Just before midnight on April 9th, rangers contacted a man who was arguing with a woman of his acquaintance while parked near the Old Cathedral. When one of the rangers approached the driver's side window, he heard the sound of a revolver cocking. The rangers immediately drew their weapons and ordered the man to drop what turned out to be a .22 caliber revolver. He complied and was arrested on various charges, including a $50,000 warrant for possession with intent to distribute drugs issued by police from Saint Louis County. The case has been referred to the US Attorney's Office pending further investigation. [Submitted by Joel Musick, Chief Ranger]

A ranger and a ranger trainee were on patrol on the afternoon of April 8th when they spotted an unoccupied late model Isuzu Rodeo parked along the roadway near Lake Crescent. The rangers saw remnants of salal (Gaultheria shallon) foliage on the seats and floorboards of the vehicle and suspected that the people associated with the vehicle were illegally cutting salal , a green leafy shrub valued for its use in the floral industry.  Later in the evening, rangers contacted two men at the vehicle. Both denied picking anything in the park, although they possessed all the implements commonly used by commercial salal harvesters (rubber bands, clippers, and a cutting device worn on the finger like a ring). Lake District rangers searched the woods in the immediate area, discovered three large bundles (186 pounds) of salal, and were able to link the bundles to the two men. The men were cited for 'gathering/possessing undesignated natural products."  After consultation with the assistant U.S. attorney, the men were detained and transported to Port Angeles to verify identification and check for possible violations of immigration laws. They were later released. Salal may be legally picked on adjacent private and USFS forest lands under permit, but is frequently harvested unlawfully inside the park. [Submitted by Barb Maynes, Public Affairs Officer]

Preparedness Level 2

Initial attack was heavy nationally on Sunday. A total of 300 new fires reported, seven of which became large fires. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Florida.

NPS Fires

For a brief supplemental narrative on each fire, click on the bar with the arrow. Internal NPS readers can link directly to full reports on each fire by clicking on the notepad icon; public readers of the Morning Report can obtain similar information by going to http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

Park	State	Fire	Type	Acres	Percent Contain	Est. Full Contain
Shenandoah National Park	VA	Lewis Mountain Fire	Wildland Fire	The fire is estimated at approximately 1150 acres as of Satu... See below for more...	100	April 9, 2006
	Full Acreage Report: The fire is estimated at approximately 1150 acres as of Saturday. Latest Narrative: The area received 1/2 to 1 inch of rain between Friday night and Saturday. Rainfall significantly reduced fire activity and allowed firefighters to complete containment lines around the perimeter. The fire was declared 100% contained as of Sunday, April 9. Firefighters will remain on scene to conduct mop up operations and eliminate any remaining hot spots.

National/State Team Commitments

Newly listed fires (on this report) appear below in boldface. Changes in the status of a fire (type of team, change from a fire to a complex, etc.) are also noted in boldface.

Fires are sorted by type of team; teams are listed in alphabetical order within each type by the IC's last name.

National Resource Commitments

Further Information

This report is meant to present just highlights of the current fire situation. Two other NIFC sites provide much greater detail:

Full NIFC Situation Report (PDF file) -- http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt. pdf
National Fire News -- http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn. html

Information on NPS Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) and on park fires can be found at:
FAM -- http://www.nps.gov/fire
Park fires -- http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

PARKS AND PEOPLE

The park is seeking qualified candidates interested in a lateral transfer assignment or promotion to fill a supervisory park ranger position. The announcement is currently posted on USA Jobs (BIBE 06-13). Stationed at Castolon, the person in this position serves as district ranger for the park's West District and is responsible for supervision, program management and operations for a full range of visitor and resource protection assignments, including traditional ranger experiences in wildland and structural fire, EMS, SAR, backcountry and horse patrol duties, and river patrol. The West District encompasses about half of the 801,000 acre park, including the Chisos Basin area. The park has an excellent K-8 school and outstanding recreational opportunities. Interested persons should contact chief ranger Mark Spier at 432-477-1185 for further information.

IMR regional aviation manager Cliff Chetwin will retire from the National Park Service after 35 years of federal service. His last working day will be April 28th.

Cliff's first association with the NPS was working seasonally at Craters of the Moon NM in 1971. He received his degree in forestry from the State University of New York, Syracuse, in 1972, and started his permanent NPS career with the U.S. Park Police in Washington, D.C. His Park Police duties took him to >San Francisco in 1974 where he participated in the establishment of the first USPP field office.

In 1976 he rejoined the ranger ranks as an intake ranger (interpretation) at Morristown NHP. His career then took him to Pinnacles NM, where he served as district ranger for the East District until 1982. He then served as chief ranger at Carlsbad Caverns NP until 1988, when he moved to the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, first as a forester and then as the regional fire management officer. When the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions were consolidated in 1998, he transferred to >Denver as the Service's first regional aviation and safety specialist.

Cliff's career has been both unique as well as distinguished, first emphasizing law enforcement, where he also served as a SET leader and as a member of numerous national workgroups including the NPS-9 re-write in the mid-1980s.  He then moved into wildfire and was one of the leaders in the professionalization of the Service's wildland fire program with the development and implementation of the FIREPRO program.  In aviation, he is one of the Service's acknowledged experts and he has been a leader in developing the NPS aviation program.  He served as the first chair of the National Aviation Advisory Group and also initiated an aviation outreach program that now reaches over 700,000 people annually.

Cliff and his wife Judy will continue to live in >Denver until the fall of 2008, when they will return to Santa Fe. His immediate plans include planning a new home in >Santa Fe, devoting more time to the Boy Scouts, climbing more of Colorado's '14ers' and flying.

A retirement dinner in Cliff's honor will be held May 13th. Contact Christine Peters, 303-969-2948 or Judy Chetwin, 303-969-2625 for details.

Congratulations Cliff!

[Submitted by Intermoutain Region - Fire and Aviation, 303-969-2948]

Midwest Region has posted a vacancy announcement for the superintendent's position at Knife River Indian Village NHS in Stanton, North Dakota. This is a development position with promotion potential to GS-13 in another management position within the region after completion of the program. The announcement number is MWRO-06-MP-0049 and it closes on April 21st.

[Submitted by Lynda Orbik, Lynda_Orbik@nps.gov, (402) 661-1646]

Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found by clicking here. 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 Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.