NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Thursday, January 18, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-794 - Denali (Alaska) - Resource Theft

On October 7th, D.E., who runs a masonry and concrete cutting
business in Fairbanks, called the park and reported that T.L., a
Swedish national, had apparently removed a number of geodes from Denali. 
D.E. reported that T.L. had brought the geodes to him and asked to have
them cut; during their conversation, T.L. told D.E. that they'd been
taken from the park.  Ranger Sandy Kogl recalled having issued T.L. a
backcountry permit, located the document, and noted that T.L. had returned
from his backcountry trip on October 3rd.  District ranger Tom Habecker faxed a
description of T.L. to Canadian customs officials at Beaver Creek, who
subsequently identified him, found some "rocks" in his vehicle, and called the
park.  Habecker asked them to seize the geodes and obtain a written statement
from T.L.  The customs officials told T.L. that they could deny him
entry into Canada if he refused to cooperate.  He then provided them with a
statement admitting the theft of the geodes from the Cathedral Mountain area
within Denali.  The geodes were tagged as evidence and transferred to the park
by Alaska state troopers.  T.L. was mailed a citation for violation of
natural resource preservation regs.  T.L. reportedly intends to return to
the park next year to climb Mt. McKinley.  If he fails to pay his fine, INS in
Anchorage will be notified and he will be met upon arrival at the airport. 
[Ken Kehrer, DENA]

95-795 - Golden Gate (California) - Demonstration Convictions

Last June, 150 demonstrators representing a group called "Homes Not Jails" held
a non-permitted demonstration in the Presidio.  Eleven members of the group
barricaded themselves inside two buildings in an avowed attempt to obtain low
cost housing for the homeless of San Francisco.  After negotiations broke down,
mass arrest procedures were initiated, a battering ram was used to enter the
building, and the 11 barricaded suspects were arrested.  Other demonstrators in
the street left after announcements were made that they would also be arrested. 
On January 11th, a federal judge found the group guilty of trespass, but
acquitted them on the charge of demonstrating without a permit.  Defense
lawyers used the "necessity defense", which holds, for example, that an inmate
in a prison can not be charged with escape if the building is burning and he
leaves due to imminent harm.  The judge said that homelessness in and of itself
does not meet the imminent harm standard, noting that fewer than one percent of
homeless died from being homeless in 1995 and that substance abuse and other
factors also affected the death rate.  Only two of the suspects were found to
be homeless; the others were determined to be "homeless advocates."  Ten were
sentenced to community service, and the eleventh failed to appear.  [Lt. Kevin
Hay, USPP, GOGA]

96-14 - Glen Canyon (Utah/Arizona) - Sexual Assault

A 40-year-old man from Ogden, Utah, was arrested for sexually molesting his
cousin's 17-year-old son on a boat moored at Bullfrog Marina during the early
morning hours of January 14th.  Investigating rangers determined that the boy
had accompanied his relative with plans to spend the holiday weekend working on
the boat.  The case has been turned over to the county for investigation. 
[Tomie Lee, CR, GLCA]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

MEMORANDA

No memoranda.

OBSERVATIONS

Quotes submitted for consideration for the Morning Report should pertain to
either the National Park Service or closely related issues, such as wilderness
and conservation, and should include the author and the date and source of the
quote.  A mailing list has been created for periodic dissemination of the
master list of quotes to date to interested parties.  If you'd like to be on
that list, please send a note to this address. 

Here's today's entry:

"Outdoor recreation is not found in the forests or glaciers or historic sites
[of the National Park Service], but in one's reactions to these resources.  The
mountain men who came up the Missouri to the Great Shining Mountains preferred
the wilds to the safety and sobriety of the settlements, and they were not
unmoved by the beauty of the land.  But of the incredible complexity of the
plant and animal communities that made up wilderness America, they were as
unaware as the prospectors, cattlemen, and sodbusters who followed.  The
engendering of a perceptive understanding of these values is perhaps the most
important function of the national parks.  Because outdoor recreation has
always involved physical activity, invading or even appropriating for personal
use a section of the countryside, there has developed among some a philosophy
that wilderness that is not personally experienced has little value.  In the
case of park wilderness, this philosophy is translated, 'Use it or lose it.' 
The capacity for perception may well separate those who see blank spaces on the
map as a profitless waste from those who see it as the most valuable part."

                                     NPS historian William C. Everhart,
                                     from "The National Park Service",
                                     1972

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