NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Monday, May 17, 2010

INCIDENTS

Gulf Coast Parks

Preparations Continue, No Significant Amounts Of Oil Yet Seen

Preparations continue in parks all along the Gulf Coast for oil to come ashore from the spill following the sinking of the drill rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20. At Gulf Islands National Seashore, the NPS Midwest IMT (Pontbriand) is in command. The five South Florida parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, DeSoto, Dry Tortugas, and Everglades) continue to work under a Type III organization preparing for possible landfall there:

Padre Island NS - The park's baseline assessment continues.

Jean Lafitte NHP&P - Park staff have begun to choose sample sites and take baseline photos and samples of soil, sediment and water; this process will continue over the next few days. Although the NOAA oil spill "zone of uncertainty" has included Barataria Preserve this week and may do so again in the future, the preserve remains well outside the zone of predicted impacts. The park continues to work toward its objectives by coordinating with local partners and the IMT at Gulf Islands.

Gulf Islands NS - All park sites remain open and operating normally. Poor sea conditions and severe weather conditions prevented most of the scheduled oil spill related missions from occurring on Sunday. Weather permitting, operations will resume on Monday. The Southeast Archeological Center Response Team has been assembling the cultural resources site assessment and protection plan. On Monday, Director Jon Jarvis returns to the Mobile, Alabama, incident command post as the DOI incident commander. Gulf Islands Chief Ranger Clay Jordon and USFWS Southeast Region Director Jon Andrew remain in Mobile as the DOI deputy incident commanders.

South Florida Parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, De Soto, Dry Tortugas, Everglades) - The cultural and natural resources baseline assessment at Dry Tortugas has been completed. Natural resources staff met today to discuss a timeline to initiate baseline sampling in Everglades. The park expects to begin sampling late next week. A cultural resource assessment of Everglades' west coast will begin on Wednesday. Three hydrocarbon sensors have been deployed to Indian, Rabbit and Mormon Keys on Everglades' west coast. These passive sampling devices will be deployed to additional sites within the park and Dry Tortugas within the next week. Representatives from Entrix, a BP contractor, will be collecting samples at four sites in Everglades and at one site in Dry Tortugas next week. They will be accompanied by a natural resources advisor. Local media interest is currently low. A series of park-specific fact sheets that address response efforts are available both through each park's respective website. A communications center continues to be staffed by a team of information officers, and can be contacted at 305-224-4215, or via email at HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/mailtSouthFloridaNPS@gmail.com__" SouthFloridaNPS@gmail.com

For more information on the NPS, DOI and national oil spill responses and for a link to the BP online oil spill safety training needed by all incident staff, please see the following:

NPS Oil Spill Response - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm" http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm

DOI Oil Spill Response - HYPERLINK "http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/index.cfm" http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/index.cfm

National Oil Spill Response - HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com" http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

Oil Spill Safety Training - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Conferences&id=1957" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Conferences&id=1957

[J. Michael Johnson, Lead Information Officer, Gulf Islands National Seashore Oil Spill Response]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Director's Office - A new Flat Hat Chat has been posted which features Director Jarvis in his role as the DOI incident commander for the oil spill response in the Gulf. The three-minute video details how the NPS is helping and shows our employees working both in command centers and in the field. INTERNAL only.

Office of the Comptroller - The NPS Scorecard is now available for FY 2009 -- a link is provided. The NPS Comptroller's Office will also be hosting a series of webinars this month for park staff to serve as a user-guide to the Scorecard.

Office of Public Affairs - The National Park Service and the National Park Foundation honored the recipients of the 2009 George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service at a ceremony in Washington last Thursday. Photo.

Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the National Park Service.

Historic Preservation Training Center - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the National Park Service.

To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):

NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index

Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/notify" http://inside.nps.gov/notify

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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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