President Names Jarvis Director of National Park Service

President Obama recently announced his intention 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.

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. 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.

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.