NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Friday, February 9, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-776 - Grand Teton (Wyoming) - Follow-up on Employee Death

The family of Robert "Bruno" Smith, the park motor vehicle operator who was
killed in a snowmobile accident on December 13th, has asked that donations on
his behalf be sent to the Feed the Elk Fund.  The fund was established in his
name at the Key Bank in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  If you would like to make a
donation to the fund, contact Janelle at Key Bank at 307-733-4884.  [Deb
Flewelling, GRTE]

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

Efforts to find the two-engine Piper Seneca that is thought to have gone down
in the Fay Lakes/Ypsilon Mountain area of the park continue to be fruitless. 
Despite two days of searching throughout that area, park ground teams have been
unable to detect ELT signals or find any wreckage, trash, sheared-off trees or
other evidence of a crash.  Avalanche danger is very high in several search
areas; ground searches have accordingly been suspended until conditions improve
or aerial searchers detect evidence of the wreckage.  [Doug Caldwell, PIO,
ROMO]

96-49 - Timpanogos Cave (Utah) - Closure Due to Avalanche Hazard

Due to extreme avalanche danger, the entirety of American Fork Canyon, where
the park is located, has been closed to public access and gated at the canyon's
entrance.  Employees residing in the park have been advised about evacuation of
their homes, but have not been required to leave due to recent moderation of
the danger.  Daily slides have occurred in the immediate area, but there have
been no injuries or damages to property.  Park offices will remain in operation
as long as employees are able to travel in the canyon.  [Kathy Brown, CR, TICA]

96-50 - Voyageurs (Minnesota) - Search; Fatality

On the morning of February 8th, the park was advised that two snowmobilers -
D.B., 70, and B.L., 74 - were overdue from a trip in the park. 
Ranger Dave Little and park pilot Scott Evans met with a county deputy and
began preparing for a search for the two men.  Meanwhile, the son of one of the
missing men had begun his own air search for them, and notified the park that
he'd seen one person on foot in Lost Bay on Rainy Lake.  Evans flew to the
area, landed, and contacted D.B., who reported that B.L. had died the
previous afternoon.  The two men had been traveling on Rainy Lake when B.L.
had stopped, apparently because he became stuck in slush.  When D.B. returned,
he found that B.L. had stopped breathing and was cyanotic.  D.B. spent the
next couple of hours trying to get his own snowmobile unstuck, then decided to
walk out.  He spent the entire night walking and resting and had traveled about
12 miles when spotted from the air.  D.B. refused medical attention, and
appeared to be in good condition.  B.L. appears to have died from natural
causes.  [Bruce McKeeman, CR, VOYA]

96-51 - Chickamauga/Chattanooga (Georgia) - Oil Spill

On the afternoon of February 6th, a section of pipeline located mid-slope on
the north face of Lookout Mountain began leaking diesel fuel.  Although the
leak was not in the park, it was just a few feet upslope from park land.  A
team from Colonial Pipeline Company was on scene through the night working to
contain and cleanup the spill.  As of noon Wednesday, it appeared that a
maximum of about 63,000 gallons of number two fuel oil had leaked from the
line.  About 2,000 gallons had been recovered.  Little material remained on the
surface, however, indicating that most of it had migrated beneath the surface
via cracks connected to the mountain's extensive cave system.  Preliminary
assessments indicate that caves located near the spill site have in fact been
impacted, but no oil has been found in any streams or in the nearby Tennessee
River.  Officials are primarily concerned at present with the degree of
contamination to caves and to local groundwater supplies.  No park surface
resources have been affected, but geologists believe that caves on park
property below the spill have likely been contaminated.  Agencies were planning
on meeting yesterday to formulate a plan of action.  [Sam Weddle, CI&RM, CHCH]

96-52 - C&O Canal (Maryland) - Burglary Arrest

Park Police officers arrested J.R. of Arlington, Virginia, on January
25th for the burglary of a construction trailer at Fletcher's boat house. 
J.R. was found on an adjacent street; in his possession were tools and
other items missing from the trailer.  Officers retraced his path from the site
and located several bags containing additional items which had been taken from
the trailer and stashed for later retrieval.  J.R. was charged with felony
burglary, felony theft and destruction of property.  [Bill Lynch, LES, NCFO]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

MEMORANDA

No memoranda.

OBSERVATIONS

Today's entry was sent by Heather Whitman at Theodore Roosevelt:

"I am not in favor of building any more roads in the national parks than we
have to build.  I am not in favor of doing anything along the lines of so-
called improvements that we do not have to do...I think we ought to keep as
much wilderness in this country as we can.  It is easy to destroy a wilderness;
it can be done very quickly, but it takes nature a long time, even if we let
nature alone, to restore for our children what we have ruthlessly destroyed."

                                     Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes,
                                     speech at conference of state park
                                     authorities, 1935

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.

                               --- ### ---