Two National Parks Chiefs Swap Jobs

Yosemite, Great Smokies get new leaders.

by Michael Doyle
Fresno Bee - September 25, 2002

Yosemite National Park Superintendent David Mihalic will be swapping jobs with the current superintendent of Great Smokies National Park, park service officials said Tuesday.

The superintendents' switch comes at a sensitive time for both parks, which rank among the nation's busiest and most politically scrutinized. The switch also marks a Sierra Nevada return for Mike Tollefson, the Great Smokies superintendent who now will oversee Yosemite.

"I'm very excited by all the challenges," Tollefson said. "Yosemite has a higher profile than other parks, and the public has more interest in it than many others."

A Seattle native, the 55-year-old Tollefson served five years as superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks during the 1990s. He moved from those Sierra Nevada parks to Great Smokies, an Appalachian mountain park swamped by some 10 million visitors annually.

Though the Great Smokies park attracts more than twice the number of annual visitors as Yosemite, each park can be an exquisite headache to manage. Both parks require trade-offs between protecting resources and inviting tourists, and both invite kibitzing from outside environmental groups and neighboring businesses alike.

"They love that park like they love Yosemite Valley," Tollefson said of Great Smokies.

Park service headquarters spokesman Dave Barna said the formal announcement about the job swap would be coming late Tuesday. Tollefson said he was advised Monday night that the job switch was proceeding.

But because of an apparent paperwork problem, the park service's official news release did not get issued Tuesday. Citing this lack of official announcement, Mihalic declined comment.

At Yosemite, Mihalic oversaw completion of a Yosemite Valley management plan that is supposed to reduce the human footprint in the park. That means more reliance on mass transit, less valley parking and some discontent from tourist-dependent park neighbors.

"He had clear marching orders to finish that plan, and he got that done," said Jay Watson, California director for the Wilderness Society. "That is a huge accomplishment."

The congressman who represents the Yosemite Valley area, Mariposa Republican George Radanovich, praised Mihalic as someone who has "done a fine job."

Radanovich chairs the House subcommittee that oversees national parks. He said that the park service advised him this summer that the agency was taking a look at Yosemite's management.

Specifically, officials wanted to see progress on implementation of Yosemite's master plan.

"I think there was some concern about the projects moving forward," Radanovich said, emphasizing that he wasn't involved in day-to-day details involving park management.

Joyce Eden, co-director for Friends of the Yosemite Valley, has led protests against the $12.5 million Yosemite Falls-area renovation. She said park officials have refused to show her the project's construction blueprints.

"The public is being blocked from seeing these things," Eden said. "I've been extremely disappointed with the way [Mihalic] has treated Yosemite and Yosemite projects as a private enclave for the rich."

Radanovich added that the park service knows that he and Tollefson had developed a good working relationship while Tollefson was at Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

Tollefson said he expects to move to Yosemite in about December. Details still are being worked out, as he indicated he got the formal word about his new job only Monday night.

Though busier than Yosemite, Great Smokies is also smaller, 520,000 acres compared to 760,000. The specific management challenges also differ. Chronic air pollution at Great Smokies now regularly obscures once-beloved views. State and local officials in two states, Tennessee and North Carolina, must be accommodated.

In his two years at Great Smokies, Tollefson also has wrestled with a new management plan for easing the bumper-to-bumper traffic that congests one of the park's most heavily visited sections.

"We feel a tremendous loss in his leaving. He has been a wonderful ambassador to the community," said Geoffrey Wolpert, a restaurant owner and president of the Gatlinburg Gateway Foundation. "There may be discussion of issues, but there's been such a collaborative effort."

Wolpert added that "we feel like we got the rug jerked out from underneath us," with the news that Tollefson was leaving after two years.

At Sequoia and Kings Canyon, parks' spokeswoman Kris Fister noted Tollefson oversaw restoration of the Giant Forest grove. That included negotiating a deal with the concession company Delaware North to build a hotel and clear out the old lodge facilities.

Though the Yosemite Valley plan is significantly larger than the Giant Forest project, Tollefson noted one management similarity: In both cases, he inherited a plan and had the responsibility for making it work.

"What I see at Yosemite is that much of the planning is already done, and we're now into implementation," Tollefson said.

Bee staff writer Matt Leedy contributed to this report.