NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:           All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:         Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:     Wednesday, August 14, 2002

*** NOTICE ***

Director Mainella has authorized the lowering of all flags to half-staff
at parks and NPS offices across the nation until further notice in
memory of Park Police officer Hakim Farthing and NPS ranger Kris Eggle.
Uniformed employees are authorized to wear black bands on their badges;
non-uniformed employees may wear appropriate black mourning devices.
Guidance will appear shortly on when flags are to be returned to full
staff.

INCIDENTS

02-370 - Organ Pipe Cactus NM (AZ) - Follow-up: Ranger Shot and Killed

The memorial service for Kris Eggle took place in Ajo, Arizona, on
Monday afternoon. It began with a procession in which about 150 marked
law enforcement vehicles from the NPS, Border Patrol, Customs, Arizona
DPS and Pima County Sheriff's Office accompanied the hearse from the
town of Why to the town of Ajo. About 700 friends, family and colleagues
from the NPS and other agencies attended the service; approximately
two-thirds were from the National Park Service. The United States Park
Police provided an honor guard. Among those attending were the director
and regional director, who were with the family. Many friends and
co-workers spoke during the very moving two-hour service. Recordings of
the service were made, and transcripts will likely be available in the
near future. Digital photos were also taken and will be posted on a web
site as soon as possible. The incident management team that handled the
memorial service is now heading to Michigan to help the family with the
funeral, which will be at the high school in Cadillac, Michigan, at 1
p.m. on Saturday. Denny Ziemann is the IC for the joint
Intermountain-Midwest Region team, taking over for Sherrie Collins, who
oversaw operations in Ajo. The funeral will be open to the public. NPS
employees who chose to attend should wear Class A summer uniforms.
Particulars on the funeral, including contact numbers and directions,
should be available by Thursday morning. Intermountain Region has
established an internal web site to commemorate Kris Eggle. You can
offer your thoughts and condolences on this web site and view the
thoughts of others about Kris. The content of the web site will be given
to Kris' parents after people have had a chance to contribute to it. The
address for given in yesterday's Morning Report was incorrect. The
correct web site address is: http://im.den.nps.gov/commemorate.cfm.
[Rick Jones, PIO, IMT; Linda Griffin, IO, IMRO]

02-382 - Devils Tower NM (WY) - Special Event: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

The 62nd annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally took place between August 4th
and August 11th. The event has a significant impact on parks throughout
the Black Hills region. Over a seven-day period, more that 11,000
vehicles entered Devils Tower, including approximately 1,600 more
motorcycles than during the event last year. Rally activities within the
park were managed under ICS with the cooperation of all park divisions. 
Additional law enforcement personnel were detailed from the
Intermountain Regional Office, Bighorn Canyon NRA, and Rocky Mountain NP
to augment Devils Tower protection rangers and help handle the influx of
visitors and demand for emergency services. For the seventh year, 20
volunteers from the Wyoming Chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists
Association assisted with traffic management, significantly lessening
the burden on park staff. Resources were taxed over the course of the
week as protection rangers responded to numerous EMS incidents,
including two multiple patient motorcycle accidents with critical
traumatic injuries and extremity amputations immediately outside the
park. Severe weather on Wednesday, August 7th, produced over an inch of
rain, hail, and extensive lightning strikes in the area over a two-hour
period, stranding many visitors. LE incidents were numerous but minor in
nature. Cooperation with other agencies, including the Wyoming Highway
Patrol, Crook County Sheriff's Department, and Crook County Fire and
EMS, again contributed to the effective management of the event. [Kevin
Donnell, Acting CR, DETO]

02-383 - Haleakala NP (HI) - Water Rescue; Life Saved

A 29-year-old woman from Atlanta, Georgia, became stranded in the
Palikea stream during a flash flood on August 12th.  She was carried
downstream to within 15 feet of Makahiku Falls, a 200-foot drop. Park
staff were concentrating on getting several hundred people out of the
lower pools in advance of rising water when they got word that the woman
was stranded a half-mile upstream. By the time they got to her location,
she was clinging to a rock just above the falls in fast-moving water.
Park staff responded from both sides of the stream, sending her a seat
harness and line with which they were able to keep her from going
further downstream. They then sent her ascenders and assisted her in
climbing up the bank. The woman had some technical climbing experience,
which probably contributed greatly to her survival. This was the second
major flash flood of the weekend; in both cases, visitors in the lower
pools area were moved out just in time to avoid additional incidents.
[Karen Newton, CR, HALE]

02-384 - Virgin Islands NP (VI) - Vessel Grounding

The 65-foot Hatteras yacht "Stray Dogs" grounded on Johnson's Reef
around 1:30 a.m. on August 4th. The vessel, with nine people aboard, was
returning to Red Hook on St. Thomas from a well-known floating bar at
Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands. The weather was clear, with
light winds and a calm sea. Captain Scott Leon said he was using the
vessel's navigational equipment - the GPS chart plotter, radar and
autopilot - but admitted that he was not familiar with navigating
through the islands and that he was having trouble with both the
autopilot and GPS chart plotter. Sobriety tests were administered to the
captain and mate, both of whom failed. Leon's BAC was measured at .15,
and rangers learned that he was also taking two different
anti-depressants and a painkiller. He was cited for striking underwater
features in the park (36 CFR 7.74(d)(1)), for operating a vessel in a
reckless or negligent manner (36 CFR 3.6(a)), and for operating a vessel
under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance (36 CFR 3.6(b)).
There were no injuries. The vessel was removed from the reef by a
commercial salvage company. There were no holes in the hull, but both
large, seven-blade propellers were severely damaged. An inspection of
the reef revealed a 195-foot-long and 18- foot-wide path in which coral
had been severely damaged. The damaged coral included healthy elkhorn,
fire and brain coral. The investigation continues. [Troy Williams, PR,
VIIS]

02-385 - Mount Rainier NP (WA) - Search and Rescue Incidents

The park had three significant SAR operations in late July and early
August. Late on the evening of July 26th, rangers were notified that a
member of a backpacking party on its way to Lake James had become
separated from the group and was missing. A hasty search for the 44-
year-old man was conducted on the trail and the West Fork of the White
River the next day. The man was found at 3 p.m. and reunited with his
group. He'd lagged behind the party and went up the wrong trail at the
junction of the Northern Loop and West Fork trails. On July 28th, a
climber fell and fractures his right ankle while climbing at 11,000 feet
on the Emmons Glacier. Rangers stabilized his injury and lowered him to
Camp Schurman. An Army Chinook arrived to airlift him to a hospital in
Fort Lewis, but winds were too strong to conduct a hoist. He was instead
carried out through Glacier Basin to a trailhead and taken to a hospital
by friends and family. On the afternoon of August 1st, dispatch was
notified of an injured hiker in the Spray Park area of the Carbon River
drainage. A 43-year-old woman was hiking through that area when she
decided to climb a rock face near Spray Falls. Neither she nor her
companions had climbing gear. The woman fell 20 feet and broke her right
ankle. Rangers and a resource management aquatics crew working nearby at
Mowich Lake responded and evacuated her. The operation required two
pitches of technical lowering and a two-and-a-half mile carryout to the
Mowich Lake trailhead, where she was picked up by an ambulance. [Uwe
Nehring, MORA]

02-386 - Mount Rainier NP (WA) - Car Clouts

The latest in a series of car clouts occurred on the night of August 3rd
at the Crystal Lakes trailhead in the Highway 410 corridor. The
break-ins were discovered the next morning. There have been 14 car
clouts in the Highway 410 corridor since June 23rd, with three more
occurring at the Chinook Pass trailhead just east of the park boundary.
The investigation continues. [Uwe Nehring, MORA]

02-387 - Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP (TN/GA) - MVA with Fatality

On July 31st at about 9:30 p.m., a sport utility vehicle operated by
18-year-old Z.O. of East Ridge, Tennessee, wrecked while
travelling eastbound on Reeds Bridge Road within the park's Chickamauga
Battlefield Unit. The vehicle traveled a short distance on the right
shoulder before turning sharply to the left, crossing both lanes of
traffic and hitting a small tree. The tree was uprooted and the vehicle
rolled over onto its top. Z.O., who was wearing a seat belt, suffered
a concussion. The vehicle's other occupant, 15-year-old K.W. of
Ringgold, Georgia, who was not wearing a seat belt, was killed. Wrinkle
was riding in the front passenger seat, which was near the point of
impact with the tree. Speed appears to have been a contributing factor.
The accident is being investigated cooperatively by the National Park
Service and Georgia State Police. DR Jim Staub is the case ranger. [Sam
Weddle, CR, CHCH]

[Additional reports pending. . . . .]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation

Preparedness Level 4

Initial attack was moderate in southern California on Tuesday and light
elsewhere. Only two of the 181 newly-reported fires escaped initial
attack. Another two large fires were contained.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in the following states:

*     Continued from yesterday - Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota,
Utah, Washington and Wyoming. 
*     Added today - Georgia and Rhode Island.
*     Removed today - None.

National Resource Commitments

                   Tue     Wed     Thu     Fri     Sat     Sun     Mon     Tue
Date               8/6     8/7     8/8     8/9     8/10    8/11    8/12    8/13
                    
Crews              566     548     566     564     561     518     503     481
Engines            874     906     865     876     820     734     754     635
Helicopters        153     160     158     164     160     152     140     135
Air Tankers        10      4       4       3       2       3       7       4
Overhead           3,838   4,385   3,989   3,741   3,667   3,429   3,707   3,762
Area Commands      1       2       2       1       1       1       1       1
Type 1 IMT         6       5       5       5       4       5       5       5
Type 2 IMT         6       5       5       5       5       5       5       5
T1/T2 S/IMT *      3       2       2       2       2       1       0       0
Fire Use IMT       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0

* Type 1 and Type 2 state incident management teams
# Information not available

National Fire Warnings and Watches

NIFC has issued a RED FLAG WARNING for strong west winds and low
relative humidity for eastern Washington, the northern Idaho panhandle
and north-central Oregon, and a FIRE WEATHER WATCH for low relative
humidity, high temperatures, very dry fuels and increasing west winds
for southwest and south-central Wyoming.

Park Fire Situation Redwood N&SP (CA) - The Biscuit Fire Zone 2  (28,680
acres, 90% containment) remains on the northeast side of the North Fork
of the Smith River. Fire line is now in place around the east, south and
west portions of fire. Roads and services are still open in the park,
although fire restrictions are in place in the backcountry along with a
ban on smoking except in developed areas due to extreme fire danger. For
more information: http://www.biscuitfire.com

Yosemite NP (CA) - The Wolf Complex (Wolf, Lukens, Morrison and Marshall
Fires) is being managed as a wildland fire use complex. The combined
acreage is approximately 190 acres. Smoke from the fire is visible from
Tioga Road. The fire is burning in sparse fuels and a field crew is
thinning the fuels around the historic lodge at White Wolf. Two new
starts were suppressed actively yesterday - one at Lake Vernon, which
was a start from a campfire, and one at Kibbie Lake of unknown origin.

Other NPS fires were relatively inactive yesterday.

For additional information on all fires, check the following web sites:

*     Map of fire locations - http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/firemap.html 
*     Details on all current major fires - http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf 
*     Fire news and fire year in perspective - http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html. 

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report; Judy Chetwin, Fire
Information Desk, NIFC]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Yosemite NP (CA) - The park is seeking four qualified GS-7/9 protection
rangers interested in immediate lateral transfer to Yosemite's Hetch
Hetchy area. These positions will be located in a challenging and
diverse work environment encompassing extremely rugged wilderness and
complex frontcountry. Three subject-furlough positions will be
responsible for daily law enforcement patrols by vehicle, foot, horse
and boat, and will perform all emergency services, including site
security for the city of San Francisco's dam and water infrastructure,
EMS, search and rescue, and structural and wildland fire protection. The
forth position is permanent-full time and will supervise up to three
permanent and nine seasonal staff performing law enforcement, patrol and
emergency services. Candidates should have or be able to attain
experience and skills in wilderness patrol, winter travel and survival,
motorboat operation, EMS (park medic training may be available), and
stock experience (mounted training opportunities may be available). SAR,
fire and ICS experience are a plus, with training opportunities in these
fields available. The candidates must be energetic, fit, and capable of
working in a busy and diverse year-round multi-faceted protection and
emergency services operation. All candidates must currently hold a level
I law enforcement commission or possess a level II commission and meet
all qualifications to attend FLETC basic training, including current
LBI, RM-57 health clearance, and current (within six months) PEB
results. Furloughs are projected to be two weeks annually through May of
2004. All positions are required occupancy and some extremely attractive
housing opportunities are available. For more information contact Canyon
Ranch SDR Greg Lawler at 209-379-1928 or 379-1897 or Mather DR Dave
Lattimore at 209-379-1897. [Dave Lattimore, YOSE] *  *  *  *  *

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

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