Florida Parks
Update on Hurricane Preparations
The following were submitted through yesterday afternoon:
Everglades NP — Most areas of the park were closed to visitors yesterday. Flamingo Lodge, marina store and fuel station closed at noon and the main park entrance west of Florida City closed at 6 p.m. The Shark Valley entrance station also closed at 6 p.m. The Gulf Coast VC will remain open today but will close at 6 p.m. Areas will be reopened as soon as conditions permit.
Biscayne NP — All employees, including the incident management team and the security team, were released at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. May employees are leaving the area and heading to Florida's west coast.
Canaveral NS — The Kennedy Space Center yesterday decided to close the NASA/Space Center complex — which includes the park as a component — on Wednesday afternoon. They also decided that no personnel would be permitted into the complex after 6 p.m. Thursday afternoon. The park therefore closed on Wednesday afternoon.
Timucuan E&HP/Fort Caroline NM — The park put its modified hurricane plan into effect yesterday morning. All priority projects in the Kingsley Plantation Unit were to be completed by yesterday afternoon, at which time the area was to be secured and all staff were to leave. This step was being taken due to the possibility that high tides might cut off access to the island as early as midday today.
Fort Frederica NM — The management team met on Thursday morning to discuss preparations for the hurricane. Yesterday's tasks included cleanup, movement of artifacts from the VC to the curatorial building and other initial preparations. All available staff are to report at 7 a.m. this morning to board up park buildings. A decision will be made this morning on whether to escalate to the next level, which requires loading of all administrative files and computers into a trailer for transportation to a secure location. All staff will then be released and the park will close. Most staff are planning to travel to the Macon/Atlanta area if an evacuation is ordered. The park trailer and equipment will head for Ocmulgee NM.
[Submitted by Ken Garvin, SERO; Linda Canzanelli, Superintendent; Richard Bryant, IC, TIMU/FOCA; Mike Tennent, Superintendent, FOFR; Timothy Morgan, Chief Ranger, CANA]
Antietam National Battlefield (MD)
AO Continues Recovery from Serious Accident
Administrative officer Dave Blackbun was en route to a budget meeting
in NCRO in a government vehicle late on the afternoon of Thursday,
August 12th, when it was hit head-on by a vehicle that had crossed the
center line of the highway. He was taken to the University of Maryland
Shock-Trauma Unit in Baltimore for treatment of numerous injuries. He
remains in that unit and will be there for some time yet. Dave will then
go to a nearby rehab center and will be there for four to six weeks.
Cards can be sent to Dave at his home. His family asks, however, that
you not send any flowers or gifts at this time. Dave's wife, B., extends
her thanks to everyone who has sent cards or kept them in their thoughts
and prayers.
[Submitted by Ed Wenschhof, Chief Ranger; Kathy Snider,
Budget Analyst]
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Life Saved Through Prompt CPR
At 8:40 p.m. on July 20th, dispatch received a 911 call reporting
that a visitor at Elkmont campground — B.A.L., 40, of
Pompano Beach, Florida — was having trouble breathing. Rangers and
a Gatlinburg ambulance were immediately dispatched to the campground.
The caller remained on line and continued to provide updates on
B.A.L.'s condition. Within minutes, she went into convulsions and lost
consciousness. Ranger Scott Kalna arrived on scene at
8:47 p.m. and found B.A.L. in a sitting/lying
position in the passenger seat of her car and unconscious. A friend,
Jerome Rogowski, was attempting chest compressions on her while she was
in the partial sitting position. Kalna had Rogowski halt compressions
and help him move B.A.L. out of the car and onto the ground. Kalna
determined that she was not breathing and repositioned her head using
the head tilt/chin lift method. After opening B.A.L.'s airway, she
began gasping for air and resumed breathing on her own. She was taken by
ambulance to Pigeon Forge, where she was transferred to a medevac
helicopter and flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in
Knoxville.
[Submitted by Rick Brown, District Ranger]
Cape Cod National Seashore (MA)
Recovery of Stolen Sailboat
At 4 a.m. on August 23rd, the Coast Guard called supervisory ranger
Mike Minnerath and advised him that a 42-foot sailboat had grounded on
park lands at Race Point Beach in Provincetown and that the operator was
requesting assistance. Minnerath drove on the beach and located the
vessel and its operator, M.H., 43, a Czech/Canadian citizen.
During questioning, M.H. told Minnerath that he had sailed from
Liverpool, England. A search of the vessel (which had no
identification markings) by NPS and USCG personnel led to the discovery
of items which called into question the vessel's ownership. Customs
agents arrived on scene and questioned M.H. after contacting Canadian
officials. They determined that M.H. had stolen the boat in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, on August 17th. He was arrested and transported to Boston
for deportation proceedings. NPS special agent Bill Hooper assisted in
the investigation.
[Submitted by Chief Rangers Office]
Yellowstone National Park (ID,MT,WY)
Fugitive Wanted for Counterfeiting Arrested
On July 29th, special agent Chris Fors was on the Gardiner to Mammoth
Road when he saw three people acting suspiciously near the Gardner
River. They appeared to be intoxicated and under the influence of
methamphetamine and were in the process of removing natural features.
Fors watched the group while awaiting backup (30 minutes away), but was
forced to identify himself when one member of the group suddenly ran up
the riverbank to his location. The man then reached into his pocket,
ignoring commands to the contrary. A second man then ran up, screaming
obscenities and irrational sentences. Both men intermittently
reached into their pockets and advanced on Fors. They were held at
gunpoint until additional rangers and special agents arrived. All
three were placed under arrest on a combination of charges —
interfering with an agency function, disorderly conduct, possession of
illegal drugs, possession of methamphetamine paraphernalia, and removal
of natural features. During the investigation, Fors contacted the police
department in Great Falls, Montana, as all three men said that they
lived in that city. The watch commander told him that the department was
in the process of preparing an arrest warrant for one of the men and
that they suspected that he'd fled their city within the last 24 hours
and headed for Arizona. The second man was also wanted on various
misdemeanors charges. Both appeared in magistrate's court and pled
guilty to the federal charges. Their sentences included two days in
federal custody, after which they were turned over to state authorities.
On August 5th, one of the men — D.A., 23, of Prescott
Valley, Arizona — appeared in court in Great Falls and was
arraigned on a charge of felony forgery "by common scheme" and held on
$40,000 bond. The document so charging him stated that D.A. had used
bleaching chemicals and a printer to turn real $5 bills into fake $50
bills.
[Submitted by Brian Smith, Supervisory Special Agent]
Natchez Trace Parkway (AL,MS,TN)
Methamphetamine Possession Arrests
Ranger Bruce Gagnon stopped a vehicle for an equipment violation near
milepost 416 on the evening of August 20th. Gagnon asked the driver for
and received consent to search his vehicle. During the search, he came
upon some items consistent with a mobile methamphetamine laboratory.
County deputies and members of the local drug task force joined him in
the investigation. The driver, C.S., was found to have
an extensive criminal history and an active warrant out against him from
neighboring Williamson County. C.S. was charged with possession of a
controlled substance, distribution and manufacture of methamphetamine,
driving while license revoked, and criminal impersonation. His
passenger, an 18-year-old woman, was also charged with possession of a
controlled substance.
[Submitted by Charles Cuvelier, Chief
Ranger]
Yellowstone National Park (ID,MT,WY)
Sexual Abuse Arrest
In November, 2002, the park's supervisory special agent received a
call from a woman in Minnesota who reported that she'd been sexually
abused by a family member while on a trip to the park in 1996. The case
was assigned to SA Chris Fors. Over the past two years, Fors worked with
FBI agents and Minnesota police and traveled several times to that state
to gather evidence and interview the victim, the suspect and witnesses.
Upon obtaining new evidence that the principal crime occurred just
outside the park and inside Park County, Montana, he brought the county
attorney and sheriff's department into the case. A felony arrest warrant
was issued this past June on state charges of incest and the suspect was
arrested in Minnesota. When he failed to appear in Montana, a warrant
was issued and he was brought to the state for arraignment. The case is
set to go to trial in December. While now a state case, Fors' nearly two
years of work, hundreds of hours of investigation, and thousands of
miles of travel were the primary factors in successfully bringing the
felony charges.
[Submitted by Brian Smith, Supervisory Special
Agent]
FIRE MANAGEMENT
NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Friday, September 3, 2004
Preparedness Level 2
Initial attack was light nationally. Two of the 89 newly-reported fires became large fires; two others were contained. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
An area command team (Mann) and three Type 1 teams (Kearney, Vail and Studebaker) have been pre-positioned in Atlanta, Georgia, for response to Hurricane Frances, and three additional Type 1 teams (McCombs, Whitney and Oltrogge) have been ordered.
Weather Forecast
A cold front will continue to deliver cool and breezy conditions to the Northwest while showers and thunderstorms are triggered in the western Dakotas southward into Wyoming. Conditions will be quite windy in southern Oregon along with northern and central California as offshore flow develops in these areas. In the Southeast, Hurricane Frances continues to pose a major threat to the east central Florida coast.
Warnings and Watches
RED FLAG WARNINGS have been posted today for:
- Strong, gusty winds and low humidity for central and southern Nevada.
- Gusty winds and low relative humidity for the following areas of northern California: Trinity, eastern Humboldt, and Mendocino counties, coastal mountains of Mendocino and Shasta Trinity National Forests and adjacent California Department of Forestry (CDF) units, west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada including the Lassen, Plumas, Tahoe, El Dorado, and Stanislaus National Forests, Sacramento and northern San Joaquin valleys, and all of the Monterey area, except for the immediate coast.
A FIRE WEATHER WATCH has been issued today for:
- High winds and low relative humidity for southeast Utah.
NPS Fires
For a brief supplemental narrative on each fire, click on the bar with the arrow. Internal NPS readers can link directly to full reports on each fire by clicking on the notepad icon; public readers of the Morning Report can obtain similar information by going to http://www.nps.gov/fire/news
{||inc|http://data2.itc.nps.gov/fire/includes/bill_table.cfm||}
National/State Team Commitments
Newly listed fires (on this report) appear below in boldface. Changes in the status of a fire (type of team, change from a fire to a complex, etc.) are also noted in boldface.
Fires are sorted by type of team; teams are listed in alphabetical order within each type by the IC's last name.
|
State |
Agency |
Team |
IC |
Fire/Incident and Location |
9/2 |
9/3 |
% Con |
Est Con |
|
FL |
FEMA |
ACT |
Mann |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
| ||||||||
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Kearney |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
McCombs * |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Oltrogge * |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Studebaker |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Vail |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Whitney * |
Hurricane Frances |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
AK |
State |
2 |
Blume |
Camp Creek Fire, Delta Area |
174,000 |
174,000 |
50 |
9/30 |
|
AK |
State |
2 |
Kurth |
Taylor Highway Complex, Tok Area Forestry |
1,306,605 |
1,310,366 |
NR |
10/1 |
|
ND |
USFS |
2 |
Larsen |
Deep Creek Fire, Dakota Prairie National Grasslands |
------ |
4,200 |
60 |
9/4 |
|
UT |
BLM |
2 |
Muir |
Mail Draw Fire, Vernal Field Office |
3,000 |
2,800 |
40 |
UNK |
|
UT |
BLM |
2 |
Saleen |
Big Canyon Fire, Moab Field Office |
3,105 |
3,145 |
5 |
9/10 |
* On order
National Resource Commitments
| Day |
Sat |
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
|
Date |
8/28 |
8/29 |
8/30 |
8/31 |
9/1 |
9/2 |
9/3 |
|
|
|||||||
|
Crews |
127 |
57 |
87 |
70 |
69 |
70 |
106 |
|
Engines |
155 |
126 |
108 |
132 |
138 |
148 |
270 |
|
Helicopters |
45 |
31 |
45 |
47 |
41 |
44 |
47 |
|
Air Tankers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Overhead |
1,055 |
747 |
829 |
661 |
535 |
508 |
576 |
Further Information
This report is meant to present just highlights of the current fire situation. Two other NIFC sites provide much greater detail:
Full NIFC Situation Report (PDF file) — http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf
National Fire News — http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
Information on NPS Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) and on park fires can be found at:
FAM — http://www.nps.gov/fire
Park fires — http://www.nps.gov/fire/news
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Visitor and Resource Protection
Wilderness Stewardship Award Nominations Solicited
The Director's Wes Henry National Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Award is the National Park Service's annual recognition of outstanding contributions to NPS wilderness stewardship by an individual NPS employee, group of employees, or a park or central office organization. This award was established to recognize and foster the improvement of the agency's wilderness stewardship efforts including those involving interpretation and education, management of natural, cultural, and social resources, planning, protection, and maintenance operations, and to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of individuals and groups within these programs. Each park and central office organization will be asked to solicit nominations for the national wilderness program award. The national award winner will subsequently be selected from among all submitted nominees. Nominations are due by October 15th. For more information, and a copy of the nomination form, visit the Wilderness website on InsideNPS.
[Submitted by Rick Potts, rick_potts@nps.gov, 202-513-7090] More Information...
Servicewide
Upcoming Conference/Meetings Calendar
This listing is updated every Friday. Please submit information to Bill_Halainen@nps.gov.
November 16 — November 18
Third Mojave Desert Science Symposium and Poster Session, University of Redlands, California. Registration is now open for the symposium, which is hosted in part by the National Park Service. Federal employees may take advantage of the early registration rate deadline of October 8th by registering using a training authorization or purchase order number. For more information, visit http://www.dmg.gov/mdss/, or email MDSS@qbsevents.com, or call 928-638-2200 (Pacific time).
March 6 — 10
Annual Convention, Association of Partners for Public Lands, Portland, Oregon. The theme for this year's convention, Portland Pathways, was selected "to move us forward along our lines of learning and commitment to an increasingly connected systems of parks, forests, refuges, waters, open spaces and historic places." Basic registration is open through January 10th, regular through February 18th, and late thorough March 5th. For more information, call APPL at 301-946-9475 or go to www.appl.org
Servicewide
Upcoming Training Calendar
This listing is updated every Friday. Please submit information to Bill_Halainen@nps.gov. New listings are in italic.
October 4 — October 5
Taser Instructor Course, Vicksburg NMP, Mississippi. The park has tentatively scheduled a taser instructor course for these days. The cost is $195. They need at least 10 people to enroll, with a maximum of about 20. The new generation of tasers meet the RM-9 definition of an electronic control device. They need to know if there are enough people interested in this course to pull it off. If you're interested, contact John Wilkins at 601-636-0583.
October 16 — October 18
Law Enforcement Supervisor Refresher Training, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona. The park is hosting a 40-hour LE in-service training designed specifically for LE and emergency services supervisors. Topics covered will include leadership through understanding behavioral diversity, situational leadership, work-related stress, ethics and values, and an LE supervisors' lessons learned forum. The training is presented by the FLETC Management Institute and IMR law enforcement and human resources staff. Tuition is $150. To register or for more information, contact South Rim shift supervisor Karyl Yeston at 928-638-7805 by September 24th.
October 18 — October 22
Survival Shooting Training (XP-SSTP-501), HIDTA Training Facility, Tucson, Arizona. This course is not an FITP refresher — it is an export version of FLETC's survival shooting class that normally runs for nine days. This session will be 40 hours long, with each student shooting 3,000 rounds. The objective is to bring current NPS firearms instructors up to date with the same shooting skills and techniques that rangers attending the basic NRITP course are receiving. Nominations are due by COB on September 23rd. For more information, contact either Pat Gavin, IMR RLES, at 303-969-2642 or Bruce Hasson, FLETC, at 912-261-3762.
November 1 — November 5
ARPA Training (XP-ARPTP), Tallahassee, Florida. This is the FLETC course, developed in conjunction with the NPS, Forest Service and BLM. The closing date is October 1st. One page nominations should be emailed or faced to FLETC. For more information, call the center at 912-267-2246 or call JR Tomasovic at 912-554-4694.
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Pacific West Region
Tony Sisto To Retire
Tony Sisto will retire on September 3, 2004, after more than 32 years with the National Park Service. Tony retires as the Pacific West Region's chief of concessions, after five years in that position, and after serving most of 2004 as the acting servicewide concessions program manager in WASO. His career has allowed him to work in eleven parks, three regional offices, and the Washington Office Division of Ranger Activities as a ranger, program manager, and superintendent. "It has been a wonderful career," Tony said. "Who can beat working in beautiful places, in great jobs with true meaning, and with even greater people?" Tony will remain involved in parks and conservation work after retirement by continuing his work with the International Ranger Federation and the Association of National Park Rangers. "The importance of NGOs in world protected area management is critical, even in the United States" he said. Tony will continue to live in the San Francisco bay area with his wife, Deanne Adams, who is the Pacific West Region chief of interpretation. Messages of congratulations can be sent to Tony at anthonyandadams@aol.com. Congratulations Tony![Submitted by George Turnbull]
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.