NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Thursday, April 30, 1998

INCIDENTS

98-167 - Hawaii Volcanoes NP (HI) - Follow-up on Search in Progress

The search for S.-D.T., 26, who disappeared while hiking near
active lava flows on the evening of April 27th, continued yesterday, but
without result.  Rangers flew the area for two hours yesterday morning,
checking all possible caves and cracks along the shoreline.  Ranger Jeff Judd
was long-lined into the area where S.-D.T. apparently fell.  Judd checked
for footprints and looked for signs of S.-D.T. in cracks and crevices;
although he recovered S.-D.T.'s flashlight, Judd found no other sign of him. 
Additional searchers were being deployed at the time of the report, but
consideration was being given to concluding the search effort if nothing else
was found by the end of the day.  [Yvette Ruan, CR, HAVO, 4/29]

98-170 - Glen Canyon NRA (UT/AZ) - Homicide

On April 20th, ranger Mark Camisa responded to a request from the Green
County sheriff to check out a report of a human body dumped just off of State
Route 276 a few miles outside of Bullfrog.  Camisa and a county deputy found
the body of an adult female inside a sleeping bag a few feet down a steep
slope along the main road.  Although the body was outside of park boundaries,
the investigation now points to the possibility that the homicide was
committed within the park.  The victim's fingers had been amputated, thereby
complicating positive identification.  The investigation is continuing with
assistance from the park and the Utah Bureau of Investigation; the county
sheriff's office is the lead agency.  [Tomie Lee, CR, GLCA, 4/27]

98-171 - Redwood N&SP (CA) - Disturbed Person

Park visitors contacted rangers on April 16th regarding a man who'd been
acting strangely.  The man, subsequently identified as N.W.,
30, had followed and approached several teenage girls and had made
inappropriate comments to them.  When rangers contacted him, N.W. was
sitting in a dangerous position on the edge of a 400-foot bluff overlooking
the ocean near Endert's Beach.  He wouldn't respond either to rangers or to a
deputy who knew him.  It was determined that N.W. had a history of
mental problems, that he had told friends that he intended to kill somebody,
and that he had taken a rifle with him.  Following lengthy efforts to
communicate with N.W., a Del Norte County deputy and a ranger, both
members of the county SAR team, roped up, moved rapidly to his location,
subdued him, and pulled him from the edge of the bluff.  He was taken into
custody and transported to a mental health facility for evaluation.  [Curt
Vade Bon Coeur, Area Ranger, REDW, 4/29]

98-172 - Gateway NRA (NJ/NY) - Attempted Suicide

On the afternoon of April 11th, visitors to the park's Sandy Hook Unit told
ranger Anthony Macri that they'd seen a man whose arms were bleeding.  Macri
found 51-year-old M.T. hiding inside an abandoned pump house.  M.T.
was bleeding severely from self-inflicted lacerations on both wrists made by
a sharp piece of pipe fragment.  Macri was able to talk M.T. out of the
building and control his bleeding until additional rangers and paramedic
crews arrived.  M.T. was treated at a local hospital, where surgery was
required to repair severed tendons.  M.T. was depressed over recent marital
problems and the loss of his job.  [Thomas Lobkowicz, LES, GATE, 4/28]

98-173 - Denali NP (AK) - Snowmobiling Fatality

On the evening of April 25th, Alaska state troopers notified park staff that
a snowmobiler had been buried in an avalanche in the Upper Bull River area of
the park.  Three snowmobilers had been "highmarking" (a practice of climbing
as fast and far as one can up steep chutes and couloirs) when an avalanche
swept down, burying M.S., 34, of Fairbanks.  His companions, Bob
Tolman and Dale Springer, searched and yelled for him for about a half hour
before leaving for help.  It took them an hour to ride out to the George
Parks Highway, where they used a cell phone to call 911.  The troopers
determined the incident was on park land and advised the park.  South
District and mountaineering ranger Joe Reichert flew to the area in the
park's LAMA helicopter.  Other rangers interviewed the reporting party. 
Reichert and ranger JD Swed found the avalanche debris field to be unstable
and employed probes to determine that it was between nine and 25 feet deep. 
Darkness quickly forced them to leave for the night.  Park mountaineers,
search dogs, and members of a mountain rescue group were flown into the area
the following morning.  The snowmobile was located around 10:20 a.m., and
M.S.'s body was found about a half hour later.  He was buried under almost
seven feet of snow.  [Ken Kehrer, DENA, 4/29]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Delaware Water Gap NRA (NJ/PA) - Reinstitution of Prescribed Fire Program

The park's fire program has resumed following approval of a new environmental
assessment for fire management.  Seven prescribed fires were conducted
between the end of March and mid-April - four on the Snyder Farm in the
Pennsylvania District and three on the Roberts Farm in the New Jersey
District.  The objective of the projects in Pennsylvania is to manage and
promote the growth of warm season grasses that are native to the area; the
objective of the projects in New Jersey was to utilize a low-impact, non-
chemical method to prepare old fields for the planting of preferred species. 
The fires also provided an opportunity for some prescribed fire trainees to
become certified in applicable tasks in the prescribed fire performance task
book.  Plans call for continued use of prescribed fire for habitat management
and for the maintenance of historic and scenic vistas.  [Doyle Nelson, CR,
DEWA, 4/25]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Several reports pending.

MEMORANDA

No entries.

EXCHANGE

No entries.

                        *  *  *  *  *

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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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