NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Thursday, February 13, 1997

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

97-49 - National Capital Region (D.C.) - Follow-up on Employee Death 

A trust fund has been established for the daughter of Park Police sergeant
Fred Davis, who was killed in a motor vehicle accident on February 8th. 
Donations should be sent to The Rebecca Marie Davis Trust, Presidential
Savings Bank, 4520 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814, attention Patty
Kite.  The phone number is 301-652-1616 extension 2229.  For further
information, contact the Park Police aviation section at 202-690-0738. 
[Einar Olsen, RCR, NCRO, 2/10]

97-51 - Olympic NP (Washington) - Search and Rescue; Three Fatalities

Rangers responded to a request for assistance from the Coast Guard station at
La Push in the early morning hours of February 12th.  A 44-foot rescue boat
with a crew of four on a rescue mission had overturned at the mouth of the
harbor just after midnight and a search was underway for the crew members. 
Surf, high winds, low visibility and a high tide made rescue efforts
difficult, and several searchers from cooperating agencies were injured
during the search effort.  Coast Guard helicopters located a crew member
who'd been able to swim free of the surf on a nearby island at 3:15 a.m.  A
second was found unconscious and unresponsive on the beach 45 minutes later. 
Rangers Cole and Romer provided CPR all the way to the hospital in Forks, but
their efforts to revive him proved fruitless.  The bodies of the two
remaining crewmen were found in the water in coves on the island and
recovered by technical rescue teams.  [Mark O'Neill, DR, Mora/Ozette
District, 2/12]

97-52 - Wilson's Creek NB (Missouri) - Burglary

The building used to store the park's living history equipment was broken
into on the night of January 30th.  Nine reproduction firearms and six edged
weapons were taken.  The former included two Navy Arms percussion
double-barrelled shotguns, a Hatfield percussion full-stock hunting rifle, a
Hatfield flintlock full-stock hunting rifle, a Remington Army revolver, a
Colt Walker revolver, a Colt Navy revolver, a Colt 1862 Police revolver, and
a Colt 1860 Army revolver.  The edged weapons included a cavalry saber, an
artillery saber and four saber bayonets.  The stolen items are valued at
about $2,850.  The investigation is being led by Dan Madrid, a criminal
investigator from Ozark NSR; he is being assisted by park staff, local
sheriffs' offices and the state crime lab.  [John Sutton, CR, WICR, 2/12]

97-53 - Prince William Forest Park (Virginia) - Burglary 

The office of Travel Trailer Village, a park concessioner, was broken into
some time between 7 and 7:45 p.m. on the evening of February 7th.  The
burglar(s) took $300 from a cash register and stole the office safe.  The
safe was recovered by county officers at a school near the office the next
day.  Efforts to break into the safe had been unsuccessful.  Rangers are
investigating, but there are no leads at present.  [George Liffert, SPR,
PRWI, 2/12]

97-54 - Grand Canyon NP (Arizona) - Rescue

On February 10th, South Rim rangers were notified that a dog was stranded
below the canyon rim near Pima Point.  Rangers rappelled down to the dog,
found it in good condition, and carried it back to the rim.  The ledge the
dog was on was 60 feet below the canyon rim, covered with snow, and was
accessible only by rappelling.  Rangers later learned that the dog had been
reported missing by its owners a week earlier when they were visiting the
park.  The dog, which was blind and deaf, had apparently been stranded on the
ledge without food or water for the entire week.  On February 11th, the
owners returned to the park and were reunited with their dog.  [Dave Brennan,
SDR, South Rim, GRCA, 2/12]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Yellowstone NP (Wyoming) - Resumption of Bison Capture Operations
     
On February 7th, the park resumed the capture of bison migrating toward the
northern boundary near Stephens Creek.  Use of the NPS capture facility had
been temporarily suspended on January 23rd due, in part, to the large number
of animals that had already been removed this winter.  When the 
suspension was initiated, there were relatively few bison remaining in the
immediate area and an intensive hazing program was implemented in an effort
to minimize the numbers of bison leaving the park ("hazing" is a term for
herding bison from one area to another).  Since then, additional bison have
migrated toward the park boundary and many have been hazed on numerous
occasions over the past few weeks.  The Montana Department of Livestock has
continued to shoot bison that leave the park despite the Service's requests
for tolerance of bison on public lands outside the park where there are no
conflicts with cattle or private property.  The decision to resume capture
operations was based on staff observations that hazing has become
increasingly less effective at preventing animals from leaving the park, that
repetitive hazing has contributed to depletion of the animals' scarce energy
reserves, and that the bison are unlikely to be sustained in this area of the
park until spring due to prevailing severe ice and snow conditions.  Since
February 7th, 154 bison have been captured and processed at Stephens Creek. 
Of these, 85 tested negative for brucellosis.  They will be held for the time
being at the capture facility along with 62 bison that had previously tested
negative (these 147 will presumably be removed from the Yellowstone
ecosystem), seven which had previously been radio collared as part of an on-
going research project and will be transported to the park's interior, and 61
which have tested positive and have been (or will be) shipped to slaughter
facilities.  One bison was fatally injured when it ran into a gate at in the
capture facility.  A total of over 900 bison have so far been removed from
Yellowstone this winter, including 462 sent to slaughter from the Stephens
Creek facility.  [Mike Murray, ACR, YELL, 2/12]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Report pending.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

No submissions.

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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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