NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date: Friday, April 12, 1996 

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-775/96-84 - Mount Rainier (Washington) - Follow-up on Storm Damage

Several areas of the park have been closed temporarily to vehicle access due
the continuing impacts of the heavy rains and widespread flooding that struck
the area in February and last November:

o Carbon River/Ipsut Creek Campground Area - A large section (about 1,350
feet) of the road leading from the park's Carbon River (northwest)
entrance to the Ipsut Creek campground area was washed out when dikes
failed to hold back the Carbon River.  The roadbed in the vicinity of
Falls Creek washed away to an average depth of ten feet, effectively
cutting off all vehicular access to the campground.  The road will
probably be closed to traffic throughout the 1996 visitor season.

o Paul Peak/Mowich Lake Area - Vehicle access to the Paul Peak/Mowich
Lake area has been closed due to extensive slide damage to State Route
165 about a mile west of the park boundary.  The road will probably
remain closed until early July.  One lane traffic will be maintained
through five other slide areas on SR 165, except when periodic road
closures are required due to road work.  During these closures, traffic
will be allowed through at the beginning of each hour.  Construction
will occur on weekdays.

o State Route 123 - A 600-foot section of the road about five miles south
of Cayuse Pass was damaged by extensive slides.  Half of the roadway
slid about 600 feet down into the Chinook Creek drainage.  Cayuse Pass
(elevation 4,675 feet) is usually cleared of snow and opened to traffic
by mid-April.  There's no estimate of when it will be opened to traffic
this year.

Travelers are asked to call the park at 360-569-2211 for updated information
on roads.  [Eric Walkinshaw, MORA]

96-141 - Padre Island (Texas) - Oil Spill

On March 18th, the barge "Buffalo 292" collided with another ship in the
Houston ship channel and spilled 4,700 barrels of bunker "C" oil into the
ocean.  The park was notified that impacts from the spill might occur on park
beaches.  On April 5th, oil from the barge began coming ashore in the Big
Shell beach area; five days later, a large amount of oil/tar appeared on
Malaquite beach in front of the visitor center.  A total of ten miles of
beach have been impacted to date.  Crews supplied by the company responsible
for the barge are cleaning up the beaches.  About 150 people are employing
hand tools to remove the oil from the sand.  ICS is being utilized to manage
the park response.  [Paul Eubank, IC, PAIS]

96-142 - C&O Canal (Maryland/D.C.) - Body Found

The body of an unidentified man was found in the canal just north of Chain
Bridge on the morning of April 9th.  Investigation into the cause of death
continues.  [Bill Lynch, LES, NCFDO]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Yellowstone (Wyoming) - Wolf Shot

A female wolf, R-11 from the Soda Butte pack, was shot near Meeteetse,
Wyoming, on Saturday, March 30th.  The wolf has been sent to Fish and
Wildlife's national forensics lab to determine the cause of death and gather
other biological information.  R-11, a 92-pound adult, was last seen on
February 10th in the Slough Creek drainage just north of the park.  The pack
itself was last located just outside the park's northeast boundary in the
Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness on March 28th.  As agreed upon in earlier
discussions, some of the local ranchers in the Nye Valley adjacent to the
wilderness were notified of the pack's movement into the valley.  The
investigation into R-11's death continues.  [USFWS, Region 6]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Entries pending.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

No submissions.

OBSERVATIONS

Some time ago, we ran one of a collection of poems written by Forest Service
rangers in the early days of that agency.  The following is another, which
illustrates that the joys of office work are ageless.  Thanks to Mark Forbes
in Columbia Cascade SSO for passing this on:

               I got a little detail to the supervisor's shack,
          And I hadn't lit in Springer 'til I wished that I was back
       On the far end of my district, counting stock or building trail,
           For to work inside an office is like doing time in jail.

             This bending o'er a table and a-writing all the day,
         Is a-making me hump-shouldered and my hair is turning gray.
           It sure will be my finish if they don't relieve me soon,
     For my bewhiskered, sunburnt features is gettin' paler than the moon.

         Some may rant and cuss a little and feel they've got a snob
            Cause they haven't been promoted to a supervisor's job;
         But I'd rather face the devil, or a bald-faced grizzly bear,
           Than this everlasting torment in a super's swivel chair.

         I thought that I had troubles when on my district all alone,
       But I've found that serious trouble was a thing I'd never known.
       When I git back on my district, you can bet your life I'll stay,
            And be thankful to my Maker I can draw a ranger's pay.

                                     Anonymous US Forest Service ranger,
                                     from "Songs of the Forest Ranger,"
                                     edited by John D. Guthrie, 1917

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
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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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