YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — Cicely Muldoon, Yosemite National Park’s newly appointed acting superintendent, will be arriving in the park sometime in January 2020, according to the most recent update from the National Park Service.
Mike Reynolds – NPS photo
Details are still being worked out regarding Muldoon’s schedule but park officials said this week the new acting superintendent will not be doing any media interviews until she is on the job in Yosemite.
The National Park Service announced in late October YNP Superintendent Mike Reynolds was being reassigned to another park service position in Colorado.
Muldoon, superintendent of Point Reyes National Seashore since 2010, was selected to serve as acting superintendent at Yosemite until a permanent replacement is named.
Reynolds’ transfer came with little or no warning, according to the Los Angeles Times, who detailed the change in a story headlined: “Trump team reassigns Yosemite National Park superintendent; timing raises questions.”
“Reynolds’ departure comes amid controversial proposals for increasing recreation and tourism in the park, reportedly put forward by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt,” the paper reported.
Reynolds became YNP superintendent in January 2018.
Cicely Muldoon – NPS photo
In his new job, based in Denver, Reynolds will serve as regional director of the agency’s Lower Colorado Basin, Upper Colorado Basin and Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas-Gulf regions, overseeing a total of 89 park units in nine Western states.
The Times speculated that Reynolds’ departure “is part of the Trump administration’s shift in a management strategy on public lands, raising the profile of industry and recreation and putting less emphasis on conservation.”
Reynolds is a 34-year park service veteran who actually grew up in Yosemite.
*Sarah Jackson contributed to this report.
**Editor’s note: This article was updated Nov. 13 to reflect the accurate date Mike Reynolds became YNP superintendent.
