NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, February 7, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-699 - Voyageurs (Minnesota) - Follow-up on Burglary 

W.H., who was arrested last July for burglarizing four cabins in the
park, was subsequently indicted on three charges, and, in a plea agreement,
pled guilty to one charge of burglary.  On January 26th, he was sentenced to
just under a year in prison.  [Bruce McKeeman, CR, VOYA]

96-41 - Rocky Mountain (Colorado) - Follow-up on Search for Downed Aircraft

The four-person ground search team looking for the downed two-engine Piper
Seneca in the Fay Lakes/Ypsilon Mountain area reported no success yesterday in
locating any evidence of the plane.  The team skied and snowshoed some four
miles to the east slope of the mountain and the adjacent drainage and searched
the area above the tree line (11,500 feet).  Team members planned to seek
evidence of the crash in the forests along the trail on their return from the
area late yesterday.  Park personnel will consult with CAP officials on what
actions to take next.  The search effort has been hampered by blizzard
conditions and sub-zero temperatures.  [Doug Caldwell, ROMO]

96-42 - Flagstaff Areas (Arizona) - Follow-up on Search for Downed Aircraft

The Guardian Air Transport plane which was last heard from while over Sunset
Crater last Wednesday was found on Saturday afternoon in a remote and rugged
area of Bear Jaw Canyon at the 10,500-foot level on the north side of the San
Francisco Peaks.  Search efforts had been hampered by storms and poor
visibility.  The three occupants - the pilot, a nurse and a respiratory
therapist, all residents of Flagstaff - were killed in the crash.  Their bodies
were recovered the following day; rangers from Grand Canyon were instrumental
in the recovery effort.  Rangers from both Grand Canyon and the Flagstaff Area
parks assisted throughout the search operation.  [Kim Watson, CR, FLAG]

96-45 - George Washington Parkway (Virginia) - Fatal MVA with NPS Plow

T.C., 26, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was killed when the vehicle he was
operating was struck by an NPS snow plow around 3:25 a.m. on Saturday, February
3rd.  Investigation revealed that the plow driver was clearing snow from the
parkway when the truck collided with T.C.'s vehicle, which was traveling
southbound in the northbound lanes.  An investigation is underway.  [Bill
Lynch, LES, NCFO]

96-46 - Kennesaw Mountain (Georgia) - Attempted Rape

On the afternoon of January 21st, a woman taking pictures near the railroad
tracks that run through the north end of the battlefield was attacked by a man
who knocked her down and attempted to rape her.  The woman successfully
resisted him, then reported the attack.  Rangers Lila Roybal and Rick Black
took her to a local hospital, where evidence was collected and she was treated
for numerous lacerations and bruises.  An immediate search was made at the site
and nearby "hobo" camps and winter shelters, but the woman's assailant was not
found.  An investigation is underway in conjunction with county police.  [CRO,
KEMO]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

1) Continuing Resolution - The Office of Management and Budget has ruled that
the National Park Service would resume operation under the January 5th
continuing resolution stipulating that the agency can provide only "visitor
services" if no new legislation replaces the CURRENT continuing resolution,
which provides across-the-board coverage but expires on March 15th.  If no new
legislation is enacted, ONPS funding would therefore be guaranteed until the
end of the fiscal year.  In either case, the fire program WILL be covered
through September 30th, as it is being funded by BLM under yet another
continuing resolution.  [Jim Giammo, WASO Budget]

2) Information Request - Acadia is participating in the development of an
island-wide public transportation program to decrease the number of vehicles
entering the park and reduce overall road and parking lot congestion.  many
visitors are using their cars to transport bicycles to the park's carriage road
system, and is seeking information on what options are available to transport
bikes (and bicyclists) safely and easily.  They would appreciate any
information regarding bike trailers or bus/van systems that could accommodate
from 15 to 20 bikes.  Please contact Charlie Jacobi by name on cc:Mail or at
207-288-5463.  [Charlie Jacobi, ACAD]

MEMORANDA

No memoranda.

OBSERVATIONS

Today we take a break from the insights of sages and philosophers and turn to a
bit of humor inspired by the semi-extraordinary weather of the past seven or
eight months, during which the parks (and, of course, everyone else) have been
assaulted and besieged by droughts, torrents, hurricanes, wind storms, and
record-setting blizzards, floods and cold snaps.  Although Mr. Twain was
talking about New England in this 1876 speech, his words could apply to most of
the United States.  The references have accordingly been revised. If the past
is prologue, then his spring forecast is ominous:

"I reverently believe that the Maker who made us all makes everything in [the
U.S.] but the weather.  I don't know who makes that, but I think it must be raw
apprentices in the weather-clerk's factory who experiment and learn how...then
are promoted to make weather for countries that require a good article, and
will take their custom elsewhere if they don't get it.  There is a sumptuous
variety about [our] weather that compels the stranger's admiration - and
regret.  The weather is always doing something here; always attending strictly
to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see
how they will go.  

"But it gets through more business in spring than in any other season.  In the
spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather
inside of four-and-twenty hours.  It was I that made the fame and fortune of
that man that had the marvelous collection of weather on exhibition at the
Centennial...He was going to travel all over the world to get specimens from
all the climes...[but at my invitation he came here] and got hundreds of kinds
of weather that he had never heard of before.  And as to quantity - well, after
he had picked out and discarded all that was blemished in any way, he not only
had weather enough, but weather to spare; weather to hire out; weather to sell;
to deposit; weather to invest; weather to give to the poor..."

                                     Mark Twain, speech to New England
                                     Society, December, 1876

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

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