Don Neubacher, the six-year superintendent of Yosemite National Park who helmed the Point Reyes National Seashore for a decade and a half, announced his retirement amid allegations of gender discrimination and a “toxic” work environment at Yosemite.
Mr. Neubacher, who has a home with his wife, Patty Neubacher, in Point Reyes Station, sent a letter of apology to Yosemite staff after a hearing of the House of Representative’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month made the allegations public.
But his apology wasn’t enough to allay the situation, which now includes an inquiry from the Interior Department’s Office of the Inspector General and the sudden retirement of Ms. Neubacher, who works as the regional director for the park service’s Pacific West office.
In a letter to his staff last month, Mr. Neubacher wrote that “new leadership was needed” at Yosemite, and that he would be on leave effective immediately. A request on Wednesday to a Yosemite spokesman for comment from Mr. Neubacher was not returned.
The allegations came to light at the oversight hearing, when Kelly Martin, the chief of fire and aviation management at Yosemite, harshly criticized the work environment, particularly for women. “In Yosemite National Park today, dozens of people, the majority of whom are women, are being bullied, belittled, disenfranchised and marginalized from their roles as dedicated professionals,” she said in written testimony.
In an internal park service report from August that looked into employment issues at Yosemite, she went on, “you are likely to find accounts of women (and men) being publicly humiliated by the superintendent, intimidated in front of colleagues, and having their professional credibility and integrity minimized or questioned.” She said at Yosemite, her expertise was repeatedly dismissed.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republication committee member from Utah, quoted the August report as saying, “The number of employees interviewed about the horrific working conditions lead us to believe that the environment is toxic, hostile, repressive, and harassing.” He said 18 people had “come forward with allegations of harassment, bullying and a hostile work environment. These employees lay the blame at the top, at Don Neubacher.”
The allegations spurred the park service to offer Mr. Neubacher a transfer from Yosemite to Denver, to work as a senior advisor to the park service’s deputy director. But Mr. Neubacher declined, instead opting to retire on Nov. 1. Ms. Neubacher, whose position oversees 56 Park units, announced this week that she will also retire on Nov. 1. (She did not oversee Yosemite National Park, though the Pacific West regional office in which she worked did.)
She wrote in a letter to park service staff this month, “This is not the timing that I’d ever envisioned for retiring, but sometimes life takes an abrupt turn.”
During the oversight hearing, a Congressman questioned the appropriateness of her position. “You have somebody who is essentially protected and empowered by his wife,” Rep. Chaffetz said.
Yosemite is now facing an investigation by the Inspector General. A spokesperson for the office did not respond to a request for comment, but Andrew Munoz, a park spokesman, said in an email, “In order to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation into allegations of a hostile work environment at Yosemite National Park, the National Park Service acted to move Don Neubacher from his role as Superintendent of Yosemite National Park.” He said Mr. Neubacher was “on leave and not available for interviews.”
Mr. Munoz did not know whether the inquiry would delve into Mr. Neubacher’s time at the seashore, where his time included some controversies, such as over the pepper-spaying of two teens by park rangers and the eradication of non-native deer. The effort to close Drakes Bay Oyster Company spurred an Inspector General investigation into whether park employees had engaged in scientific misconduct about the farm’s impacts.
The current investigation, Mr. Munoz wrote, “is ongoing and there are not yet any findings or conclusions relating to the allegations. As the [Office of the Inspector General] is a separate agency, we are not privy to the scope of its investigation.”
The accusations against Mr. Neubacher do not appear to be unique. In recent months, a spotlight has been cast on the issue of gender-based problems in the National Park Service; other park units, including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, have faced allegations of ongoing sexual harassment. The superintendent of Grand Canyon retired earlier this year, and the park service transferred a Florida superintendent this year after harassment allegations surfaced at Canaveral National Seashore.
Ms. Martin, in her written testimony, said that earlier in her career, at Grand Canyon and with the Forest Service, she faced sexual harassment. She did not detail sexual harassment at Yosemite.
Loretta Farley, who worked for 20 years at the seashore before she retired this summer, said that in her dealings with Mr. Neubacher, she never experienced the kind of allegations being made at Yosemite. (She is also a neighbor and acquaintance of the Neubachers, she added.)
For many years at the seashore, Ms. Farley said, she was a union steward, meaning that she represented employees to make sure their contracts were followed—a position that she noted could put her in opposition to park leadership. But, she went on, “as the union steward, [Mr. Neubacher] was great to work with. He was very fair.”
That Ms. Neubacher has been implicated in allegations against her husband struck Ms. Farley, who described herself as a feminist, as sexist and unfair.
For her, Mr. Neubacher’s time in the seashore includes important projects, such as the restoration of the Giacomini Wetlands. “He has a legacy that will live beyond his time at Point Reyes,” she said.
This article was corrected on Oct. 9 to reflect the fact that the Pacific West Regional Office of the National Park Service, of which Patty Neubacher is director, does not oversee Yosemite National Park.