8.0   PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE - John Hanley, Sonya Coakley

8.1   Web Information Site

      No new developments.

8.2   Health Education
     
      No new developments.
   
8.3   Other Actions - Other divisional actions include the following:

      o     Captain Terry Langan, regional Public Health consultant, Midwest
            Region, and Carol Disalvo, IPM coordinator, WASO, recently
            composed a memorandum which provided detailed information on the
            West Nile virus.  The procedures for submitting crow and other
            bird specimens for analysis, the USGS news release, and a listing
            of websites containing additional information on the subject were
            included with the memorandum.  The entire package was forwarded to
            all employees via cc:Mail.
      o     Based on the Channel Island NP hearings on hantavirus pulmonary
            syndrome, Public Health regional personnel and National Park
            Service personnel met with the state of California on vector-borne
            disease prevention.  As a result of this meeting, Vicki Kramer,
            chief, Vector-Borne Disease Section, Department of Health
            Services, created a vector-borne disease prevention program
            proposal.
      o     The Public Health program implementation plan has been presented
            to the AD, Park Operations and Education.
      o     Richard Durrett was recently hired as the regional Public Health
            consultant for National Capital Region.  We are also currently in
            the process of recruiting for the regional Public Health
            consultant positions in Northeast Region and Intermountain West
            Region (Santa Fe, New Mexico). 
     
9.0   RANGER ACTIVITIES 

9.1   Recreation Fee Program - Meg Leffel

      As a result of the amendments to the recreational fee demonstration (fee
      demo) program authorization, there's been a shortfall in funding for
      non-demo parks' cost of collection and central office fee program
      management.  All fee parks should anticipate more detailed reporting
      requirements and further analysis of FY 2000 cost of collection funding
      requests.

      Planning and development of the National Park Passport continues in
      collaboration with the National Park Foundation and Design Continuum. 
      The fundamental goals of the passport business plan are to contribute
      net new fee revenue to the NPS and to develop a constituency of
      stewardship buyers.  The project is seen as a practical application of
      the NPS "Message Project."

      The fee demo program will be the focus of a new national telephone
      survey of the American public which will be conducted this fiscal year
      by Northern Arizona University.  Oregon State University will conduct a
      survey of backcountry users at Everglades NP and Grand Canyon NP, also
      this fiscal year.  The management assessment of the fee demo program
      continues; FY99 survey forms have been mailed to park superintendents.

      A technology work group has been formed and the first meeting is
      scheduled for early December.  Participants include staff from field and
      regional offices, the Accounting Operations Center, the Administrative
      Program Center, and the WASO national fee program.  This group will
      reexamine standing recommendations regarding new technology and current
      issues concerning PCCN, VenTeck and Miti automated fee machines,
      Advantage software, etc.

      Three parks were added to the national park reservation system this 
      year - Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS, Jewel Cave NM, and Wind Cave NP.  That
      brings the total number of parks in the reservation system to 30. 
      Effective October 1st, the Accounting Operations Center began taking
      reservation commissions off the top instead of charging against
      individual park's cost of collection accounts.

9.2   Regulations - Chip Davis

      The number of requests to Ranger Activities for new and revised
      regulations has increased over recent years and a significant backlog
      now exists.  The Department's implementation of mandatory "plain
      English" and question and answer formats and the addition of complex
      compliance documentation has overloaded staff and made an already
      lengthy process even longer.

      The solution, at least in part, is to have parks and regions handle the
      initial development of new or revised park-specific regulations. 
      Servicewide regs will be handled by the program manager in WASO and
      regional regulations coordinators.  This will necessitate training in
      the development or revision of regulations.  Tentative plans are to make
      training courses available through the Department and through Washington
      area contractors.  These will be followed by orientation sessions on NPS
      procedures.  The first course will likely occur sometime in late winter
      or early spring.

9.3   Fire Management - Sue Vap

      The fire management mentoring program held its first training/
      orientation over a three day period in September in Boise.  Fifteen
      mentor/protege pairs discussed career planning, developed a two-year
      mentoring plan, and became acquainted with the program and its
      participants.  The University of Washington in Seattle developed the
      mentoring program through a cooperative agreement with the NPS and will
      continue to evaluate the program on a quarterly basis.

      Roberta D'Amico has been selected as the information/education
      specialist at the Fire Management Program Center.  She came from
      Everglades/Dry Tortugas NPs, where she was chief of interpretation/
      education.

9.4   Ranger Competencies - Ken Mabery

      A workshop was held in August to scope out and provide a vision for
      universal essential protection ranger competencies (GS-025-5/7/9) and
      develop the framework for future 025 competency and Ranger Careers
      workshops.  A number of objectives were accomplished.  Members of the
      group:

      o     Developed a consensus on the meaning of "competencies" and
            directions for the program.
      o     Came to a consensus that the essence or tradition of park ranger
            work is in the delivery of protection and education services.
      o     Agreed that the Ranger Activities competencies program needs to be
            coordinated with similar efforts in interpretation and resource
            management.
      o     Determined that protection competencies need to address resource
            protection, resource education, and public use management.
      o     Agreed that the essential protection competencies are law
            enforcement, resource stewardship, communications, use management
            and emergency operations; that "mission values" is a stand-alone
            competency and a theme that needs to be woven into all
            competencies; and that supervision and leadership are key
            competencies.
      o     Developed a integrated competencies model for the GS-5, GS-7 and
            GS-9 grade levels.

      Future actions include a pilot field competencies program; extend
      Special Directive 94-3 (Ranger Futures), which expires at the end of
      next month, and incorporate the directive into a DO; and further develop
      and communicate the essentials of the competencies program. 

9.5   Law Enforcement Guideline - Dennis Burnett

      DO-9, the long-awaited policy statement on law enforcement, was recently
      approved by the Department with minor changes.  DOI is still reviewing
      RM-9.  The next step is for DO-9 to go back to the NLC for a mandatory
      14-day review.  When the Department is finished with RM-9, both
      documents will go to FLETC, which will oversee the printing.  DO-9 and
      RM-9 will be released simultaneously as soon as they are printed.  One
      copy will be sent to each regional office and park for local
      reproduction and distribution.  DO-9 will also be posted on the NPS web
      page.  With luck, both documents will be released soon after the first
      of the year.

10.0  APPALACHIAN TRAIL PARK OFFICE - Pamela Underhill 

      No submission this quarter.

11.0  INTER-DIVISIONAL/INTER-DIRECTORATE PROJECTS

      This section reports on significant projects that are underway either
      partly or wholly within Park Operations and Education and affect more
      than one division and/or directorate (i.e., operations, natural
      resources, cultural resources, admin, etc.).

11.0  Environmental Leadership Initiative - Shawn Norton

      A work group met in September to develop and environmental leadership
      training strategy which will be pilot tested this fiscal year.  The
      strategy calls for the development of a stand-alone course and modules
      for existing program course work.

      The NPS environmental audit program continues to roll on, with 25 audits
      conducted last fiscal year.  The concessions audit program is underway;
      the first pilot audit has been completed.

      There were two NPS recipients of the White House's "Closing the Circle"
      Award for environmental leadership this year:

      o     Kim Slininger, now at Rocky Mountain NP, received the award for
            work done at Yosemite NP - dismantling flood-damaged buildings and
            recycling the wood, gypsum, plumbing fixtures and windows, which
            saved money over traditional demolition and disposal methods and
            also conserved resources.
      o     Audrey Calhoun, Steve Doulis, Rich Foster and Dottie Marshall of
            George Washington Memorial Parkway received the award for using
            recycled content plastic lumber for the walkway at Theodore
            Roosevelt Island.

      There were also two NPS recipients of the Department of Interior's
      Environmental Achievement Award this year:

      o     Albert Kagle of Santa Monica Mountains NRA for his outstanding
            efforts in recycling and for community outreach and support for
            recycling at the park through his work with the Girl Scouts.
      o     The maintenance division at Fort Vancouver NHS was selected
            because of its outstanding efforts in air quality control,
            composting, energy reduction, green procurement, recycling, water
            conservation and educating the staff and public.
  
11.2  Leasing Regulations - Lars Hanslin

      The draft leasing regs will likely go to the Secretary for review next
      week.  They then go to OMB for review, then to the Federal Register for
      a 30- to 60-day comment period.  It now appears that the new regulations
      will be in final by May or June.