The National Park Service announced Wednesday it was reassigning longtime Yosemite National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds and making him the regional director of the agency's Lower Colorado Basin, Upper Colorado Basin and Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas-Gulf regions.
Reynolds, a 34-year park service veteran who grew up in Yosemite, is expected to begin his new assignment by the end of the year, park service officials said.
Reynolds' departure comes amid controversial proposals for increasing recreation and tourism in the park, reportedly put forward by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. They include a proposal that would for the first time allow boats on the park's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Cicely Muldoon, superintendent of Point Reyes National Seashore since 2010, will serve as acting superintendent at Yosemite after Reynolds departs and until a permanent superintendent is named, officials said.
News of the switch drew mixed reactions from conservationists and watchdogs of the national parks.
"Mike was moved, in part, because of the disagreement over Hetch Hetchy," said Destry Jarvis, spokesman for the nonprofit Western Values Project and a former director of external affairs for the national park service. "We understand that he is not a happy camper right now."
The National Park Service did not immediately comment on claims that Reynolds' reassignment was related to disputes over Hetch Hetchy, the water supply for San Francisco. At the same time, Jarvis and other critics of the administration were not completely dismayed by the outcome.
"His promotion is legitimate, and his new post is important," said Jarvis of Reynolds. "As for Cicely, she's terrific and needed in a park that has struggled to deal with management and workforce issues."
"The male rangers in Yosemite have long been known as the 'Yosemite mafia' because they are so hard-nosed and self-righteous," he added. "Cicely will take that whole situation by the throat and wrestle it to the ground."
Muldoon has worked in national parks across the country, including a stint as acting deputy superintendent at Yosemite, an iconic park that covers more than 750,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada range and is operated by 1,200 park service employees and about 1,700 hospitality business workers.
Overcrowding, congestion and trash have worsened as the number of Yosemite visitors has increased from 3 million in 1986 to more than 5 million in 2016.
With only about 6,500 available parking spaces, officials say, reported traffic accidents are up, as are the number of park visitors reporting on Yosemite's Facebook page that they had a miserable experience at the park.
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