The Morning Report for Tuesday, July 22, 2003

INCIDENTS

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Car Clout Arrests

Over the course of the past several months, more than 45 car clouts have occurred in the park, mostly in the Little River area. On July 11th, a special operations group was formed in an effort to apprehend the thieves. Area supervisor Michael Nash served as the incident commander. On July 12th, rangers conducted surveillance operations at five locations in the Little River area. Just before 2:30 p.m., ranger Jonathan Holter saw a man break into three different vehicles in the Alum Cave trailhead parking area and take items from them. Holter called for backup and continued to watch the man and his companion. When thy got back into their car and appeared ready to drive away, Holter slipped out of the woods, approached the vehicle, and ordered the driver to stop. Holter detained the pair until ranger Greg Wozniak could arrive and assist with the arrests. N.E., 45, of Limestone, Tennessee, was charged with theft of property, unauthorized entry, possession of morphine, and possession of marijuana; B.P., 46, of Greenville, Tennessee, was charged with conspiracy to commit a crime (car clout) and possession of marijuana. The investigation is continuing. Leads have been developed that may tie N.E. and B.P. to other car clout incidents in the park.
[Submitted by Rick Brown, District Ranger]

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (AZ)
Exposure Fatality

Border Patrol agents found the body of a 39-year-old Mexican national in the southern part of the park about two miles north of the border at 5 a.m. on July 17th. He had entered the country illegally and was traveling north with other undocumented aliens when he died on July 11th. His companions returned to Mexico and reported his death to family members, who in turn notified the Border Patrol. Evidence indicates that he died of exposure. Temperatures along the border have been consistently over 115 degrees over the past two weeks. Media interest has been very high due to the significant rise in the number of exposure fatalities in the Tucson area this month. The Pima County Sheriff's Office is conducting an investigation to confirm the cause of death.
[Submitted by Fred Patton, Chief Ranger]

Natchez Trace Parkway (AL,MS,TN)
Vehicle Pursuit With Injuries

On the night of July 11th, ranger J.J. Montgomery saw a Pontiac Grand Prix, being driven by E.T. of Florence, Alabama, run a stop sign on park jurisdiction near mile marker 340 and County Road 10. Montgomery activated his emergency lights and stopped the vehicle off park lands at the intersection of County Roads 10 and 5. Montgomery, who had not yet exited his patrol vehicle, saw E.T. look back at him just prior to leaving the scene at a high rate of speed traveling south on County Road 5. Montgomery notified park dispatch that he was in pursuit of the vehicle; a minute later, he notified dispatch that the Grand Prix had gone off the road and struck a tree. The 22-year-old driver had two juveniles in the vehicle with him at the time of the accident. E.T. and one passenger were transported by ambulance to ECM Hospital in Florence; the other passenger was flown by life flight to Huntsville, Alabama. An Alabama State Patrol investigator was dispatched to the scene. A joint investigation is underway.
[Submitted by Jackie Henman, Assistant Chief Ranger]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Interagency Fire Center
NIFC Situation Report - Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Preparedness Level 4

NIFC reported 313 new fires yesterday. Initial attack was heavy in the eastern Great Basin and Southwest, moderate in the Northwest, Rockies and southern California, and light elsewhere. Twelve new large fires were reported; another five were contained.

Fire Danger

Day	7/17	7/18	7/19	7/20	7/21	7/22
Alaska	VX	VX	--	--	VX	VX
Arizona	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
California	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Colorado	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Hawaii	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Idaho	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Montana	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Nevada	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
New Mexico	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Oklahoma	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Oregon	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Texas	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Utah	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Washington	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX
Wyoming	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX	VX

VH — Very high
EX — Extreme
VX — Very high to extreme

Fire Weather Watches and Warnings

No watches or warnings have been posted for today.

National Resource Commitments

Day	7/16	7/17	7/18	7/19	7/20	7/21	7/22
Crews	365	406	381	394	449	502	536
Engines	507	608	745	801	814	1,034	1,085
Helicopters	129	127	103	142	155	176	164
Air Tankers	3	3	1	3	3	2	3
Overhead	2,885	3,126	3,080	3,050	3,212	2,952	3,159

National Team Commitments

New team commitments or changes in teams are indicated in bold face.

State	Type Team	Team IC	Fire/Location	Acres	Percent Contain	Est Full Contain
AZ	T1	Humphrey	Kinishba Fire Fort Apache Agency	24,00	75%	UNK
WA	T1	Lohrey	Fawn Peak Complex Okanogan-Wenatchee NF	48,162	35%	UNK
MT	T1	Bennett	Wedge Canyon Fire Flathead NF	4,020	5%	UNK
CA	CDF T1	Henson	Parkhill Fire San Luis Obispo	1,200	60%	7/22
CA	CDF T1	Marshall/ Joseph	Coyote Fire Monta Vista Unit	18,705	56%	7/23
MT	T2	Swope	Big Creek Fire Bitterroot NF	745	0%	UNK
ID	T2	Muir	Crystal Creek Fire Salmon-Challis NF	300	NR	UNK
CA	T2	Hefner	Chilcoot Complex Tahoe NF	700	0%	7/24
AZ	T2	Rios	Blue River Complex Apache-Sitgreaves NF	18,650	65%	UNK
CO	T2	Saleen	JB Fire West Slope Center, BLM	1,007	50%	7/24
CO	T2	Perkins	Bolt Fire Southern Ute Reservation	1,830	40%	7/27
MT	T2	Chrisman	Hidden Lake Fire Beaverhead/Deerlodge NF	650	0%	UNK
ID	T2	Benes	Slims Fire Nez Perce NF	450	5%	UNK
MT	T2	Gray	Missouri Breaks Complex Miles City FO, BLM	105,000	10%	7/24
WY	T2	Kearney	Big Spring Fire Casper FO, BLM	1,300	10%	7/28
WY	T2	Domanski	Deep Lake Fire Shoshone NF	6,020	22%	UNK
WA	ST	Jennings/Perry	McGinnis Flats Fire Colville Agency	1,764	40%	7/24
WA	ST	Holloway/Reed	Watts Road State Land	1,060	40%	UNK
CO	T2	Sczepanik	Balcony House Complex Mesa Verde NP	2,600	15%	7/24
WY	T2	Broyles	East Table Fire Bridger-Teton NF	3,595	87%	7/22
ID	T2	Kechter	Blackwall Fire Salmon-Challis NF	2,885	10%	UNK
ID	T2	Van Bruggen	Tobias Fire Salmon-Challis NF	14,500	95%	7/22
OR	T2 ST	Gardner Labhart	Clark Fire Willamette NF	2,500	15%	7/27
NM	T2	Philbin	Molina Complex Santa Fe NF	7,240	70%	7/23
NM	T2	Bateman	Spruce Complex Gila NF	8,200	NR	UNK
WY	T2	Mullenix	Gramm Complex Medicine Bow NF	920	85%	7/23
MT	FUM	Cook	Wolf Gun/Paul Bunyan Glacier NP	800	0%	9/5
NM	FUM	Rath	Dry Lake Complex Gila NF	93,500	N/A	N/A
NM	FUM	Rath	Turnbo Fire Gila NF	17,000	20%	UNK
CO	FUM	Clark	Bear Creek Fire San Juan NF	1,869	N/A	N/A

Fire and Aviation Management
NPS Fire Summary - Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Mesa Verde NP (CO) — The park reopened yesterday morning, allowing visitors back in for the first time in five days. Operations returned to near normal. Firefighting helicopters were visible in the distance, dropping buckets and retardant on portions of the fire. The Moccasin Fire consumed another 40 acres in Prater Canyon on Sunday night due to gusty thunderstorms. The fire burned off the mesa yesterday and into steep, rocky terrain on Ute tribal lands.

Yellowstone NP (MT/WY/ID) — The park reports five fires:

Boundary Fire — This two- to three-acre fire is off Boundary Creek north of Bechler and three miles inside the park. Eight smokejumpers were assigned to it with helicopter support.
Pumice Fire — Smokejumpers continued mop-up on the four-acre fire on Monday and demobed around 3 p.m. A Type 3 IC with ten firefighters will be assigned today to mop-up the fire.
Amethyst Fire — The fire has burned 308 acres. It was 50% contained yesterday.
Arnica Fire — The tenth-of-an-acre fire is contained and shows no activity.
Fan Fire — The three-acre Fan Fire was not flown yesterday due to limited helicopter time, but lookouts have good views of it.

Glacier NP (MT) — The park is dealing with four fires:

Trapper Fire — The fire has burned 4,450 acres. It is being managed with a modified suppression strategy (confinement), using adjacent burns, natural barriers, and fuel type changes. The fire was very active on Sunday due to a dipping of the jet stream, which caused winds of 25 to 30 mph accompanied by low relative humidity. The fire moved down the McDonald Creek drainage, mainly by spotting caused by torching and some limited passive crowning. The Highline Trail from Granite Peak to Fifty mountain has been closed as a precaution. Structure protection was installed yesterday at Granite Peak Chalet.
Wolf Gun Fire — The 500-acre fire is being managed under a modified suppression strategy (confinement). It is surrounded by six previous burns. The fire was active, with short uphill runs, but has not crossed Anaconda Creek on its south side.
Paul Bunyan Fire — The 350-acre fire is also being managed under a modified suppression strategy (confinement) using natural barriers and numerous recent burns. The fire was active on Saturday, with isolated torching, short range spotting and short uphill runs. The fire is located in a high cirque basin and is presently inactive due to limited fuels.
Wedge Canyon Fire — The fire (4,500 acres) is on the Flathead NF, but is expected to burn into the park within two to three burning periods. Structure protection will be installed today at two ranger stations (Kishenehn and Kintla).

Zion NP (UT) — Six fires are being watched or managed, five of them new:

Timber Top Complex — This 67-acre WFU fire did not receive any moisture yesterday, just strong downdrafts from thunderstorms. Winds pushed debris off both mesa tops into the slot canyons below. An evaluation of fire potential will be conducted today and monitors will look at fuels.
North Fork Fire — Currently staffed by helitack in a remote location of the park. One-tenth of an acre.
Johnson Fire — A tenth of an acre, on the boundary above Springdale.
Sammy Canyon Fire — Above the Watchman housing area in a large juniper tree, with potential for spread on the steep slope. It will be staffed this morning.
Altar of Sacrifice Fire — The fire is located on an inaccessible cliff face about the Oak Creek housing area and will be monitored.

Several smokes were also reported on the plateau above Hubur Canyon. Some moisture fell in the area, causing smokes to lay down. They will be checked today.

Bryce Canyon NP (UT) — The park reports a small fire (a tenth of an acre) in Mutton Hollow. It will be staffed today.

Grand Canyon NP (AZ) — The half-acre Basin Fire is being managed as a WFU fire.

Yosemite NP (CA) — The park has a total of eight WFU and suppression fires, none more than an acre in size. No significant changes were recorded from yesterday's summary.

El Malpais NM (NM) — The Twin Fire has burned two-tenths of an acre on a volcanic peak at the north end of the fire. It is creeping in needle litter. A containment strategy is being employed.

Great Sand Dunes NM (CO) — An unnamed four-acre fire was detected on Saturday. It is smoldering and creeping, with little spread expected over the next few days. Heavy rain fell on it over the weekend. It is burning in a mixed conifer forest on steep and rocky terrain. Suppression action is planned for today.

Dinosaur NM (CO) — The park has a new and as yet unnamed fire, currently at 100 acres. It's staffed with smokejumpers. More information will be provided tomorrow.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

NPS History
The National Park Ranger Service

A new book on National Park Service rangers has been published and is now available. The book, entitled National Park Ranger: An American Icon, was written by Butch Farabee and published by Roberts Rinehart Publishers (ISBN 1-57098-392-5, $18.95 in paper).

Through permission of both the author and publisher, excerpts are appearing intermittently in the Morning Report and InsideNPS.

The first excerpt appeared on May 15, 2003.
The second excerpt appeared on May 21, 2003.
The third excerpt appeared on June 3, 2003
The fourth excerpt appeared on June 11, 2003.
The fifth excerpt appeared on June 20, 2003.

The National Park Ranger Service

In 1915, the year before the National Park Service was created, the National Park Ranger Service was established by the Secretary of the Interior. At the time there were eleven national parks and eighteen national monuments, plus Casa Grande Ruins and Hot Springs Reservation. All these areas operated autonomously and answered only to the Department of the Interior.

The new National Park Ranger Service was intended to bring these thirty-one areas "under one supervisory umbrella" to be directed by Mark Daniels, the General Superintendent of National Parks (a precursor to today's NPS Director).

A professional landscape engineer first appointed in 1914, Daniels authored regulations governing and coordinating the ranger service. They were approved formally on January 9, 1915, by Interior Secretary Franklin Lane, and set forth the requirements for the position of ranger, the conditions for appointments and promotions, the organizational structure within a park, and the needed written monthly reports. Daniels directed the Ranger Service only until December 10, 1915, when Robert B. Marshall replaced him.

In the National Park Ranger Service, chief rangers in the larger parks were to earn $1,500 per year, assistant chiefs could expect to make $1,350, a ranger first class was to be paid $1,200, and a ranger was allotted $900 yearly. The lowest ranger position was that of temporary. Rangers began at Grade 5 and could move up through Grade 10 (that of a chief ranger).

Although organizational and administrative vestiges from the National Park Ranger Service still exist, the "agency" itself was short-lived, having been absorbed into the National Park Service when it was created on August 25, 1916.

A National Register of Historic Places plaque on the 1907 Logging Ranger Station at Glacier National Park aptly summarizes the roles of rangers past and present:

"The first park rangers were chosen for their self-sufficiency and knowledge of backcountry travel. They were independent by nature and flourished in the splendid isolation of Glacier's wilderness. A good ranger was a jack-of-all-trades: part biologist, educator, fire fighter, trail and road builder, law enforcement officers, game warden, and general all-around handyman.

"Winter was the most challenging season for the ranger. Frequent snowshoe patrols were conducted far from the main ranger station and often as many as 300 miles of trail were traveled each month. Small snowshoe cabins, stocked with provisions and firewood were scattered along patrol routes. Patrols were conducted in all kinds of weather in order to discourage illegal fur trapping and hunting. During patrols, communications with park headquarters was non-existent. The ranger had to be capable of handling any situation.

"Today, park rangers must possess many of the same skills and characteristics of the early day rangers, but modern technology has, to the regret of many, changed the routine of the job forever.

"Early day rangers were men with a wide variety of outdoor skills. Their duties were varied but much time was spent on backcountry patrol. Until the 1940s, rangers were also responsible for predatory control. Today, both men and women patrol the backcountry, and predators are protected as an important element of the natural environment."

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Big Thicket National Preserve (TX)
GS-0401-12/12 Biologist (Supervisory)

Dates: 07/14/2003 - 08/08/2003

The incumbent serves as the Chief of Resources Management, is a critical member of the preserve management team and is the principal advisor to the Superintendent of the Preserve on natural and cultural resources and related programs. The incumbent is responsible for program planning, development, implementation, and management of Big Thicket National Preserve resources. Directs an intricate program of natural resource management activities that involve sensitive and complex issues that may impact a wide variety of park and public issues. Incumbent represents the Superintendent when working with resource stewardship issues, and when dealing with other federal agencies, state and local governments, special interest groups, individuals, and the public. Incumbent is responsible for providing subject-matter information and guidance on a variety of complex resource management issues and programs. Directly supervises three or more permanent employees and one or more temporary employees. The Park Manager (Superintendent) of Big Thicket National Preserve supervises this position. The position will be advertised in the Physical Scientist series, GS-1301 and in the Biologist, GS-401 series, in separate announcement.
[Submitted by Nellie Martinez, nellie_martinez@nps.gov, 409/839-2689]

Big Thicket National Preserve (TX)
GS-1301-12/12 Physical Scientist (Supervisory)

Dates: 07/14/2003 - 08/08/2003

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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.