NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, January 17, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-793 - Saguaro (Arizona) - Explosion

Off-duty ranger Brian Rutledge heard a loud explosion while hiking in a canyon
in the Tucson Mountain District on December 17th.  He investigated and
determined that someone had packed an undetermined amount of black powder into
a 25-foot saguaro and detonated it, causing severe damage to the cactus,
including an 18-inch-wide crater in the trunk.  Several small chunks of the
saguaro were blown over 150 feet away.  The investigation is continuing. 
[Paula Nasiatka, CR, SAGU]

96-12 - New England SSO (Boston) - Structural Fire

A fire at a building at 50 Congress Street partly occupied by NESSO employees
was reported by automatic alarm to the city fire department at 7:10 a.m. on
January 16th.  The ten-story building, located in the city's financial
district, houses NPS offices on its first and third floors.  NPS employees
reported smelling smoke during evacuation of the building.  Because of the
early hour, the evacuation process was orderly and uneventful.  If it had
occurred during working hours, however, hundreds of people would have been
forced to use old and restrictive central stairwells in order to vacate the
building.  The fire originated on the fifth floor and sent heavy smoke to the
floors above; it escalated to six alarms before being brought under control. 
The cause has been tentatively determined to have been electrical.  Damage to
the floors above the fire reportedly was moderate, and it was minimal in NPS
areas.  The building was closed yesterday due to safety concerns, but will
reopen today.  NPS employees have been asked to report to the main SSO building
at 15 State Street to facilitate working arrangements until the fire's total
impact can be determined.  [Joe Mazzeo, NESSO]

96-13 - Saguaro (Arizona) - Felony Arrest

Ranger Jon Hale stopped a man for driving 25 miles over the speed limit on
Sandario Road on January 4th.  A computer check revealed that a felony warrant
was out against him for narcotics smuggling.  Hale, backed up by two sheriff's
deputies, made a felony arrest.  A drug dog was employed to search the vehicle;
traces of marijuana were found in the vehicle's trunk, indicating drugs may
have been transported in it at some time.  Hale seized 60 names and telephone
numbers from the suspect's wallet.  According to state officers, many of these
names match other suspects involved in a drug ring.  The suspect is under grand
jury indictment as a result of a major drug investigation by the state.  [Paula
Nasiatka, CR, SAGU]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

1) Natural Resource Management Awards - The deadline for nominations for the
Director's annual natural resource management, research and superintendent's
stewardship awards has been extended from January 31st to March 1st. 
Nomination forms and materials were placed on the natural resources bulletin
board in October, and are also available via cc:Mail from Debby Peck.  [Abby
Smith, WASO]

MEMORANDA

No memoranda.

OBSERVATIONS

Today's entry was sent along by David Barna in WASO Public Affairs:

"Lands, for the purpose of pleasure and magnificence, parks, gardens, public
walks, which are everywhere considered as causes of expense, not as sources of
revenue, seem to be the only lands which, in a great and civilized monarchy,
ought to belong to the crown...Public stock and public lands, therefore, the
two sources of revenue which may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or
commonwealth, being both improper and insufficient funds for defraying the
necessary expense, must, the greater part of it, be defrayed by taxes of one
kind or another; the people contributing a part of their own private revenue in
order to make up a public revenue to the sovereign or commonwealth."

                                     Conservative economist Adam
                                     Smith, "The Wealth of Nations",
                                     Book 5, Chapter 2, 1776

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

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