NPS Director, Bomar, to Retire, Jan 20

Mary Bomar was sworn in as the New National Park Service Director by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on October 17, 2006. (DOI photo)

from a news release of the National Park Service

National Park Service (NPS) Director Mary A. Bomar will retire on January 20, capping a 25 year federal career that included becoming the first naturalized citizen to lead the NPS.

“It has been my privilege to lead the 20,000 men and women of the National Park Service for the past 27 months,” said Bomar. “But Inauguration Day marks the end of my tenure as Director. It is time for me to hang up my ranger hat, finish my Park Service career and retire with over 25 years of government service.”

Bomar became the 17th Director of the National Park Service on Oct. 17, 2006. She leads a team of 20,000 employees and 172,000 volunteers in administering 391 national park units and related cultural and natural heritage programs. The parks welcomed more than 275 million visitors in 2007.

Bomar’s tenure was highlighted by the largest increase in operational funds for fiscal year 2008, and an ambitious plan preparing for the NPS Centennial in 2016. In 2008, the National Park Service Centennial Challenge leveraged a $25 million appropriation with private sector matching money to fund 111 programs benefitting 76 parks in 38 states.

In a memo to NPS employees, Bomar wrote, “If parks are America’s best idea, then certainly you are the best America has to offer…there is a new hope and confidence in the future—that we will enter our second century prepared to meet any challenge we face.” She added, “Directors will come and go, but the places are timeless—and the hearts of those who care for them are bigger than the 84 million acres in the system.” Bomar and her husband will relocate to Texas, where she spent the early days of her NPS career, which began at Amistad National Recreation Area, Texas, where she became chief of administration. During her four-year tenure at Amistad, the NPS took advantage of her management expertise, assigning her a portfolio as a management circuit rider, assisting many national park sites in the Southwest.

See Bomar is New Park Service Director