NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                               MORNING REPORT

To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Tuesday, October 12, 1999

                               *** NOTICE ***

There will be no Morning Reports for the balance of this week.  The editor is
on travel to WASO and the computer upon which the MR is composed is headed
for the shop to fix some persistent problems that accompanied recent software
and hardware upgrades ("upgrade" is defined in Webster as either "raising to
a higher grade" or as "an upward incline" - the latter would appear to apply
here).  The Morning Report will resume on Monday, October 18th.

INCIDENTS

99-610 - Black Canyon of the Gunnison NM (CO) - Falling Fatality

On October 7th, 30-year-old S.P. of Snowmass, Colorado, was camping
with a female companion in the developed campground on the park's North Rim. 
S.P. and another camper left the campground around 11 p.m. and walked to
the rim of the canyon.  While sitting near the cliff's edge, they saw
S.P.'s cat, which had been running loose throughout the evening. S.P.
reportedly stood up in an attempt to retrieve the cat, lost his footing, and
fell approximately 150 feet to his death.  Ranger Ned Kelleher rappelled to
his location and confirmed that S.P. had died in the fall.  Members from
the park and West Elk SAR teams recovered the body the next day.  Alcohol is
believed to have been a contributing factor.  [Linda Alick, CR, BLCA, 10/8]

99-611 - Delaware Water Gap NRA (PA/NJ) - Search

The park received a report of two overdue canoeists on the Delaware River on
the evening of September 28th.  Rangers Mike Zirwas and Jennifer Kavanaugh
began a search for the married couple, who had rented a canoe from a local
business permittee, and found them in pitch darkness just a hundred yards
north of the point where they'd put in at Smithfield Beach.  The couple had
been dropped off that morning and instructed to head downstream to Kittatinny
Point.  They had instead paddled upstream against the current, covering about
three miles in six hours of steady paddling.  According to the woman: "When
we reached the fourth set of rapids and the water was still going the wrong
way, we decided we had probably been going the wrong way."  They turned
around and paddled for 90 minutes, then pulled over to the shore to wait for
morning - not realizing how close they were to the boat ramp where they'd put
in seven-and-a-half hours previously.  Both were okay and in remarkably good
spirits.  [Jennifer Kavanaugh, PR, DEWA, 10/8]

FIRE ACTIVITY

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II

The preparedness level has gone DOWN one step.  Preparedness Level II goes
into effect when the following conditions are met: One geographic area
experiencing high fire danger.  Numerous Class A, B, and C fires occurring
and a potential exists for escapes to larger (project) fires.  Minimal
mobilization of resources from other geographic areas occurring.  The
potential exists for mobilizing additional resources from other geographic
areas. 

LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY 

                                                     Thu     Sun     %  Est
State      Unit              Fire/Incident  IMT      10/7    10/10  Con Con
 
CA    Shasta-Trinity NF      Big Bar Cx     AC/2T1 103,470  109,097  62 UNK 
      Los Padres NF          Kirk Cx        2T1     83,171   83,655  84 UNK 
      Cleveland NF           La Jolla       T2       7,700    7,700 100 CND 
      San Diego RU         * Gloria         --           -    1,000 100 CND

ID    Upper Snake District * Boundary       --           -    1,700 100 CND

                                  Heading Notes

Unit        Agency or Area Office = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA
            state resource or ranger unit; RD = CA state ranger district;
            Region = CA state region; FO = BLM field office; District = BLM
            district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire        * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex 
IMT         AC = Area Command; T1 = Type I Team; T2 = Type II Team; T3 = Type
            III Team; ST = State Team; FUM = Fire Use Management Team
% Con       Percent of fire contained: UNK = unknown; NR = no report
Est Con     Estimated containment date: NEC = no estimated date of
            containment; CND = fully contained; UNK = unknown; NR = no
            report; RBF = resource benefit fire, no containment action being
            taken; LR = last report unless significant activity occurs

NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FOUR DAY TREND)

                    NPS    BIA      BLM     FWS    States   USFS     Total

Thursday, 10/7       0      1         2       0      101     15       119
Friday, 10/8         3      1         4       0       57     12        77
Saturday, 10/9       0      0         5       1       27     11        44
Sunday, 10/10        0      6         1       0       29     15        51

TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FOUR DAY TREND) 

                  Crews     Engines    Helicopters    Airtankers   Overhead

Thursday, 10/7     235        355          80             0         2,072
Friday, 10/8       178        256          72             6         1,900
Saturday, 10/9     146        238          59             2         1,533
Sunday, 10/10      122        174          42             2         1,389

CURRENT SITUATION

There was little activity anywhere yesterday.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Oregon, California, Utah,
Idaho, and Colorado.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 10/9-11]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, PROTECTION AND EDUCATION 

No entries.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No entries.

MEMORANDA

No entries.

INTERCHANGE

No entries.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Intermountain Region - Karen Wade, currently superintendent at Great Smoky
Mountains NP, has been selected as regional director for Intermountain
Region, effective October 25th.  She will oversee the region's 86 parks. 
Wade succeeds regional director John Cook, who retired last month. [Public
Affairs, WASO]

Yosemite NP - Dave Mihalic, currently superintendent at Glacier NP, will
become the superintendent of Yosemite on October 25th.  Stan Albright, who is
now superintendent of Yosemite, will become an advisor to the director on
"strategies for accomplish the goals of the Natural Resources Challenge, the
Service's plan for revitalizing natural resource programs in national parks."
[Public Affairs, WASO] 

CALENDAR

The biweekly calendar of training courses and meetings now appears as a
separate addendum to the Morning Report and follows in the next message.

                                *  *  *  *  *

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please address requests
pertaining to receipt of the Morning Report to your servicing hub
coordinator.

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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