy was most recently the director of the Department of Parks and 
Recreation for the city of Sacramento in California, where he was 
responsible for managing the city's park and recreation program. 
Within his first seven months at that position, he completed a 
three-year strategic plan and established a parks acquisition office. 
He successfully managed a $36 million budget, worked with the city 
council to prioritize park development programs, and managed the 
city's $54 million capital improvement program for parks, including 
acquisition and development. From 1991 through 1997, Murphy served as 
the director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation. In 
that position, he managed a $200 million budget, 2,700 full time 
employees, 2,000 seasonal employees and approximately 14,000 
volunteers. Murphy is no stranger to protecting places important to 
the American People. He has served as president of the Hearst Castle 
Preservation Foundation, with responsibilities for fund raising, 
strategic planning and administration. He began his career in parks 
and recreation as a state park ranger and served as the district 
superintendent in a number of districts, including the Big Sur 
District, Chino Hills District and the Plumas Eureka District.  Murphy 
has spoken nationwide on the subject of the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund and co-founded Americans for our Heritage and 
Recreation, an organization dedicated to full funding for the Land and 
Water Conservation Fund. He is also an accomplished and published 
poet. He is a trustee of the Golden Gate National Park Association, 
and the National Parks Conservation Association. Murphy has also 
served as president of the National Association of State Outdoor 
Recreation Liaison Officers and as president of the California State 
Park Rangers Association. [Dave Barna, Public Affairs, WASO]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Crater Lake NP (OR) - The park currently has two vacancy announcements 
posted on USA Jobs - one for a GS-392-06 communications center 
supervisor (opened September 21st and closes October 12th), the other 
for a GS-025-5/7/9 protection ranger (opened September 25th and closes 
October 16th). Both vacancies are open to applicants with career 
status as well as qualified applicants from all sources. The park is 
seeking an "energetic, team-oriented  employees who can contribute to 
a positive work environment and help lead the way as the park enters 
its second century." The park is planning for a year-long centennial 
celebration during 2002, developing a new general management plan, 
building a fire management program, and providing year-round 
opportunities for visitors to enjoy and learn about the park's unique 
resources. The person in the communications center position will 
supervise one GS-5 employee and could be ideal for the person 
interested in moving into supervision. The person who is selected for 
the protection ranger position will be involved in a balance of 
resource protection and visitor protection responsibilities and will 
have a great opportunity for applying the principals of the "Ranger 
Careers" concept. Dual career applicants are encouraged to apply. If 
you're interested, please contact chief ranger David Brennan at 
541-594-2211 ext. 300 for more information. [Dave Brennan, CRLA]

                            *  *  *  *  *

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.

                             --- ### ---