Secretary Salazar Lauds President's Intent to Nominate Jonathan Jarvis as Director of the National Park Service

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today praised President Obama's announcement that he intends to nominate Jonathan Jarvis to be director of the National Park Service. Jarvis, a 30-year veteran of the Park Service, currently is the regional director of the agency's Pacific West Region.

“President Obama has made an outstanding choice for director of the National Park Service,” Salazar said. “There is no substitute for experience, and Jon Jarvis has three decades of hands-on experience in our parks that will be invaluable as we seek to reinvigorate and improve our National Park System in time for its 100th anniversary in 2016.”

As regional director of the Pacific West Region, Jarvis is currently responsible for the 54 units of the National Park System in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands of Guam, Saipan and American Samoa. He oversees 3,000 employees with a $350 million annual budget.

Prior to becoming regional director in 2002, Jarvis spent three years as the superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park in Ashford, Washington, where he managed the 235,000 acre National Park with a staff of 300 and a $14 million budget.

“President Obama has made a commitment to bring new life into our National Park System, and Jon Jarvis has proven he is the right person to make sure that happens,” Salazar said.

In the 1990s, Jarvis served as superintendent of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska.

A trained biologist, he also served as Chief of Natural and Cultural Resources at North Cascades National Park where he was the chief biologist of the 684,000 acre complex of two recreation areas and one national park. Jarvis is currently the co-leader of the Children in Nature taskforce with the National Association of State Park Directors. He is proud of his work with the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor in an effort to provide a quality visitor experience to the USS Arizona Memorial and associated states.

A native of Virginia, Jarvis has a B.S. in biology from the College of William and Mary and completed the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Program in 2001.