The Morning Report for Thursday, October 07, 2004

INCIDENTS

Gulf Islands National Seashore (FL,MS)
Director and Regional Director Meet with Park, IMT Staff

Director Fran Mainella, accompanied by Southeast Regional Director Pat Hooks, spent Wednesday in the park learning about and seeing firsthand the impacts of Hurricane Ivan on the park's facilities and resources. She said that she had come to Gulf Islands to give her moral support to employees who had sustained both personal and professional losses and "to give them a hug."

Among the 26 parks in eight states that sustained hurricane storm damage this season, Gulf Islands National Seashore was the most severely impacted. About 95 percent of its facilities and assets were damaged to some degree. Director Mainella said that Blue Ridge Parkway was the second most affected unit to suffer storm devastation.

The director visited Fort Pickens and the Naval Live Oaks Visitor Center and headquarters, where she expressed her appreciation to incident management team personnel for their hard work and efforts on this enormous recovery project. At an employee lunch gathering, she assured park staff that she is doing everything she can to get the park the necessary supplemental funding to make repairs to affected areas, adding that she has the support of the President and Congress.

Joining the director in assuring Congressional support was Lonnie Hawkins, representative from the office of Congressman Jeff Miller (R-FL). During a media opportunity, he added that Miller is also interested in increasing funding to the park's FY05 operating budget to offset the impacts of lack of revenue normally raised from entrance and campground fees.
[Submitted by Nancy Gray, IO, Eastern IMT]

Rocky Mountain National Park (CO)
Memorial Service for Ranger Suzi Roberts

Over 425 people attended the memorial service for Suzi Roberts on Monday, September 27th, at the Church of Eternal Hills in Tabernash, Colorado.

It was fitting that on the day family and friends gathered to celebrate Suzi's life, the skies were blue, the views from the church were of snow-capped mountains, and gold and orange aspen reflected the sun's rays. It was a beautiful autumn day in an area Suzi loved and spent nine years of her life.

Words of remembrance were shared by Suzi's brother G., Amy Brees and Eric Andersen from Haleakala National Park, Julie Turner a co-worker from Winter Park Ski Area and Bob Love from Saguaro National Park, formerly from Rocky Mountain National Park. Many tears were shed and laughs shared remembering Suzi's love of life, sense of humor, wonderful potential and diverse ranger skills.

Among the many poignant moments during the service, several stand out:

The uniformed NPS staff, 50 strong, lined up outside the church as guests and Suzi's family arrived.
Eric Andersen describing the location where Suzi was when the rock fall occurred. A "lele" is a specific place, usually near the ocean, where one's spirit jumps or flies through a passage which transports it on to the next life, or into the spirit world. "Alelele" means to skip, to jump, to fly; a pathway or portal through a "lele." For Suzi to have passed from this life, instantly, at this specific "alelele", this ensured, without hesitation, her passage to her next adventure.
Eric Andersen's beautiful, stirring performance of the Hawaiian mourning chant.
The NPS Honor Guard folding the American flag for presentation to Suzi's parents by K.T.-G., and M.M., chief ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park, presenting Suzi's flat hat to her parents.
The service concluding with Mark Daniel, ranger from the Colorado River District, playing "Amazing Grace" on the bag pipes outside the front door of the church and walking away into the woods.

Suzi "Sooz" Roberts received a fitting tribute and farewell from her family, friends and NPS colleagues.[Submitted by Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs, Rocky Mountain NP]

Ozark National Scenic Riverways (MO)
Life Saved Through Prompt Medical Response

Rangers actions led to the successful rescue of a visitor who suffered a heart attack while canoeing on the Jacks Fork River on May 29th.

After receiving a report that K.T., 37, was complaining of chest pain and nausea, rangers Christopher Figge and James Dahlstrom responded on foot with medical kits and radioed for an advanced life support (ALS) ambulance to be dispatched to the nearest downstream vehicle access.

While monitoring his vitals, the rangers used K.T.'s canoe to transport him a half mile downriver to the vehicle access. During the trip, they monitored his vital signs and determined that nitroglycerine, used to improve circulation, was in order. Figge administered it via a nitro spray from his medical kit.

ALS medical staff met K.T. at the access point and immediately requested a medevac. Figge and Dahlstrom assisted in clearing a landing zone for the helicopter. K.T. was picked up and flown to a hospital in Springfield, where he immediately underwent surgery.
Doctors reported that K.T. had a 90% blockage in one artery to his heart and 60% blockage in another, and said that the event could have been fatal if the nitro had not been administered in the field.[Submitted by Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger]

Ocmulgee National Monument (GA)
Special Event: Ocmulgee Indian Celebration

The 13th annual Ocmulgee Indian Celebration was held between Friday, September 17th, and Sunday, September 19th. Approximately 15,000 people attended the event.

Due to Hurricane Ivan, which passed by Macon on Thursday, the Friday "school day" portion of the event was cancelled. The weather began to clear on Friday afternoon, however, and the weekend turned into one the most beautiful in recent memory.

Over 300 Native Americans participated in this year's event.

Rangers and staff from Andersonville, Kennesaw Mountain, Chattahoochee and Fort Pulaski provided assistance to park staff, local deputies, Ocmulgee National Monument Association staff and volunteers. A total of 185 volunteers contributed 1,455 hours of time to the event. Rangers from Gulf Island and Horseshoe Bend, scheduled to assist, were forced to cancel due to the hurricane.
The event was managed under ICS with chief ranger Guy LaChine as IC. There were several minor incidents and one reported theft.[Submitted by Guy LaChine, Chief Ranger]

Amistad National Recreation Area (TX)
Drug Interdiction

Border Patrol agents from the Comstock station found an abandoned load of about 300 pounds of marijuana on Friday, September 24th. The load consisted of duffle bags containing 47 bundles of processed marijuana.

The agents backtracked the load to the park, where they found that it had been smuggled into the United States across the Rio Grande River within the park.

No arrests have been made.
[Submitted by Bruce Malloy, Chief Ranger]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Thursday, October 7, 2004

Preparedness Level 2

There were 61 new starts yesterday. All but two were caught by initial attack. One large fire was contained. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in California, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Weather Forecast

High pressure will continue to bring dry weather to most of the West. This high pressure ridge will combine with a light offshore flow to produce very warm temperatures and low humidity over southern California.

Warnings and Watches

No warnings or watches have been issued for today.

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	10/6	10/7	% Con	Est Con

FL	FEMA	ACT	Zimmer	Hurricane Response, Orlando	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

FL	FEMA	T1	Hart	Hurricane Response, Saufley Field NAS	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

AL	FEMA	T2	Mullenix	Hurricane Response, Brewton	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
CA	USFS	T2	Wendt	Power Fire, Eldorado NF	------	250	0	10/19
FL	NPS	T2	Wissinger	Hurricane Response, Gulf Islands NS	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

@ Florida state team

National Resource Commitments

Day	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Date	10/1	10/2	10/3	10/4	10/5	10/6	10/7

Crews	31	8	14	17	16	26	34
Engines	24	11	12	2	30	40	37
Helicopters	14	6	3	3	6	12	16
Air Tankers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Overhead	844	3 *	618	625	586	597	484

* Actual number from report.

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
OPM Lifts Seasonal LE Ranger Work Cap

The Office of Personnel Management has approved Interior's request to waive the 1,040 hour work limitation for seasonal temporary LE rangers through September, 2005. Here's the text of OPM's letter:

***********************************************************************************************************

September 30, 2004

Ms. Carolyn Cohen
Director, Office of Human Resources
U.S. Department of Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20240

Dear Ms. Cohen:

We are approving your request to waive the 1040-hours limitation for seasonal temporary law enforcement rangers with the Department of Interior. This waiver will permit approximately 200 National Park Service (NPS), law enforcement rangers to work more than 1040 hours in a service year and continue to be excluded from the time limits in 5 CFR 213.104 and 316.401 (c). This authority is not-to-exceed September 30, 2005.

The need for this waiver is based on your continued workload resulting from homeland security requirements and Presidential directives increasing NPS responsibilities to enhance law enforcement protection at parks and sites in efforts against the war on terrorism.

A copy of this letter should be placed in the Official Personnel Folder for each affected employee.

Sincerely,

Ronald P. Sanders
Associate Director, Division
Strategic Human Resources Policy

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Law Enforcement and Emergency Services
Details to DOI Watch Office

The Department of the Interior Watch Office is looking for detailers to work in that office from October 8th to October 28th. There are also slots available for each three week rotation after that.

Individuals do not have to be law enforcement qualified for these details. Travel and per diem are covered, but backfill and"base eight" are not authorized.

If you're interested, please contact the NPS Emergency Incident Coordination Center at 540-999-3412.

NPS Office at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Ranger Training Class 402 Graduates

National Park Ranger Integrated Training Program Class 402 (NPRI-402) graduated from FLETC on March 23rd. The notice of their graduation dropped through the cracks when it was sent along, so is being run now. Apologies to the graduates.

The members of NPRI-402, the 13th class to complete training under the six day work-week program, established some very high standards for subsequent classes, with superior individual and group achievements.

Ranger James Dahlstrom (PIPE) was the top driver with a perfect 300 score, while rangers Andrew Fitzgerald (CANY), Charles Hester (GRSM) and Jack Hoeflich (YOSE) also received perfect 300 scores.
Rangers Hester, Hoeflich, Andrea Hansen (ALRO), and Stefan Lofgren (MORA) received the distinguished fitness award.
Rangers Fitzgerald, Isaac Cohen (AMIS), Jaime Green (LARO), Shane Lawson (INDE) and Meri Sias (YOSE) earned the fitness award, equivalent to scoring above 95%, on the PEB.
Rangers Cohen and Chris E. Smith (YOSE) tied for the high firearms expert with 295 points out of a possible 300; Hansen, Fitzgerald, Lofgren, Lawson, Dahlstrom and Gregory Hoffman (BOST) also qualified as expert shooters.
Ranger Fitzgerald was the class scholar with a outstanding 98.60 academic average. Rangers Hoeflich, Green, Hansen and Daniel Kuja (BOST) scored above 95% on academics.
Ranger Hoeflich received the class nomination for the FLETC director's award as the outstanding ranger of the class.
Ranger Hansen was the class honor graduate, as she scored above 95% in all phases of training without remediation.
Ranger Fitzgerald received the NPS director's award, which recognizes the graduating student who achieved the highest overall average in all integrated training phases without remediating any practical exercises. His final overall average was 98.21917%.

A total of nine rangers scored above the 95% level in the overall scoring, while 18 out of 19 rangers finished with an overall average above 90%. The overall class average was an outstanding 94.01044%, which ranks NPRI-402 as the class with the tenth highest overall class average among all NPRI classes (with NPRI-402 added in, the overall average of all NPRI classes combined is an outstanding 94.06507%).

Congratulations to NPRI-402 on a job well done.

* * * * * * * * * *

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.