NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Tuesday, January 30, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

96-24 - Independence (Pennsylvania) - Assault on Employee

On the evening of January 26th, an interpretive ranger was waiting to cross the
street in front of Independence Hall when a vehicle turned the corner at a high
rate of speed, narrowly missing two elderly women who were crossing the street. 
As it passed the ranger, the passenger in the car leaned out of the window and
struck her on her left hip with a long metal object.  The employee, who was not
in uniform at the time, was not seriously injured.  The investigation is
continuing.  [CRO, INDE]

96-25 - National Capital Parks (D.C.) - Resource Theft

Park Police officers are investigating the harvesting and theft of several
paulownia trees from a secluded area of Dumbarton Oaks park.  Investigators
believe that several trees with trunk sections 15 to 20 feet long were recently
cut and removed.  Several old and fallen trees were also cut into handling
lengths and prepared for transport.  Vehicle tracks and signs of fresh cutting
were found at the site.  The value of the trees has been placed at about
$70,000.  The investigation is continuing.  [Bill Lynch, LES, NCFAO]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico) - Lechuguilla Cave Surveys

There were six major and several minor survey and exploratory expeditions into
Lechuguilla Cave in 1995.  Three of the expeditions were by the Lechuguilla
Exploration and Research Network (LEARN); all others were run by individuals
approved by the park.  These expeditions added about 10 miles of new passages
and rooms, bringing the total length of the cave to 89.35 miles (143.8
kilometers).  Over 30 miles of new cave passages have been discovered and
surveyed since 1993.  All survey and exploration expeditions will now be
suspended for at least a year to give the cave a much-needed rest and allow a
study to be completed that is helping to determine human impacts to the
sensitive microbial communities found throughout the cave.  The findings of
this study should help park managers with the task of protecting the cave in
the future.  Other scientific studies, some restoration, and a few management-
related trips into the cave will not be affected by the suspension of
exploration.  [Dale Pate, Cave Specialist, CACA]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

OBSERVATIONS

Today's quote was provided by Steve Elkinton in WASO:

"Visits to national park areas have multiplied threefold in less than a
generation.  Far more of us than ever before walk in wilderness now and time-
travel in history simultaneously.  As we enjoy and save our parks, building
their defenses in our hearts, the parks help save us.  Interconnections form in
our depths.  The pattern of the whole grows stronger.  We hear again the great
orchestra of earth and life, and our spirits begin again to sing, tentatively
yet, but more and more in harmony."

                                     Darwin Lambert, cited in "National
                                     Parks in Crisis," 1982

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please address requests for
the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.

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

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