NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

NOTICE

No web edition of the Morning Report was posted on Monday due to the system being down, which is why there was no email edition either.

INCIDENTS

Gulf Coast Parks

Gulf Island Beaches See Sporadic Oiling

The men and women of the National Park Service - both current employees and numerous retired employees - continue to be an integral part of the national federal response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. All NPS units along the Gulf remain open and are conducting regular park operations.

Gulf Islands NS - Park beaches are open and currently there are no advisories in effect. Beaches continue to be patrolled by volunteers and public information officers who assist visitors. On Santa Rosa Island, 70 workers, under the guidance of resource advisors who monitor and advise them, cleaned up Perdido Key where light mousse, a frothy oily water mixture, made landfall. A significant number of tar balls (oil mixed with sediments) washed ashore near Opal Beach, as sheen (a shimmering thin layer of oil floating on top of the water) was approaching Opal's shoreline. Fort Pickens, on the western point of Santa Rosa, received tar balls on the bay side. Eighty workers participated in the cleanup efforts there. In the Mississippi unit, last week's cleanup effort on Petit Bois Island totaled 45,000 pounds of contaminated materials, all of which have been transported off the island. Shoreline cleanup assessment teams, which survey and conduct surveillance on beaches, found fresh oil on Horn Island. Offshore skimming efforts continue on Santa Rosa Island at Perdido Pass and at Petit Bois Island. Response efforts include the constant surveillance for oil on the water and appropriate repositioning of surface resources such as skimmers, booms and people, as conditions are changing and dynamic. As the area of impacted lands spread east of national seashore beaches and towards Panama City on the Florida Panhandle, wildlife recovery teams will continue to expand aerial and ground surveys of the coast for injured wildlife and respond appropriately to calls. For more information on oil impacts and conditions (including swimming and fishing information), visit the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site (below).

South Florida Parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, Desoto, Dry Tortugas, Everglades) - No new developments.

Jean Lafitte NHP&P - Most of the park's incident management team continues to be on standby status as the transition to long-term operations in response to the oil spill begins. Park staff will monitor developments closely since oil sheen has been observed on waterways 15 miles south of the Barataria Preserve.

Padre Island NS - No new developments.

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 sites:

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

HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doctype/2931/53023/" Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response

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

HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/" National Oil Spill Response

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

HYPERLINK "http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/" GeoPlatform

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custommenu.cfm?lv=3&prg=1006&id=9336" NPS ICS 209 Incident Status Summaries

[Bobbie Altomare Visnovske, Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response]

Denali NP&P

Boaters Rescued Following Accident On Birch Creek

On Tuesday, June 15th, three boaters were rescued from Birch Creek in the far western region of the park by the park's A-Star B3 helicopter. P.R., 50, D.W., 62, and M.P., 63, were dumped in the water when their boat collided with a snag in the stream on Monday afternoon. They were able to reach the east shore, but most of their belongings and all of their food floated away. They used a satellite phone to contact a relative, who then called the Alaska State Troopers. The park was notified of the accident shortly after 7 a.m. on the 15th. The boaters were able to provide their GPS coordinates, and the helicopter flew to the site and extricated them. The three friends left Manley Hot Springs on Monday, June 7th, in a 24-foot river skiff for a trip to Lake Minchumina, which is just outside the western boundary of Denali National Preserve. They planned to travel from the Tanana River to the Kantishna River, enter the preserve, and travel the Muddy River to Lake Minchumina. The boat was equipped with an Evinrude 75 hp motor with an engine lift. None of the three had ever been on the route before. The group traveled up the Kantishna River and then turned into Birch Creek, mistaking it for the Muddy River. Birch Creek is considered to be very difficult to navigate as it is relatively shallow much of the year. The boaters managed to travel approximately 40 miles south into the park before the engine failed. At that point. they realized their mistake and began to float downstream, but had difficulty maneuvering due to the swift current and tight turns. The boat remains completely submerged in moving water at the accident scene pending a possible recovery later in the summer when water levels drop. [Kris Fister, Public Affairs Officer]

Glacier NP

Drowning Victim Recovered From Virginia Creek

On Saturday, June 19th, rangers and the Flathead County dive team located and retrieved the body of a woman who'd fallen from a bridge below Virginia Falls the previous day. The victim has been identified as 62-year-old E.G.M. of Kansas City, Missouri. A witness reported that the woman and her husband, who was in front, were crossing the Virginia Falls trail bridge on the St. Mary Lake Trail shortly after 1 p.m. when E.G.M. slipped and fell about four feet into cold (40- to 45 degrees), high, swift-moving water. The wooden bridge is about 30 feet long and more than two feet wide with a hand-rail on one side. The witness and her husband ran along the bank but lost sight of the victim downstream in Virginia Creek. The dive team located the woman's body Saturday about 220 yards downstream from the bridge, entrapped underwater. Virginia Falls is located about a half-mile west of the head of St. Mary Lake. About 20 National Park Service staff searched from both banks of Virginia Creek Friday afternoon and evening. A helicopter crew from Minuteman Aviation conducted an aerial search Friday evening, but whitewater prevented observers from seeing into the water. The search resumed Saturday morning with the Flathead County search dogs, dive team, and NPS rangers. The dive team located the woman's body early on Saturday afternoon. Because of the swift water conditions, it took a couple of hours to remove the body from the water. [Wade Muehlhof, Public Affairs Officer]

OTHER NEWS

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

Colorado NM - Colorado National Monument hosted the first day of the Ride the Rockies 532-mile Bicycle Tour on Sunday, June 13th, with more than 2100 cyclists pedaling the park's storied Rim Rock Drive.

Natural Resource Program Center - A new version of the Natural Resource Information Portal has been released. NPS staff can now search, view, download and print information from multiple sources and systems, all from a consistent user interface. Uploading information is also possible.

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.

Outer Banks Group - Outer Banks Group employee Cathey Clawson, 48, died Thursday June 17th, at her home in Manteo, North Carolina, only six months after the discovery of a primary brain tumor.

Gulf Islands NS - Daniel R. Brown has been selected as the new superintendent of Gulf Islands National Seashore. He will begin serving immediately as acting superintendent for 30 days, then EOD in mid-August. Photo.

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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