Superintendent Craig Kenkel will step down next month after leading the Point Reyes National Seashore during a three-year tenure marked by intense debate and litigation over the future of ranching and dairying in the park.
Mr. Kenkel, who is 64, will leave the job on June 1, closing a 41-year career with the National Park Service. Deputy Superintendent Anne Altman will serve as acting superintendent while the National Park Service recruits a permanent replacement.
Mr. Kenkel said the timing of his decision was strictly personal.
“For me, being part of the Point Reyes team was a highlight to a wonderful career,” he said. “Now it’s time to focus on other people, causes and interests that also make life meaningful.”
Mr. Kenkel grew up in Iowa, where his family has been farming for five generations. He came to the seashore from Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, one of a handful of national parks in the country that leases land for farming.
When Mr. Kenkel arrived at Point Reyes, the park service was working on an update to its general management plan for the seashore, which included 20-year leases for the 21 ranches and dairies operating here. It also included a provision permitting the culling of free-ranging elk near Drakes Beach that were encroaching on ranchlands and competing for forage.
A coalition of nonprofits had sued the park to demand that the management plan be updated. Litigation over the issues continues to this day, as confidential mediation continues in hopes of resolving disagreements among the park, ranchers and the environmental groups.
The secrecy of the talks has frustrated both those who wish to end agriculture in the park and those who regard it as a fundamental component of the seashore’s history and purpose. During the mediation, Mr. Kenkel has restricted ranches to short-term leases and suspended culling of elk, disappointing ranchers who say long-term leases would help them qualify for loans they need to improve their operations.
Before taking over as superintendent in January, 2021, Mr. Kenkel already had experience working in the seashore. He began his career with the park service as a historical architect, after earning a degree in architecture from Iowa State University. One of his first projects was supervising a restoration of the Point Reyes Lighthouse beginning in the late 1980s.
Mr. Kenkel has spent much of his tenure at Point Reyes working to establish a close relationship with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a federally recognized tribe whose ancestral lands include the seashore.
In 2021, Mr. Kenkel and Greg Sarris, the tribal chairman, signed a government-to-government agreement to work jointly on matters of historic and cultural importance to the tribe. That agreement has won praise from the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, the park’s nonprofit arm that is working with the tribe on a comprehensive upgrade of trails in the seashore.
“What I appreciate about Craig is that he didn’t let all the litigation get in the way,” said Donna Faure, PRNSA’s executive director. “He’s done really important work to strengthen his internal team, his partnership with us, and his partnership with the tribe. Our staff and board love him.”
Ms. Faure also thanked Mr. Kenkel for creating the park’s first deputy position and hiring Ms. Altman to fill it. “She is really well known across the park service as a capable, strong leader,” Ms. Faure said. “Whenever I go to conferences, people say, ‘You have Craig and Anne? You are in the best shape.’”