NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Thursday, January 11, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-779 - Systemwide - Impacts of Government Shutdown

Additional reports regarding the impacts of the three-week shutdown have been
received.  If the shutdown had significant consequences at your area, please
send along a brief report:

* Everglades/Dry Tortugas - Both government shutdowns were managed by an
in-park incident management team.  The second shutdown occurred during
one of the peak weeks of south Florida's prime visitation season and
significantly affected the economies of surround communities.  It's
estimated that a minimum of about 80,000 visitors were denied access to
the park during the shutdown.  Other impacts:

o Since the closure order did not discriminate between land and water
access, all land and water areas of both parks were closed. 
Enforcing the closure for an area of over 500,000 acres with
numerous access points proved to be a law enforcement and public
relations challenge.  Visitors were initially advised verbally and
voluntary compliance was requested.  This became more difficult as
the closure continued and it became necessary to issue warnings.  A
total of 175 warnings and two citations were issued.

o In addition to 30,000 visitor center contacts lost, at least 600
public educational programs (with attendance estimated at 24,000)
were canceled.

o Flamingo Lodge and Marina, managed by TW Services, estimates a loss
of close to $60,000.  Sammy Hamilton Boat Tours, a concession
operated out of Everglades City, lost an estimated $300,000.  Shark
Valley Tram Tours calculated that they lost $80,000.

o Florida National Parks and Monuments Association lost about $60,000
during the two shutdowns.

o Several media events were staged by commercial use licensees to
express concern over the financial impacts of the closures, two of
them worth particular mention.  The Conch Republic, a private group
which claims to have seceded from the United States, planned to
present a check to Dry Tortugas to open the park for a day and hold
a protest demonstration on December 30th.  Other tour operators
decided not to join, expressing concern that they might lose their
commercial use licenses.  A representative of the Conch Republic
flew to the park on the 30th and attempted to present the check. 
He was informed of the closure and asked to leave; when he refused
to comply, he was cited.  The event, however, was conducted in a
spirit of humor and understanding.  The protestor opted not to
bombard historic Fort Jefferson with stale bread, a Conch Republic
form of protest.  On January 1st, commercial fishing guides led a
flotilla of about 65 boats into Florida Bay to protest the shutdown
and the resulting financial impact.  The guides were met by park
representatives.  Much frustration was vented at Washington, but
the event went well and received favorable coverage from local
media.

o Overall economic impacts are still being determined.  According to
a draft economic study being completed for the park, Everglades was
responsible for $120 million in combined sales benefits, $8 million
in combined tax revenues, and 5,000 jobs in 1994.  Impact
calculations will be assessed against these figures.

* Lyndon B. Johnson - The park reopened on January 6th; 163 visitors were
greeted by a fully-staffed interpretive operation at the park's visitor
center and the LBJ Ranch.  Several park partners have not been so
fortunate.  Three contractors that have outstanding payments of up to
$46,000 due from the government have not yet been paid; one is about to
declare bankruptcy.  Unpaid vendors and other visitor service providers
in Johnson City, a community of fewer than 900 people, were severely
impacted.  The lack of visitors forced one restaurant to close.  The park
suffered a loss of over $9,000 in revenue from the interpretive fees
charged for the LBJ Ranch tour, all of which remain within the park. 
Adjacent LBJ State Historical Park will come up over $3,000 short due to
the shutdown - a critical sum at a time when the state of Texas
increasingly relies on local park fund-raising to finance operations. 
Headquarters staff returned to work on Monday and spent much of the day
coping with media information requests.

[Roberta D'Amico, PIO, EVER; Brian Carey, ACR, LYJO]

96-04 - Shenandoah (Virginia) - Blizzard Impacts

The blizzard which struck the eastern United States over the past weekend
deposited significant amounts of snow in the park; Big Meadows, for example,
had 47 inches of snow, with drifts of over ten feet.  Even though backcountry
camping permits had not been issued since the beginning of the partial
government shutdown, the park learned of at least three stranded backcountry
groups within the park and of a fourth on private land just outside the park's
boundary.  The crews of supporting National Guard and Park Police helicopters
made contact with each of the parties on Tuesday, January 10th, and dropped
them food, shelters, equipment and survival information.  Park plows reached a
party of three located at Lewis Mountain campground that evening.  They had
contacted the park's communications center from a pay phone in the closed
campground, and credited the survival information with saving their lives.  The
park also received over a dozen reports (with varying levels of confirmation)
of other hikers who could be in Shenandoah.  Intensive investigation has
resolved most of these reports, but there is a significant probability that
there are other hikers stranded in the park.  Efforts were underway yesterday
to reach the previously identified parties, most of whom are ten or more miles
from the nearest plowed road, and to find any other hikers.  The incident
management team is concentrating on utilizing plows and the park's snowblower
to reach stranded visitors and park residents.  Other winter travel methods
have proven to be ineffective in the deep, light, fluffy snow.  Incident
objectives include deadlines for completing most work prior to the next
significant snowfall, forecast for tomorrow.  Clayton Jordan is incident
commander.  [Greg Stiles, SHEN]

96-05 - Florissant Fossil Beds (Colorado) - Burglary

The park's visitor center was burglarized on January 1st.  Rocky Mountain
Nature Association, the park's cooperating association, lost over $1,200 in
merchandise, including books, cassettes and videos.  Visitor center offices
containing computers, portable radios and other equipment were not disturbed. 
The park and visitor center are normally closed on New Year's Day.  It's not
known whether government shutdown signs were a factor in the break-in.  The
county sheriff's office is assisting park law enforcement rangers in the
investigation.  [Maggie Johnston, CR, FLFO]

96-06 - Denali (Alaska) - Theft; Cultural Relic Recovery

Early this month, Talkeetna rangers recovered an historic ski, a probable
artifact from one of the pre-1940s climbs of the mountains, which had been
illegally taken from the Muldrow Glacier on Mount McKinley.  Climbers S.B.,
37, and S.L., 30, found the ski at the 5,800-foot level of
the mountain last summer.  Off-duty rangers twice contacted the pair in the
park prior to their departure, advised them that the ski was culturally
significant, and told them that it should be turned in at the park's visitor
center.  They refused to identify themselves, ignored the warnings, and left in
a private vehicle - but not before the off-duty rangers photographed them and
their vehicle.  Following a lengthy investigation by rangers Pete Christian and
Daryl Miller, S.B. was contacted by phone.  He denied all knowledge of the
theft, but eventually confessed when presented with additional evidence.  He
told rangers that S.L. had the ski.  S.L., a resident of San Diego, was
contacted and agreed to turn the ski over to park staff at Cabrillo.  S.L.
was cited and fined $400 for removing a cultural artifact from the park;
S.B. was cited and fined $250 for giving a false report.  According to
ranger J.D. Swed, the recovery of the ski is significant to all mountaineers,
as it's a part of the relatively short mountaineering history of Mt. McKinley. 
During the 1940s, only 26 people even attempted to climb the mountain, and just
five of them were successful.  Only 75 people tried to attain the summit before
1950.  The ski probably belonged to one of these expedition members.  [Ken
Kehrer, DENA]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

El Morro (New Mexico) - Inscription Preservation Project

The first year of the park's inscription preservation project closed in mid-
December.  During this first phase of the project, specialists concentrated on
obtaining sedimentary geological data and an understanding of the rock surfaces
that contain the inscriptions.  Over the past 40 years, a number of historic
inscriptions have been lost to erosion, but only in certain areas of the bluff. 
In the second phase, due to start this month or in February, rock preservation
treatments will be tested and possibly applied on an emergency basis where
proven effective.  [Ken Mabery, Superintendent, ELMO]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

MEMORANDA

The following "open letter" was sent on December 5th to all Federal employees
via electronic mail by President Clinton and Vice President Gore.  It was
passed along to us by the Forest Service.  Note that it was disseminated after
the first shutdown, but before the second:

 We are proud of the people who work for the federal government.  Any
Fortune 100 company would be lucky to have such a work force.  Your work
makes all Americans more safe, free, and prosperous.  We are glad you are
all back on the job.
 
 We know it hasn't been easy for you, wondering when and if you would get
your next pay check.  And many of you had to bear the indignity of being
called "non-essential" -  some by government critics, some even by your
own supervisors.  Calling furloughed workers non-essential is deeply
offensive and just plain wrong.  The law forced us to furlough 800,000
workers whose jobs were not of an emergency nature.  The law says nothing
about "essential."
 
 No one could say that medical research is non-essential.  Or helping
Americans go to college.  Or rehabilitating a million disabled Americans. 
Or supporting the widows and orphans of veterans.  Or keeping our
drinking water safe.  Or recruiting new volunteers for the armed forces. 
Or any of the long list of essential government activities that had to be
temporarily suspended.  In the short term, they were not emergencies, so
the law prohibited them.  But they remain clearly essential.
 
 You all know that the law under which most of the government is operating
expires on December 15th, and the debate that led to the November shut
down is not over.  We can't promise you that your jobs and your lives
won't be interrupted again.  Too much is at stake for America.  If you
are held hostage again, we know you would not want us to forfeit the
nation's future as ransom.

 So, until this issue is settled the way we settle great issues in a
democracy - through peaceful debate and compromise - you remain good
people caught in what Churchill called "the worst system of government
devised by the wit of man, except for all the others."  And when it is
settled, it is you federal workers who will once again carry out the will
of the people, who will once again make it possible for America to be the
winner.  We salute you, and we thank you.

OBSERVATIONS

"The money we spend for effective conservation work is a sound investment in
better living for ourselves and our children.  We will not be dismayed by those
who say the cost of such investments is too great.  The cost of not making them
would be far greater."

                                     President Harry S Truman

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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