Retired Channel Islands superintendent delivers a cautionary tale

Tim Setnicka, the blunt-spoken former superintendent of Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California, told a crowd of over 60 people at West Marin School last Thursday that the National Park Service “has no soul.” Instead, he argued, it’s comprised of people maneuvering through a bureaucracy that has become increasingly untrustworthy.

“The culture of the National Park Service has changed, and I learned that during a very contentious planning process dealing with…