- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Thursday, May 2, 1996
- Date: Thurs, 2 May 1996
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Thursday, May 2, 1996
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
96-179 - Redwood (California) - Arrest for Redwood Theft
On March 22nd, national and state park rangers arrested an Orrick,
California, resident for possession of a large number of redwood tree blocks.
Investigation proved that the wood had been taken from an illegal logging
operation discovered in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, part of Redwood
National Park, earlier in the month. The illegal logging activity involved a
200-foot high, four-foot diameter redwood tree which had been felled some
time during the winter months. Rangers were able to match up growth rings
and chain saw cuts on wood seized from the suspect and wood still at the
scene. The man was arrested on felony theft charges and will be tried in
state court in May. [Bob Martin, CR, REDW]
96-180 - Hawaii Volcanoes (Hawaii) - MVA with Serious Injuries
A Buick sedan with three occupants was heading down Chain of Craters Road
towards the coastal eruption site when the driver struck a rock wall while
approaching a hairpin turn. The car skidded along the shoulder, flipped
over, then came to rest. The driver, M.R., and the front passenger,
J.V.N., 44, were seriously injured and had to be extricated from
the Buick. J.V.N. was transported to a hospital by a rescue helicopter;
M.R., who was considered to be stable, was taken by ambulance. K.L.,
44, the passenger in the back seat, suffered only minor injuries. M.R.'s
condition has since deteriorated and he is now in critical condition. There
was low ground fog and intermittent rain at the time of the accident. Speed
is considered to have been a contributing factor. About 15 park personnel,
including maintenance, fire and patrol staff, responded along with units from
local agencies. [Yvette Ruan, CR, HAVO]
96-181 - Catoctin (Maryland) - Search; Attempted Suicide
Rangers began a search for a 35-year-old woman from Ellicott City, Maryland,
around midnight on April 27th after being notified by county dispatch that
she had left a suicide note and was believed to be at Chimney Rock in the
park. Her car was found in the adjoining state park. A total of about 45
state and NPS rangers, local police officers and volunteer dog handlers
participated in the search. Ranger Reddinger and a SAR dog unit found her
lying unconscious at Wolf Rock in the park around 8:30 a.m. She was given
first aid, carried to the trailhead, then taken to a hospital and treated for
a drug overdose. She has since regained consciousness and is apparently
recovering. [Roger Steintl, CR, CATO]
96-182 - Kennesaw Mountain (Georgia) - Suicide
Ranger Rick Black was contacted at his home early on the morning of May 1st
by a visitor who said he saw a man shoot himself on top of Kennesaw Mountain.
Black found the victim, J.W., lying on the sidewalk with a .308 rifle
nearby. The entire area was secured, including Mountain Road and the
interpretive trail that leads to the summit. Family members and a friend
were notified of the incident by ranger Richard Hanks when they arrived at
the visitor center with a suicide note from the victim. J.W. had recently
been released from prison, and apparently took his life rather than return to
jail following a recent conviction for driving under the influence. [CRO,
KEMO]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II
LARGE FIRE SUMMARY
% Est
State Unit Fire IMT 5/1 5/2 Con Con
NM Santa Fe NF Dome T1 15,130 16,442 75 5/3
AZ Coronado NF Clark Peak T1 2,905 3,114 50 5/3
Slate T2 250 250 20 5/4
Tonto NF Lone T1 42,100 57,000 40 5/4
Kaibab NF * Bachelor -- - 249 95 NEC
State * Butcher Mesa -- - 100 0 5/2
CO San Juan NF Snow Springs T2 406 406 100 CND
CA Los Padres NF Grand -- 10,366 10,925 90 5/2
San Diego RU Otay #121 -- 1,050 1,050 50 5/2
Heading Notes
Unit -- Agency = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA state resource
or ranger unit; RD = state ranger district; District = BLM
district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire -- * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex; LSS =
limited suppression strategy; CSS = containment suppression
strategy
IMT -- T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST = State Team
% Con -- Percent of fire contained
Est Con -- Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report
FIRE NARRATIVES
Santa Fe NF/Bandelier NM - The critical burnout along the north flank of the
Dome Fire was completed on Tuesday and held yesterday. Numerous spot fires
and slopovers were successfully contained with air tankers, dozers and
hotshot crews. Holding and mop-up efforts are continuing in order to secure
the perimeter. The fire continues to back down canyons on the southeast
corner. Efforts are shifting to the south and east portions to attain
containment today.
FIRES AND ACRES BURNED
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Number 2 23 0 0 178 47 250
Acres Burned 400 78 0 0 2,144 529 3,151
COMMITTED RESOURCES
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Federal 107 60 21 13 623
Non-federal 72 68 12 5 247
CURRENT SITUATION
Increased initial attack was reported in the Southwest yesterday. Progress
was made on some fires, but others became more active. Many units are still
reporting very high and extreme fire dangers. Resource mobilization through
NICC continued to decline.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
Winds are forecast to increase throughout the Southwest over the next few
days, increasing the possibility of fire activity in that area.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 5/2]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No submissions.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Series Consolidation - The Office of Personnel Management has announced
(Federal Register, Vol. 61, No. 74, April 16th) that it does not intend to
pursue the planned simplification of the position classification structure by
reducing the number of occupational series from 442 to about 74 at this time.
After consulting with agencies, OPM found that about half of them objected to
implementation of the proposal because of the meed to maintain the job code
structure. OPM will instead write new classification standards which will be
broader and more generic than those currently in use. These job family
standards will cover professional, administrative, clerical and technical
lines of work in each job family group, and will accomplish a major goal of
classification simplification. [Information from Jim Lechleitner, JOTR]
Commercial Aquaculture - Superintendents and resource managers from Cape Cod
and Canaveral recently met to review issues pertaining to commercial
aquaculture (harvesting of marine species) and existing policies regarding
aquaculture in parks. Commercial shellfish operations are legislatively
authorized at Cape Cod; state authorities in Florida have approached
Canaveral about providing shellfish leases in Mosquito Bay for displaced and
out-of-work commercial fishermen. Park Service policy is to treat
aquaculture as a form of agriculture. As such, it is prohibited unless
otherwise provided for in park enabling legislation. The group determined
that the Service needs to develop an assessment of aquaculture issues in and
adjacent to national parks as a first step to providing policy and technical
guidance to superintendents. The first step is to determine which park units
may be affected. If you have commercial aquaculture facilities or operations
within or adjacent to your area, please contact Frank Panek at NP-WASO.
[Frank Panek, WRD/WASO]
MEMORANDA
No submissions.
EXCHANGE
No submissions.
OBSERVATIONS
"[During the government shutdown in January], many people, and members of
Congress in particular, wanted to open the parks only because they make
money...too little attention has been paid to the park values that cannot be
added up on a calculator. Many non-economic values are associated with
national parks - keeping our history alive, preserving wildlife and natural
wonders, safeguarding our cultural icons - and we need a new yardstick to
measure them...Putting a price tag on resources that are inherently non-
commercial seems to devalue them in our profit-conscious society. We must
not let that happen to our parks. This raises the question of whether in 100
years our great-grandchildren will treasure Yellowstone or simply value it.
The answer depends on what we do today. If we promote national parks because
they make money, our descendants will preserve them only until a more
lucrative use comes along. But if we acknowledge that the meaning and worth
of national parks comes from elsewhere, if we stress that national parks are
important because of what they teach us about ourselves, then perhaps our
children will treasure them...."
NPCA Board Chair Virgil Rose,
National Parks Magazine, May/June
1996
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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