NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Friday, December 20, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

96-700 - Grand Canyon NP (Arizona) - Assist; Homicide

The park received a report of a stabbing at a hotel in the town of Tusayan,
just south of the park, on the evening of December 13th.  Responding rangers
located and detained the suspected assailant, H.C., 59, of Cameron,
Arizona, until sheriff's deputies could arrive on scene.  The victim, A.C.,
31, of Mesa, Arizona, had been stabbed once in the chest with a
pocket knife.  Rangers provided advanced life support and transported
A.C. to the park's clinic, where he died of his injury.  H.C. has been
charged with first degree murder.  [Dave Brennan, SDR, South Rim, GRCA]

96-701 - Fredericksburg and Spottsylvania NMP (Virginia) - Theft Conviction

On November 14th, M.C. was arrested for stealing 34 ENP&MA books
valued at over $700 from the park's two sales outlets.  On November 26th,
M.C. plead guilty to petty larceny in federal district court under the
terms of a plea agreement.  He was placed on two years' supervised probation,
banned from all national parks for two years, fined $225, and required to
report his conviction to the New York State Bar Association, of which he is a
member.  [CR, FRSP]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No reports.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Significant Land Exchange - On December 18th, the 108-acre Phoenix Indian
School property was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the
city of Phoenix, the Barron Collier Company of Naples, Florida, and the
Veterans Administration in exchange for 108,000 acres of land in Florida. 
The site served as a BIA boarding school for Native American children for 100
years before closing in 1991.  In return, over 83,000 acres was added to Big
Cypress National Preserve, and the Fish and Wildlife Service received 4,000
acres for the existing Florida Panther NWR and some 21,000 acres for the
creation of Ten Thousand Islands NWR.  These additions to park and FWS lands
will significantly enhance the protection of significant ecologically
sensitive lands, including Everglades NP, and will help protect many
endangered species in Florida.  The Southern Arizona Group office had been
acting as "caretaker" of the Phoenix Indian School property since 1991 under
legislation (Public Law 100-696) which outlined and provided for the land
exchange.  [Dwayne Collier, Superintendent, SOAR] 

Disturbed Lands Restoration - A team of NPS specialists in ecosystem
restoration met in mid-November to chart the direction of the evolving
disturbed lands restoration program.  Team members made important progress in
identifying the steps to organize and increase support for NPS efforts to
restore human-caused disturbances.  The principal products from the workshop
included:
     
     o a draft "Strategic Plan for NPS Disturbed Lands Restoration" that
       outlines the program's goals, objectives, and action steps; and
  
     o the establishment of an advisory group, which is to ensure that the
       planned goals and workshop objectives are met.  An interim steering
       committee, composed of park, SSO, NRPC, and WASO staff, will oversee
       short-term actions until the advisory group is formally established.
     
If you would like further information on the disturbed lands restoration
program, receive a copy of the pending "revised" strategic plan, and/or join
the NPS disturbed lands restoration network, please contact Dave Steensen,
Geologic Resources Division, either by calling 303-969-2014 or sending a
message to him at NP-WASO-GRD (cc:Mail) or dave_steensen@nps.gov (Internet).

Correction - In a burst of excessive editorial enthusiasm, your editor
incorrectly revised yesterday's report on the Sonoran pronghorn survey
submitted by Cheto Olais at ORPI.  As originally submitted, it referred
simply to "Sonoran pronghorns."  In a misguided effort to clarify, that was
edited to "Sonoran pronghorn sheep," eliciting reader comments on this
interesting new hybrid species and an observation that this is no doubt why
it is known as "the phantom of the desert."  The intent was to edit it to say
"Sonoran pronghorn antelopes," which is the actual critter.  

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

Feral Animal Management - The park is developing management plans for feral
sheep, pigs and horses (but no Sonoran pronghorn sheep) on the newly acquired
East Santa Cruz Island.  They'd like to hear from anyone who has put together
information on NPS policy, regs, case law and related material dealing with
restoration of native (pre-European) landscapes.  Please contact Kate
Faulkner at NP-CHIS or 805-658-5709.  

OBSERVATIONS

This section, which will now appear intermittently in the Morning Report,
contains observations regarding the National Park Service, the System and the
several professions of park employees.  

"It seems to us that the true value of the parks to America could not be more
clearly shown than by the fact that, in a time of anxiety and restlessness,
they were immensely useful to large numbers of our people.  Undoubtedly, too,
they have been a strong influence for stabilization [and] good citizenship."

                                   Horace Albright, Director, National
                                   Park Service, 1929-1933, from
                                   "Quotable Quotes: Relating to
                                   Conservation in General and the
                                   National Parks in Particular,"
                                   Department of Interior, 1951

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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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