NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                               MORNING REPORT

To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Tuesday, September 22, 1998

INCIDENTS

98-614 - Mesa Verde NP (CO) - Missing Person; Homicide

A park visitor found papers, clothing items and $1,000 in travelers' checks
in the Mesa Verde entrance parking lot on September 13th.  The items belonged
to 67-year-old L.P. of Aberdeen, Idaho.  Efforts were made to find
her via phone calls and NCIC checks, but proved fruitless.  Four days later,
a California Highway Patrol officer stopped L.P.'s 1991 Mazda pickup near
Oceanside, California.  The driver, Christopher Paul, a fugitive parolee from
Arizona, shot the officer, who returned fire and wounded Paul.  During the
subsequent interrogation, Paul admitted to shooting L.P. near Mesa Verde. 
A search was conducted and her body was found the following day just outside
the park near a roadside rest area.  Paul said he'd killed her on the
afternoon of September 12th, that he'd stayed in Cortez that night, and that
he'd planned to rob either the park's entrance station or a gas station the
next day.  He returned to the murder scene on the 13th, then drove on to the
park.  Paul found that there were too many cars waiting in line at the
entrance station, so he disposed of L.P.'s possessions in the parking lot
and drove off.  An entrance receipt from Grand Canyon NP was found in the
vehicle, indicating that Pauls visited there on September 13th on his way to
California and that he entered the park at 5 p.m.  Both Paul and the officer
are recovering from their wounds.  Paul is being extradited to Montezuma
County, Colorado, to face murder charges.  [Charlie Peterson, CR, MEVE, 9/20]

98-615 - Grand Teton NP (WY)/Glacier NP (MT) - Larceny Arrest

In early August, a 50-year-old woman from South Bloomington, Minnesota, stole
a car and a set of license plates, forged several prescriptions for
painkillers, and set out on a vacation crime spree in Grand Teton and
Yellowstone NPs.  Grand Teton rangers who arrested her for possession of the
stolen car and license plates discovered that she had between $5,000 and
$7,000 worth of stolen merchandise in the car which had been taken from gift
stores in Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Jackson, Wyoming.  Due to a couple of
legal technicalities, the assistant U.S. attorney declined to prosecute her
for possession of the stolen car and plates.  Bob Maguire, the law
enforcement specialist for Grand Teton, helped her acquire a rented car in
Jackson and learned that she was headed for Glacier NP.  He called the park
with a heads-up that she was en route, and continued to work with a suburban
Minneapolis police department on filing felony charges for the false
prescriptions.  Several days later, Glacier assistant law enforcement
specialist Steve Dodd spotted the woman near Logan Pass on Going-to-the-Sun
Road.  Surveillance was begun, and she was arrested shortly thereafter when
she stole several items from Apgar Village stores and gift shops.  She was
charged shortly thereafter with possession of dangerous drugs without a
prescription and falsely obtaining a Golden Access Passport.  She also
returned $279 in cash taken in a theft from a former friend's residence in
Billings, Montana, which she took while traveling from Grand Teton to
Glacier.  She forfeited bond on all three Glacier charges a week later in
U.S. magistrate's court and returned to Minnesota.  [Fred Vanhorn, GLAC,
9/20]

                       [Additional reports pending...]

FIRE ACTIVITY

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II

LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY 

                                                     Sun      Mon    %  Est
State      Unit             Fire/Incident     IMT    9/20     9/21  Con Con
-----      ----             -------------     ---    ----     ----  --- ---

--   --                     Hurricane Georges T1        -        -    -   -

                                  Heading Notes

Unit        Agency = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA state resource
            or ranger unit; RD = state ranger district; District = BLM
            district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire        * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex
IMT         T1 = Type I; T2 = Type II; ST = State Team; FUT = Interagency
            Fire Use Management Team
% Con       Percent of fire contained; UNK = unknown
Est Con     Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
            containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report

NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FOUR DAY TREND) 

                    NPS    BIA      BLM     FWS    States   USFS     Total
                    ---    ---      ---     ---    ------   ----     ----
Friday, 9/18         2     13         1       0       63     93       172
Saturday, 9/19       1      0         2       0       53     39        95
Sunday, 9/20         0      4         3       0       42     17        56
Monday, 9/21         0      5         2       0       60     19        86

TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FOUR DAY TREND) 

                  Crews     Engines    Helicopters    Airtankers   Overhead
                  ----      -------    -----------    ----------   --------
Friday, 9/18        36        108          23             2            94
Saturday, 9/19      26        108          21             5            33
Sunday, 9/20        15         93          18             2            18
Monday, 9/21         9         90          13             2            16

CURRENT SITUATION

Fire activity remains minimal.  

Very high and extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Nebraska, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon.

No fire weather watches or warnings have been posted for today.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 9/22]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION

Mojave NP (CA) - Burro Agreement

The NPS and Fund for Animals have signed an agreement regarding the removal
of feral burros from the park.  The agreement calls for the Service to
capture the non-native animals and transport them from the park to the Fund's
Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas - a 2,000-acre refuge for homeless
animals.  They will then either be adopted or live out their lives on the
ranch.  The Fund will take up to 300 burros per year for the next four years,
and accepted a first shipment of 100 burros this month.  During this fiscal
year, the park rounded up 418 burros; a total of over 1,000 animals have been
removed since the burro eradication program was begun 13 months ago.  [Chris
Stubbs, Natural Resource Specialist, MOJA, 9/17]

Scotts Bluff NM (NE) - Resumption of Prescribed Fire Program

On August 25th, the park conducted its third prescribed burn of 1998 with the
assistance of red-carded personnel from nearby parks, the Fish and Wildlife
Service and local volunteer fire departments.  Prescribed burning has again
become part of the park's mixed-grass prairie maintenance program after 11
years on hold while researchers at the University of Wyoming concluded a
study of the region's historic fire frequency, fire season, and the effects
of fire on non-native grasses.  The university's scientific and historical
research will guide the program along with fire effects monitoring by the
NPS.  This year, over 1,800 of the park's 3,000 acres were burned.  The other
two burns occurred in the late winter.  Another is planned for the late
summer or early fall of 1999.  [Robert Manasek, RMS, SCBL, 9/9]

Chiricahua NM (AZ) - Prescribed Fire

The park recently completed two significant prescribed fires.  On September
15th, an 800-acre segment was burned less than a half mile from the park's
headquarters complex, a quarter mile from the Faraway historic district, and
bordering three private properties and residences.  This burn will help
reduce the chance of future catastrophic wildfires and will also help
ameliorate the effects of 100 years of fire suppression and the resulting
drastic changes to the landscape.  Park and Fish and Wildlife Service staff
installed agave monitoring plots to determine impacts to the endangered
lesser long-nose bat; other monitoring efforts include fire effects and bird
surveys.  This was the largest prescribed fire in the park's history and the
largest to date in the Chiricahua Mountains.  Earlier in the summer, park
staff completed a hazard fuel reduction project to protect headquarters,
housing and maintenance areas.  The project included mechanical fuel
reduction and pile and broadcast burning.  [Alan Cox, Superintendent, CHIR,
9/18]

PARK DISPATCHES

No entries.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No entries.

MEMORANDA

No entries.

INTERCHANGE

No entries.

UPCOMING IN CONGRESS

The following activities will be taking place in Congress during coming weeks
on matters pertaining to the National Park Service or kindred agencies.  For
inquiries regarding legislation pertaining to the NPS, please contact the
main office at 202-208-5883/5656 and ask to be forwarded to the appropriate
legislative specialist.

HEARINGS/MARK-UPS

Wednesday, September 23

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (Murkowski): Mark-up of the
following bills, among others:

o     S. 2257 (Landrieu), to reauthorize the National Historic Preservation
      Act;
o     S. 2284 (Johnson), to establish the Minuteman Missile National Historic
      Site in the state of South Dakota;
o     S. 624 (Bumpers), to establish a competitive process for the awarding
      of concession contracts in units of the National Park System;
o     S. 1175 (Lautenberg), to reauthorize the Delaware Water Gap National
      Recreation Area Citizen Advisory Commission for 10 additional years;
o     S. 1641 (Moynihan), to direct the Secretary to study alternatives for
      establishing a national historic trail to commemorate and interpret the
      history of women's rights in the United States;
o     S. 1960 (Warner), to allow the National Park Service to acquire certain
      lands for addition to the Wilderness Battlefield, as previously
      authorized by law, by purchase or exchange as well as by donation; 
o     S. 2133 (Domenici), to designate former U.S. Route 66 as "America's
      Main Street" and authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide
      assistance; 
o     S. 2239 (Murkowski), to revise the boundary of Fort Matanzas Monument; 
o     S. 2240 (Murkowski), to establish the Adams National Historical Park in
      the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; 
o     S. 2241 (Murkowski), to provide for the acquisition of lands formerly
      occupied by the Franklin D. Roosevelt family at Hyde Park, N.Y.; 
o     S. 2246 (Murkowski), to amend the act which established the Frederick
      Law Olmsted National Historic Site, in the Commonwealth of
      Massachusetts, by modifying the boundary; 
o     S. 2247 (Murkowski), to permit the payment of medical expenses incurred
      by the U.S. Park Police in the performance of duty to be made directly
      by the National Park Service; 
o     S. 2248 (Murkowski), to allow for waiver and indemnification in mutual
      law enforcement agreements between the National Park Service and a
      state or political subdivision, when required by state law;
o     S. 2285 (Dodd), to establish a commission, in honor of the 150th
      anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, to further protect sites of
      importance in the historic efforts to secure equal rights for women;
o     S. 2297 (Gorton), to provide for the distribution of certain
      publications in units of the National Park System under a sales
      agreement between the Secretary of the Interior and a private
      contractor; 
o     S. 2309 (Specter), to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enter
      into an agreement for the construction and operation of the Gateway
      Visitor Center at Independence National Historical Park; 
o     S. 2401 (Specter), to authorize the addition of the Paoli Battlefield
      site in Malvern, Pa., to Valley Forge National Historical Park; 
o     H.R. 2411 (Delahunt), to provide for a land exchange involving the Cape
      Cod National Seashore and to extend the authority for the Cape Cod
      National Seashore Advisory Commission; 
o     S. 991 (Murkowski), to make technical corrections to the Omnibus Parks
      and Public Lands Management Act of 1996; and
o     S. 2468 (Graham), to designate the visitor center Biscayne National
      Park as the Dante Fascell Visitor Center.

Thursday, September 24

House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands (Hansen):
Oversight hearing on the Grand Canyon River Wilderness Management Plan and
associated Colorado River Management Plan, and analysis of National Park
Service data on air overflight sound at the Grand Canyon.  

Thursday, October 1

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land
Management (Craig): Oversight hearing on the annual fees paid by cabin owners
in USFS national recreation areas to lease the land where their cabins are
located (the National Park Service would like to increase the fees).

                                *  *  *  *  *

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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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