The Department of the Interior recognized from the very beginning of the oil spill event that the cleanup effort had the potential to create additional impact on the fragile shorelines of the Gulf of Mexico. Early on, the NPS and other federal agencies, specifically the US Fish and Wildlife Service, created a "sensitive lands" branch as part of overall incident management. The keystone of the sensitive lands approach to the cleanup effort is the cooperative effort between work crews on the beach and the resource advisors (READs) assigned to accompany them.  READs are specially-trained natural resource professional employed by land management agencies, including the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, who are on the ground with the crews to identify known nesting sites and dune vegetation as well as looking for new nesting sites of sea turtles, birds and beach mice. READs also assist when new ecologically sensitive resources are documented, assist managers in the sensitive lands office to develop amended recommendations for the critical area, and communicate those recommendations back down to the people doing the work. The Department of the Interior believes in using techniques and tools that are effective to get the job done while impacting the landscape the least.   According to JD Swed, branch chief for the sensitive lands office at Mobile Incident Command, the national parks and wildlife refuges are being treated like the sea pods of the future.  If these areas can be cleaned up while still preserving the biology and ecology of the area, they can be the catalysts to speeding natural recovery of other coastal areas which have been impacted more deeply.  The goal of the sensitive lands branch is to clean these areas effectively, and carefully.  Meanwhile, here's what happened in the parks yesterday:

Gulf Islands NS — Cleanup in the Mississippi District closed down early yesterday due to weather.

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

Jean Lafitte NHP&P — No new developments.

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:

• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response
• DOI Oil Spill Response
• NPS Oil Spill Response
• National Oil Spill Response
• Restore The Gulf
• Oil Spill Safety Training
• GeoPlatform
• NPS ICS 209 Incident Status Summaries
• Gulf Islands Public Health Precautions Notice
• Public Health Service Oil Spill Safety Video
• Oil Spill Media Page

[Submitted by Jeff Wolin, Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response]

The body of an Oklahoma man missing since May has been discovered. On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 14th, a group of researchers working off trail in the park's backcountry came upon human remains. They hiked out and notified rangers, who then hiked into the area Thursday to confirm the researchers' discovery. They found the body of a young man near the top of Garnet Hill, a prominent summit northwest of Tower Junction. The site is well off established trails and east of the Hellroaring Trailhead, where a rental car belonging to P.K. was discovered abandoned in late May. The body was removed by helicopter, and then taken to Bozeman, Montana, for a forensic autopsy, which confirmed the remains were those of the 25-year-old man. The autopsy revealed that P.K. died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  P.K. had been the subject of an ongoing search since May 31st, when a check on a red Cadillac STS sedan parked at the trailhead showed that the vehicle was two weeks overdue from an Oklahoma City car rental agency.  Family members who were then contacted said they had not been in touch with P.K. in recent weeks and reported him missing. A series of searches by ground teams, dog teams, and from the air had failed to turn up any clues to the missing man's whereabouts until Wednesday's discovery by researchers.  P.K. had been honorably discharged from the Marine Corps after serving for four years. During his service, he was injured twice by improvised explosive devices while serving in Iraq. He had recently moved to Oklahoma City from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to attend college. [Submitted by Al Nash, Public Affairs Officer]

On Sunday, July 18th, a visitor advised ranger Devin Seybert that a possible explosive device had washed ashore at the north end of North Core Banks. Seybert tentatively identified the device as an unexploded aerial bomb, marked a wide area as a safety buffer, and informed management of the situation. On July 19th, an explosive ordnance disposal team from the Marine Corp Air Station at Cherry Point was taken to the bomb's location. The Marine Corp team identified the device as a World War II era bomb, possibly containing up to 75 pounds of TNT. The EOD team destroyed the bomb by detonating it in place with C-4 explosives. The coastal areas of North Carolina experienced considerable military activity during World War II, both in training exercises and actual combat involving shipping convoys and German U-Boats. [Submitted by Shad Dusseau, Protection Operations Supervisor]

Two teenage hikers were struck by falling rocks on the Highline Trail on Wednesday, July 21st. Both have been transported for medical attention, though the extent of the hikers' injuries is not known at this time. A park employee heard yelling on the trail about two-and-a-half miles east of the Granite Park Chalet and notified the park's dispatch center. Park staff immediately responded from the chalet and from the Swiftcurrent fire lookout and gave the hikers first aid. The hikers are described as 13- and 19-year-old boys. Additional staff staged to respond with Minuteman Aviation of West Glacier, and the park requested an ALERT helicopter from Kalispell Regional Medical Center. A thunderstorm initially kept both helicopters from flying into the area. Rangers on the ground worked together with both helicopter crews to transport the hikers off the mountain. Around 4:30 p.m., the 19-year-old hiker was flown out of the park, transferred to Three Rivers EMS, and taken to North Valley Hospital in Whitefish for medical treatment. ALERT flew the 13-year-old hiker to the medical center in Kalispell. Initial investigation of the rock fall indicates that the rock fell from a cliff about 100 feet above the trail. The exact cause is not known, but there appears to be no immediate hazard and the trail remains open. [Submitted by Wade Muehlhof, Public Affairs Officer]

National Fire Activity

NIFC is at Preparedness Level 2. Fifty-five large fires are currently being managed nationwide.

Fire Weather Forecast

Gusty winds are expected today from the Cascades to Montana and Wyoming. Thunderstorms are on tap for Montana, Wyoming, southern Nevada and the Four Corner states. Driest storms will be across southern Nevada and Wyoming.

Fire Summary (Five Day Trend)

DOI Oil Spill Commitments (Five Day Trend)

National Resource Commitments (Five Day Trend)

NPS Fire Summaries

Park	State	Fire	Type	Acres	Percent Contain	Est. Full Contain
Rocky Mountain National Park	CO	Cow Creek Fire	Wildfire	July 22, 2010 (914 Acres)	0	n/a
	Latest Narrative: Helicopter 2-0 from Tetons has been released. The fire remains in patrol and monitor status. Fire is being managed locally.
El Malpais National Monument	NM	Barbell	Wildfire	2.5 acres. Fire was discovered at .5 acres on 7/20	0	Unknown
	Latest Narrative: Fire discovered at .5 acres on July 20 by USFS Oso Ridge Lookout. El Malpais NM Engine 654 responded and requested a resource advisor. Fire is on a lava flow in an area of sparse fuels and Pondorosa Pine with an open canopy. Fire grew 1 acre on July 20. Another 1 acre of growth occured on July 21. Fire is being managed for resource benefit. Heavy rain occured on the fire in the evening July 21.
El Malpais National Monument	NM	Lava Fire	Wildfire	Currently about 3/4 of an acre.	0	July 23, 2010
	Latest Narrative: Fire was declared out on July 16 at 12:05pm. No smoke or activity had been observed since July 3. Final size of Lava Fire .8 acres.

Further details have been received on these NPS fires:

Beach Fire, Yellowstone NP — The Beach Fire started last Sunday in an area of subalpine fir about two miles south of Beach Lake and seven miles west-southwest of the Bridge Bay Campground. This fire is burning in the backcountry several miles away from any roads trails, campgrounds, and lodging. All park roads, entrances and facilities are open. No trails or backcountry campsites are impacted by the fire. The weather over the fire was partly to mostly cloudy all day yesterday, with cooler temperatures, more humid conditions, and lighter winds than were forecast. The fire was much less active as a result. Unlike some previous days, there was no significant smoke column visible. Firefighters continue to make slow but steady progress constructing control lines along the western flank of the fire through very heavy, mature forest with a significant amount of large dead and downed logs. There was no new estimate conducted of either the size of the fire or of the percentage of the fire contained. IC Jess Secrest and his Northern Rockies Type 2 Incident Management Team arrived in the park Wednesday and began setting up an incident command post at Fishing Bridge. They took over management of the Beach Fire yesterday evening. Four 20-person hotshot crews and two 20-person Type 2 hand crews remain on the fire, camping out in a meadow near the fire. With the help of helitack personnel and several helicopters, they will continue building control line along the western flank of the fire. Today promises to be a little cooler and more humid than yesterday. There is a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Winds are forecast to come out of the southwest in the afternoon and increase to 10-15 miles an hour with gusts to around 25 miles an hour. When actively burning, smoke from the fire may be visible from the Mt. Washburn web cam. For more information on the fire, go to the fire's InciWeb site or the park's news release site.

Additional Information Links

National Park Service

• Fire and Aviation home page
• Branch of Wildland Fire home page
• Branch of Structural Fire home page
• Archived NPS fire news

National Interagency Fire Center

• Text of today's NICC Situation Report
• Fire news and year in perspective
• Detailed InciWeb reports on major fires
• Map of current fire locations

The month of August will see the return of the trench coat to the uniform program.

The black trench coat will be available to order on August 1st. The price will be $198.50.

After that, it will be available during the normal ordering periods of May and October.

[Submitted by Ramie Lynch, Uniform Program Manager]

The Washington Office has issued an announcement for a national dive training and safety officer. Although the person selected will report to the deputy chief of emergency services, he/she will be duty-stationed with the NPS Submerged Resources Center in Lakewood, Colorado. The announcement, available below, closes on August 9th,

Northeast Region is seeking a program manager for its Business Services Division. The person selected will have responsibility for oversight and technical direction of visitor and related concession and leasing programs throughout the region. 

NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site:

http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id;=8728&lv;=2&pgid;=3504

All reports should now be submitted via this automated system.