RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
MORNING REPORT
Attention: Directorate
Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC
CC: RAD Information Net
Day/date: Wednesday, February 13, 1991
INCIDENTS
No incident reports received.
MIDDLE EAST INCIDENT UPDATE
Lincoln Home (Illinois) - The park is considering a request from
the Illinois State Museum to house the Illinois Artisans Shop in
a park building. The shop, which is presently housed in the
governor's mansion, has been closed to the public for several
weeks because of the added security measures necessary to
protect the mansion and the Edgar family due to hostilities in
the Mideast. [CompuServe message from ARD/Operations, MWRO,
1/12]
Please advise us through your regional offices of all threats
received, permits issued for demonstrations, and demonstrations
or incidents that occur which are related to the war in the Gulf.
Call Major Schamp at FTS 268-4209 (202-208-4209).
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Yellowstone (Wyoming) - Bison Management
As of early this week, there were from 14 to 20 bison outside of
the park's western boundary in an elk feeding area. Another
group of from 20 to 30 bison was reported in the Undine Falls
area, six to eight miles within the northern boundary. No other
action has been reported. [CompuServe message from Lissa Fox,
Wildlife and Vegetation, WASO, 2/12]
OFFICE NOTES
1) The following memo was sent to regional personnel offices
from the Chief, Branch of Labor and Employee Relations, on
January 25th. The text is being provided for your information:
"As we approach the summer hiring season, it might be helpful to
address some of the frustrations we have encountered with the
Drug Testing Program, as well as to offer some suggestions. The
new contractor will have had one year of experience and we
anticipate this year's program will operate more smoothly.
"The single most delaying problem is phone numbers. As you know,
seasonals complete their applications in early January, while
they are in school or on other jobs. The telephone numbers that
are valid at this time are rarely still valid during the months
of April, May and June when the majority of hiring and testing
is done. Inaccurate phone numbers represent a minimum of one
week's delay during the critical hiring period. Please notify
your supervisors of this problem and request that they confirm
phone numbers with applicants when they make tentative offers.
Alternate phone numbers, i.e. parent's home phone number, may be
helpful.
"Since all communication is completed either by fax, telephone,
or in person, the contractor should have the applicant's
information within 24 hours of your request to WASO. The
contractor is committed to contracting persons to be tested
within 48 hours. There is no way for us to track individual
tests unless we are alerted to a problem by either the
Department or your office. We have been working with the
Department and the contractor to notify us as soon as it is
determined that the applicant cannot be reached; however, this
system is imperfect. Please alert your Field personnel to
contact you immediately if an applicant has not been contacted
within 3 days. WASO should then be notified by phone for the
appropriate DOI number which the applicant can use with the 800
number to set up the drug test. We will closely monitor the
number of these requests for possible failure on the part of the
contractor to properly contact applicants for reasons other than
improper phone numbers. Our Office will make every effort to
contact you within 24 hours of any problems brought to our
attention and/or test results that we receive from the
Department.
"The Department's Drug Program Officer has offered group testing
for groups of 20 or more applicants that are located in one
location. You are urged to use this service whenever possible
to expedite the testing process. This service, however, cannot
be used during orientation sessions when applicants are already
on board." [Marsha Lee, Employee Relations, WASO]
2) We've received a request from the Justice Department for some
information that you can help us collect. We'd like to hear
from any area which has had criminal prosecutions which were
successfully made for violations that occurred on NPS-held scenic
easements. A U.S. attorney in NCR has a felony case pending
which concerns tree cutting and would like have some legal
precedents to cite. Please advise us via CompuServe or telefax
as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your help! [Walt
Dabney, RAD/WASO]
STAFF STATUS
Division Chief: No travel or leave scheduled.
Branch of Resource & Visitor Protection: Coffey at inventory and
monitoring task force meeting, WASO (2/12-2/13).
Branch of Fire: Farrel conducting study of impact of transition
of Presidio to the NPS, San Francisco, CA (2/11-2/15); Broyles,
Mattingly and Cook at training session, Western Region Fire Academy,
Golden Gate, CA (2/11-2/15).
Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities
Telephone: FTS 268-4874/6039 or 202-208-4874/6039
Telefax: FTS 268-5977 or 202-208-5977
CompuServe: WASO-RANGER (Branch of R&VP); WASO-FIRE-WO (Branch of Fire)
SEAdog: 1/650