- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Thursday, February 6, 1997
- Date: Thurs, 6 Feb 1997
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Thursday, February 6, 1997
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
96-707 - Yosemite NP (California) - Follow-up on Winter Storm Impacts
The following are highlights from yesterday's reports on the continuing
effort to restore and reopen the park:
o Progress continued yesterday on repairs to the three major roads
leading into Yosemite Valley. Rock blasting was conducted on Highway
140. Emergency repairs to that highway are nearing an estimated 55%
completion level, but new slumps and damage areas show up on both
Highway 140 and Highway 120 on a daily basis. Coordination of state,
FHWA and park road crews continues to present a challenge to incident
managers.
o A dump truck working on road projects rolled over, but there were no
injuries.
o Incident costs have now reached $10 million. Efforts are underway to
return incident management to the park.
A total of 556 people - down from 581 on Tuesday - are currently committed to
the incident. [Scott Gediman, IO, with Yosemite PIO staff, and D. D'Andrea,
"Highwater '97A Incident", YOSE, 2/5]
97-44 - Olympic NP (Washington) - Assist; Pursuit of Felon
On the evening of January 27th, the park received a call requesting
assistance in halting a driver who was refusing to stop for a Gray's Harbor
deputy and was heading for the park. The driver, subsequently identified as
one M.P., had committed a minor traffic violation. A park
investigator and a Jefferson County deputy spotted M.P.'s pickup just
south of Klaloch and followed him north to the county line, where a Clallam
County deputy took over the pursuit. Officers followed M.P. for about 50
miles to the Lake Crescent area of the park. Up to this point, M.P. was
neither fleeing nor operating in a reckless manner; he just refused to stop.
A check on him by Clallam County dispatch revealed, however, that M.P. was
wanted on a felony rape warrant and should be considered armed. When M.P.
entered the park at Lake Crescent, two rangers took over the pursuit through
the park to a point just east of the park boundary, where state police had
deployed a spike strip across the roadway to flatten the vehicle's tires.
One tire on his vehicle was flattened, and he pulled off the road about a
half mile after crossing the spike strip. Two deputies armed with shotguns
got out of their vehicles and ordered M.P. out of the car. After a short
period of time, the deputies heard a shot coming from the truck and
immediately returned fire with one round of 00 buckshot each. When they
checked the vehicle, they found M.P. unconscious and suffering from what
appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Rangers provided
medical aid until an ambulance arrived, at which time M.P. was pronounced
dead by a deputy coroner. Investigation disclosed that the fatal wound had
been inflicted by a black powder pistol and that neither of the rounds fired
by the deputies had hit M.P. [Curt Sauer, OLYM, 2/5]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No submissions.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Regs Update - The following actions have recently taken place:
o 36 CFR Part 2: The proposed rule is has been released by the solicitor.
A small work group has been selected to review the solicitor's comments
and a few other topics that have come up over the past year prior to
the document going to the director and the assistant secretary. This
group is tentatively scheduled to meet the first part of March.
o 36 CFR Part 3: The Part 3 work group met between January 21st and 24th
at Lake Mead NRA to begin the task of updating and rewriting (where
necessary) Part 3 of 36 CFR on boating and water use activities. The
work group consists of the following 14 individuals:
Jerry Case KAHO Chuck Young GLBA
Jay Lippert FIIS Art North DEWA
Chris Johnson SLBE Bonnie Foist BISC
Rick Brown NERI Chris Pappas USPP
Kerry Haut GLCA Carl Martinez GATE
Bob McKeever LAME Michael Tiernan Solicitor
Dennis Burnett RAD/WASO Fred Messman Nevada Wildlife
Small work groups were established and initial topic assignments were
made. The group has tentatively scheduled a second meeting for May 5th
through the 9th. If you have questions or concerns that you would like
the group to address, contact work group leader Bob McKeever. He can
be reached via cc:Mail or by calling him at 702-293-8939.
o 36 CFR 9B - Non-Federal Oil and Gas Rights: The NPS has resubmitting
this proposed rule that has been on hold since 1994 and is currently
being reviewed by the solicitor.
o 36 CFR Part 14 - Rights-of-Way: This proposed rule was signed by the
assistant secretary on November 13th and was approved by the
Departmental Office of Regulatory Affairs. It needs some minor
editorial changes prior to going to OMB.
o 43 CFR 10.12 - NAGPRA Civil Penalties: This interim rule was approved
by OMB and was published in the Federal Register on January 13th.
o 36 CFR Part 61 - Procedures for State, Tribal and Local Government
Historic Preservation Programs:
o Part 7 and 13 Regulations: A draft proposed rule for Part 13
regulations is currently being reviewed in-house by parks in the Alaska
Region.
[Dennis Burnett, RAD/WASO]
MEMORANDA
"IBPs related to the Commercial Bus Tour Fee," signed by Associate Director,
Park Operations and Education Maureen Finnerty on February 4th and sent by
cc:Mail to all regional directors and park superintendents. The text
follows:
"A January 14, 1997, National Park Service (NPS) news release has caused some
confusion regarding Incidental Business Permit (IBP) administrative costs
incurred under the 16 U.S.C. 3a authority. The reference to IBP's in the
news release only covers those issued to commercial tour companies with road
based tours beginning on January 1, 1998. The intent of the news release
was to indicate that, although IBP's will be required of commercial tour
companies with road based tours, costs generally associated with these
permits would not be charged to commercial bus tour companies when they enter
recreation entrance fee areas (fees charged under the Land and Water
Conservation Fund Act of 1965, as amended). A policy decision has been made
that these companies will not be charged two sets of costs - IBP, which is an
administrative recovery cost, and Commercial Tour Fee, which includes the fee
for conducting business in the park plus individual entrance fees. Parks
which require commercial road based tours to have an IBP for operation in the
park should charge the administrative costs for the IBP issuance to the parks
cost of collection.
"Parks should continue to operate as they have done in the past concerning
IBP's through December 31, 1997. When the new commercial tour fees go into
effect in January 1998, this is when the IBP process will also change.
Commercial tour companies entering areas not charging a recreation entrance
fee will continue to be charged for the administrative costs of issuing the
IBP. For the 1997 season, all parks will continue to charge IBP
administrative costs for commercial bus tours.
"If there are any questions concerning this issue please contact Laurie
Shaffer, Concessions Program 303-987-6911 or Tim Stone, National Fee Program
Manager at 202-208-4205."
EXCHANGE
No submissions.
OBSERVATIONS
This section, which appears intermittently in the Morning Report, contains
observations regarding the National Park Service, the System and the several
professions of park employees. Today's contribution was excerpted from the
Yosemite Daily Report and sent in by park IO Kendell Thompson. It provides
perspective on the park's problems of late:
"[Sierra winter storms] are likely to be remembered more by the bridges and
houses they carry away than by their beauty or the thousand blessings they
bring to the fields and gardens of Nature."
John Muir, source not specified
* * * * *
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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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