NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Tuesday, February 25, 1997

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

97-68 - San Antonio Missions NHP (Texas) - Burglary

Upon arrival at Mission San Juan on the morning of Sunday, February 23rd,
ranger Mary Jones noted several signs of vandalism and attempted forced entry
into the visitor contact station.  The parish priest subsequently told her
that the church had been burglarized and that audio equipment, an estimated
$200 in donations, and a number of religious items had been taken.  City
police are investigating.   [Dan Steed, CR, SAAN, 2/24]

97-69 - Joshua Tree NP (California) - Holiday Weekend Incidents

During President's Day weekend, rangers were involved in four rescues.  Two
climbers and a hiker suffered broken ankles when they fell from rocks in the
Hidden Valley and Indian Cove areas.  Each was flown to Desert Hospital in
Palm Springs.  A fourth visitor suffered head injuries in a car accident at
Cottonwood Canyon and was also flown to the hospital.  [Judy Bartzatt, CR,
JOTR, 2/23]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

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.  

"Every great landscape carries in its beauty the seeds of its own
destruction.  Primitive wilderness characteristics give the national parks
their real prestige and will increasingly add to their distinction as these
qualities disappear elsewhere.  But these qualities are readily destroyed;
they are fragile things.  How preserve them?  The answer may well depend upon
how clearly we define our aims."

                                Newton B. Drury, Director, 1940-
                                1951, 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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