The Morning Report for Thursday, August 21, 2003

INCIDENTS

New York Area Parks
More On Impacts Of Northeast Blackout

A supplemental report has been received on the Park Police response to Thursday's blackout:

Statue of Liberty NM/Ellis Island NM — Visitors were evacuated off the islands in a safe and orderly manner shortly after the beginning of the power outage. A number of NPS employees remained at their work sites throughout the night, since public transportation was virtually non-existent. Although power was restored late Thursday evening, both units remained closed on Friday, as power was still out in the surrounding area.

NYC Support — The Park Police provided liaison officers to the New York City Office of Emergency Management and the New York City Police Department Command and Control Center throughout the crisis. All Park Police personnel worked extended hours during the blackout and responded to numerous incidents throughout the ordeal.
Secret Service Support — On the first evening of the blackout, the Park Police provided assistance to the Secret Service. Earlier in the day, the president of Madagascar and his entourage visited Ellis Island. When the blackout occurred, they were in New York City and the Secret Service needed a means to transport the president and his entourage out of the city. The Park Police Marine Unit responded on Marine 6 — a 38-foot Bertram with officers Clay Rice, Jeffrey Eccles and Robert Korongy on board — to a pier in midtown Manhattan, where they met the president and his entourage and transported them to a location in New Jersey.

[Submitted by Captain Martin Zweig, New York Field Office]

Haleakala National Park (HI)
Drowning in Ocean off Palikea Stream

On the evening of Monday, August 18th, K.O., 41, his wife M.O., 37, and their children B.O., 11, and A.O, 7, were swimming in the lower pool when A.O.'s flip-flop floated away and he went after it. His father caught up with him and was holding his arm when they were swept out of the pool into a narrow, rocky section of the stream that leads to the ocean. The father had A.O. in a bear hug as they went through the rocky stream section, protecting him from the rocks and the incoming ocean surf. Dean Miller, an EMT from Placentia, California, who was on the edge of the stream, swam into the ocean and caught hold of A.O., but was unable to reach K.O. K.O. was carried further out into the ocean, where he was seen swimming in rough ocean conditions with four- to six-foot breaks, above average swell, and 10 to 15 mph winds. The Maui Fire Department rescue helicopter lifted him from the ocean about an hour later. He was pronounced dead by paramedics. At the time of the incident, "no swimming" signs were posted due to the above average stream level. According to witnesses, the stream was not flash flooding at the time of the event and the water was clear. Rainsqualls over the past several days had dumped rain at higher elevations that lead to the above average stream levels. Ranger Amy Brees is the lead investigator.
[Submitted by Sharon Ringsven, PIO]

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (MO)
Armed Robbery

On August 17th, two tourists from Wisconsin were robbed at gunpoint near the north leg of the Arch. The robbery happened around 9:30 p.m. when the visitors stopped to take a picture of the casino lights across the Mississippi River. Three men, all in their early twenties and wearing dark clothing, robbed the pair; one showed a chrome or nickel-plated handgun and demanded money. A digital camera a small amount of cash were stolen. The suspects fled west toward I-70 and disappeared into the downtown area. Rangers and city police searched the area for the trio and the stolen property but were unsuccessful. An investigation is ongoing.
[Submitted by Chief Ranger's Office]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

Fire and Aviation Management
National and NPS Fire Summary - Thursday, August 21, 2003

Preparedness Level 5

Initial attack was heavy yesterday in the Great Basin, Rockies and Northwest. A total of 332 new fires were reported — seventeen of which escaped initial attack.

Fire Danger

Day	8/12	8/13	8/18	8/19	8/20	8/21
Alaska	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Arizona	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
California	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Colorado	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Hawaii	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Idaho	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Minnesota	--	--	VX	VX	VX	VX
Montana	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Nevada	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
New Mexico	VX	VX	VX	VX	--	--
North Dakota	--	--	--	VX	VX	VX
Oklahoma	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Oregon	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
South Dakota	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Texas	VX	VX	VX	VX	--	--
Utah	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	--
Washington	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Wyoming	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX

VH — Very high
EX — Extreme
VX — Very high to extreme

Fire Weather Watches and Warnings

No watches or warnings have been posted for today.

National Resource Commitments

Day	8/11	8/12	8/13	8/18	8/19	8/20	8/21
Crews	233	309	368	507	503	541	569
Engines	488	769	763	954	1,005	1,065	1,134
Helicopters	136	161	144	171	169	157	174
Air Tankers	2	6	1	0	2	0	1
Overhead	2,177	2,608	3,227	4,738	4,799	4,643	4,869

National Team Commitments

New team commitments or changes in teams are indicated in bold face.

State	Type Team	Team IC	Fire/Location	Acres	Percent Contain	Est Full Contain
MT	ACT	Mann	Flathead NF/Glacier NP Fires	---	---	---
MT	ACT	Greenhoe	Lolo NF/Bitterroot NF Fires	---	---	---
MT	ACT	Rounsaville	Montana Fires	---	---	---
MT	ACT	Ribar	Montana Fires	---	---	---
MT	T1	Stam	Craig II Fire N. Cheyenne Agency	9,180	55	8/22
OR	T1	Anderson	B&B Complex Deschutes NF	4,000	0	UNK
MT	T1	Ferguson	Robert Fire Flathead NF/Glacier NP	44,257	50	9/20
MT	T1	Ferguson	Belton-Center-Harrison Fires Glacier NP	740	0	9/15
MT	T1	Ferguson	Beta Lake — Doris Fires Flathead NF	350	0	9/15
MT	T1	Ferguson Hart	Trapper Creek Complex Glacier NP	24,862	65	9/5
MT	T1	Hart	Wedge Canyon Fire Flathead NF	41,887	60	9/15
MT	T1	Vail	Crazy Horse Fire Flathead NF	10,073	25	UNK
ID	T1	Oltrogge	Rough Draw Complex Gallatin NF	2,525	5	UNK
ID	T1	Martin	Canyon Creek Fire Boise NF	5,475	80	8/22
ID	T1	Frye	Beaver Lake Complex Clearwater NF	17,000	33	UNK
MT	T1	Bennett	Mineral/Primm Fire State Lands	15,000	5	UNK
MT	T1	Humphrey	Cathedral Peak Fire Custer NF	1,100	3	UNK
MT	T1	Studebaker	Lincoln Complex Helena NF	30,369	5	UNK
MT	T1	Gelobter	Black Mountain 2 State Lands	6,585	45	8/28
ID	T2	Kechter	Sapp Fire Nez Perce NF	9,268	0	UNK
OR	T2	Morcum	Lightning Complex Wallowa-Whitman NF	1,000	10	8/25
WY	T2	--	Boulder Basin 2 Shoshone NF	6,000	0	9/15
ID	T2	Rios	Slims Complex Nez Perce NF	12,602	65	8/25
ID	T2	Beauchamp	Milepost 59 Fire State Lands	8,139	60	UNK
WY	T2	Gardner	East Complex Yellowstone NP	18,300	15	UNK
MT	T2	Berndt	Strawberry Complex Lolo NF	1,300	65	UNK
MT	T2	Walker	E. Montana Complex Miles City FO, BLM	16,703	77	8/23
MT	T2	Sczepanik	Windmill Complex Crow Agency	29,940	75	8/23
MT	T2	Hendricks	Burnt Ridge Complex Lewis and Clark NF	834	31	UNK
MT	T2	Blume	Winslow Fire State Lands	10,115	15	UNK
MT	T2	Hoff	Boles Meadow Fire State Lands	3,950	75	8/23
MT	T2	Sandman	Cooney Ridge Complex State Lands	19,112	15	9/15
ID	T2	Van Bruggen	North Fork Lick Fire Payette NF	7,304	10	UNK
ID	T2	Muir	Withington Fire Salmon-Challis NF	10,500	85	8/21
ID	T2	Saleen	South Fork Fire Boise NF	5,855	70	8/24
WY	T2	Mullinex	N. Bighorn Complex Bighorn NF	8,250	70	8/22
MT	T2	Swope	Cherry Creek Fire Lolo NF	4,000	70	UNK
MT	T2	Benes	Fish Creek Fire Lolo NF	21,350	0	UNK
MT	T2	Larsen	Hobble Fire State Lands	38,320	90	8/23
MT	T2	Philbin	Gold 1 Fire Bitterroot NF	3,950	75	8/23
OR	ST	Thorpe	Hagelstein Fire State Land	435	90	UNK
WA	ST	Jennings/Perry	Togo Mountain Fire Colville NF	4,495	20	8/26
WA	ST	Holloway Reed	Black Canyon Fire State Land	2,280	100	CND
ID	FUM	Cones	Cayuse Lake Complex Clearwater NF	8,704	0	UNK
ID	FUM	Cones	Clear/Nez Complex Clearwater NF	7,760	N/A	N/A
ID	FUM	Bonefeld	Frank Church Fire Payette NF	3,135	N/A	N/A

PARK FIRE SITUATION

Glacier NP

An area command team (Mann) is coordinating the Type 1 teams assigned to the Robert, Trapper Creek Complex, and Wedge Canyon Fires. The fires received some wind on Wednesday, but all lines held. There was a good deal of lightning and six new fires are reported.

Wedge Canyon Fire (41,887 acres; 60% contained) — Hart's Type 1 team is assigned, but Paul's Type 1 team will be assuming management of the fire. The fire was characterized yesterday by short crown runs and interior torching on its southeast flank, and continuous backing fire on its north flank. Firefighters are strengthening lines on the north side with sprinklers. Resource commitments as of yesterday (Wednesday's figure in parentheses):

Firefighters/overhead — 547 (603)
Crews — 8 (9)
Engines — 18 (18)
Helicopters — 3 (3)

Robert Fire (44,257 acres; 50% containment) — Ferguson's Type 1 team is assigned. Fire lines held again yesterday despite gusty winds. Fair overnight humidity levels reduced but have not eliminated the risk of spotting, major runs and extensive perimeter growth. Steep terrain remains a concern for both safety and line construction. Crews will continue to work toward containment of spot fires and slopovers within 200 to 300 feet of control lines. Firefighters were busy with initial attack on the Beta Lake and Doris Fires on the Flathead NF. Resource commitments as of yesterday (Wednesday's figure in parentheses):

Firefighters/overhead — 730 (725)
Crews — 30 (17)
Engines — 16 (30)
Helicopters — 4 (5)

Trapper Creek Complex (24,862 acres; 65% containment) — Ferguson's Type 1 team is managing the Trapper Creek and Trout Fires; Hart's Type 1 team has the Wolf Gun and Paul Bunyan Fires. There was a small increases on the south side of the Trapper Creek Fire on Tuesday due to winds. Extremely dry fuels, inaccessible terrain and the remote nature of the fire preclude containment and confinement. Poor visibility and smoke are hindering the use of aircraft. The Wolf Gun Fire continues its daily growth. The fire is being monitored exclusively by air, with no on-going suppression actions. Creeping and short surface fire runs and occasional tree torching were reported. The Paul Bunyan Fire is fully contained. Resource commitments as of yesterday (Wednesday's figure in parentheses):

Firefighters/overhead — 25 (25)
Crews — 1 (1)
Engines — 2 (2)
Helicopters — 0 (0)

The park also reports six new fires ranging in size from two to 450 acres. The latter is the Belton Fire, which has the most potential for growth. Details tomorrow.

Yellowstone NP

East Complex (15,800 acres; 14%) — Gardner's Type 2 team is assigned. The complex is comprised of the previously reported East Fire and Grizzly Fire. The East Fire was very active yesterday. Increased fire activity caused fire officials to move crews working in the vicinity of Crow Creek Pass to pre-identified safety zones. The fire is currently pushing into an old burn northeast of Crow Creek Pass; as long as it stays there, it won't pose any immediate threat to the communities of Pahaska Teepee and North Fork Valley. Efforts to clear roadside snags and fire-weakened trees from the East Entrance Road were discontinued yesterday as the fire reburned a section of partially burned forest. Crews have made excellent progress in cutting snags for eventual reopening of the road. The East Entrance Road remains closed. The Turbid Lake, Jones Pass, Ninemile and Avalanche Peak trails are also closed. The Grizzly Fire was also very active. Crews are busy building a fire line along the Signal Hills south of the fire. Resource commitments as of yesterday (Wednesday's figures in parentheses):

Firefighters/overhead — 681 (602)
Crews — 20 (16)
Engines — 12 (12)
Helicopters — 5 (5)

Tyson Fire (150 acres; 80% contained) — This remains a crew-sized operation with miscellaneous overhead assigned. The fire is being suppressed using minimum impact management tactics.

Union Fire (400 acres) — The fire is moving to the northeast and is a classic wind-driven, spot and torch fire. It's extremely remote and is burning gently in continuous fuels. It's being managed with a confinement strategy due to its remote location and the lack of good safety zones.

Other Park Fires

Fire operations elsewhere in the system include:

Yosemite NP — The previously-reported Son of Kibbie Fire reached the top of Kibbie Ridge and crossed into the Stanislaus NF's Emigrant Wilderness. This was anticipated and plans have been in place. The fire will be managed for resource benefit under a unified command.
Grand Canyon NP — The park reports one new small fire. They now have seven fires being managed for wildland fire use.
North Cascades NP — Seven fires, ranging in size from a tenth of an acre to 53 acres, are burning in remote areas with natural barriers to fire spread. The new quarter-acre Colonial Creek Fire is being suppressed.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP — Several fires are burning in the park. No changes from previous reports.

Zion National Park (UT)
Timber Top Fire Use Complex (Wildland Fire,Wildland Fire Use)

Two lightning-ignited wildland fires (Timber Top Mountain and Nagunt Mesa) are burning in mixed brush,fir and ponderosa pine on isolated mesa tops (Research Natural Areas)in the northern section of the park. Due to their location, they are being managed as FIRE USE FIRES. There are no resource values presently at risk. Both fires are being monitored from the ground and air by park personnel. (full report)
The complex has been showing very little fire activity the past few days.
Status
No closures accociated with the fire.
Acreage: 364-acres total
Resources Committed: No one assigned directly to the fire. It is being monitored by road patrol staff.
Estimated containment date: August 30, 2003[Submitted by David Eaker, david_eaker@nps.gov, 435-772-7811]

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (CA)
Williams Fire Use Project (Wildland Fire, Wildland Fire Use)

Fire managers from the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service are working together to manage the Williams Fire. As a fire use project, this lightning-caused fire will spread naturally to improve forest conditions.

Seven fire monitors are currently on scene to map the fire perimeter and observe behavior and spread. There is potential for the fire to spread onto the Jennie Lakes Wilderness of Sequoia National Forest. (full report)
Status
Due to recent fire spread, one new trail closure was instituted yesterday for the Bell Canyon Trail at the Comanche Meadow junction. Visitors using this trail to exit Sugarloaf Basin to the west will be escorted by fire monitors on scene only when conditions are safe. Eastbound travel on this trail is not allowed.

The following trails are still closed for visitor safety until further notice: Marvin Pass to Kanawyer Gap, Kanawyer Gap to Comanche Meadow, Comanche Meadow to Rowell Meadow. The trail to Mitchell Peak remains open.
Acreage: 400 acres
Estimated containment date: unknown[Submitted by Jody Lyle, jody_lyle@nps.gov, (559) 565-3703]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

NPS History
Women in the National Park Service

A new book on National Park Service rangers has been published and is now available. The book, entitled National Park Ranger: An American Icon, was written by Butch Farabee and published by Roberts Rinehart Publishers (ISBN 1-57098-392-5, $18.95 in paper).

Through permission of both the author and publisher, excerpts are appearing intermittently in the Morning Report and InsideNPS. Previous installments can be found by searching back issues of either publication for the following dates:

Part 1 — May 15, 2003.
Part 2 — May 21, 2003.
Part 3 — June 3, 2003
Part 4 — June 11, 2003.
Part 5 — June 20, 2003.
Part 6 — July 22, 2003.
Part 7 — August 4, 2003.
Part 8 — August 13, 2003.

Women Rangers — Part One

At peak summer season, there are almost twenty-six thousand permanent and seasonal employees in the National Park Service, and approximately ninety two hundred of them are women.

From the beginning of the park system, women were there, making an indelible mark. They now serve alongside men as rangers, truck drivers, interpreters, personnel officers, scientists, historians, administrators, laborers, managers, architects, mule wranglers, planners, curators, clerks, and dispatchers.

Women have left an extraordinary legacy through their contributions to the national parks as early travelers and explorers, conservationists and advocates, concessionaires and wives, and, more recently, as "real" National Park Service rangers and employees. Not only were they among the first to climb peaks, roam the wilderness, and float rivers, but women also endured a harsh frontier life, raised the first children born in parks, ran primitive log hostelries and fed the tourists, and served as early nature guides.

Women erected monuments to men of the Union and the Confederacy who never returned from Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, and much later helped ensure we would never forget that as a nation we interned our Japanese-American neighbors during World War II. They worked to protect the Joshua trees of California's desert as well as the lush redwood forests to the north, home of the world's tallest trees. Women made sure that the principal story of Virginia's first settlement at Jamestown was told, and as early as 1882, recognized the worth of the ancient cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. They saved the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula from the sawyers, and it was a woman (Marjory Stoneman Douglas) whose writing and advocacy directly led to the protection of the Everglades, the last remnant of this country's subtropical wilderness.

Ironically, for reasons now viewed as sexist and irrational, until far into the twentieth century women had extremely limited opportunities to join the ranger ranks of the National Park Service. A 1965 Federal Civil Service recruitment flyer noted that: "Park ranger positions are restricted to men, due to the rugged, and sometimes hazardous nature of the duties."

Explorers and Travelers

Women were responsible for a number of impressive explorations and physical feats in the national parks.

Three women wearing long skirts, enthusiastic but somewhat drained by their long trip, rode sidesaddle into Yosemite Valley in 1856. Only five years after the Mariposa Battalion had driven the local Indians from the area and eight years before the valley was set aside as a park by Congress, Madame Gautier, Jean Frances Neal, and "Mrs. Thompson" were the first Euro-American women to witness the grandeur that is Yosemite.

In 1864, Helen Brodt became the first woman to climb Mount Lassen; the party accompanying her discovered a lake and named it for her. Botanist Ellen Powell Thompson, sister of Major John Wesley Powell, joined her brother in floating the Colorado River on his second expedition in 1871, the same year that Addie Alexander of St. Louis summited the highest point in what would become Rocky Mountain National Park. This ascent of Longs Peak was one of the earliest of a big mountain by a woman in the nineteenth century.

Historians believe that Emma Stone of Bozeman, Montana, traveling with her husband and two sons in July 1872, was the first non-Indian woman to visit Yellowstone, four months after it became the world's only national park. That same year in Hawaii, Isabella Bird scrambled to the rim of fourteen thousand-foot Mauna Loa after having descended to the lake of molten lava at the bottom of nearby Halemaumau Crater. In 1878, four women from the San Joaquin Valley spent a month camping and riding before topping California's Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the United States. One of those women had been lame since childhood, but teacher Anna Mills believed her "surplus of determination" made up for any of her physical defects.

Eliza Scidmore, the only female board member of the National Geographic Society, was a ship passenger on the Idaho in 1883 as it entered Glacier Bay carrying the first visitors to this mountainous area of southeast Alaska; Scidmore Bay is named for her. Seven years later, at 4:30 P.M. on August 10, 1890, twenty-year-old Fay Fuller, wearing a long skirt, became the first woman to look down from the top of Washington's ice-covered 14,410-foot high Mount Rainier, fifth highest point in the United States. (Not until the final days of suffrage did women travel in long pants without shocking their male climbing partners.)

Guides and Rangers

Though they couldn't be employed as official "rangers," many women found work in the national parks quite early on. For one month in 1914, Ester Cleveland Brazell worked as a guide at South Dakota's Wind Cave. She is very likely the first woman on the federal rolls in a ranger-like position in a park. Married to the superintendent (the only permanent employee in the park), she was probably appointed in late summer by her husband to assist two or three other guides who conducted the fifty cent, twice-daily, three-hour cave trips.

Two years later, Elizabeth and Esther Burnell visited the newly established Rocky Mountain National Park. Elizabeth was a teacher of college mathematics with an advanced degree from the University of Michigan. Having passed the "nature teacher" test, the sisters were licensed by the park as guides in the summer of 1917. Although not actually employed by the government, they were the first women officially designated as naturalists by the National Park Service. Elizabeth directed the Enos Mills' Trail School for twelve summers and became the first woman guide on 14,255-foot-high Longs Peak.

In 1914, at the age of fourteen, Claire Marie Hodges rode a horse for four days to reach Yosemite; she began teaching there two years later. In the spring of 1918 she learned that Superintendent "Dusty" Lewis was looking for a woman to fill in as a ranger because many male employees had been sent off to war; her application was forwarded to Washington and quickly accepted.

Accordingly, she became the second woman park ranger in the National Park Service. Reporting to the chief ranger, Hodges often patrolled both the valley and more remote areas of the park on horseback. She wore the traditional ranger's Stetson hat, but her divided skirt and a ranger badge pinned to her middy blouse distinguished her from her male co-workers. Although authorized to carry a gun, she seldom did.

[This excerpt from Farabee's book will be continued next Tuesday. Farabee credits Polly Welts Kaufman and her 1996 book, National Parks and the Woman's Voice, for most of the information in this section. For details on acquiring her book, click on "More Information" below]

More Information...

* * * * * * * * * *

Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.