OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Sarah Creachbaum, who began her career in the National Park Service cleaning hiking trails of branches and rocks, has been named the new superintendent of Olympic National Park, the National Park Service announced Thursday.
Creachbaum, 54, the superintendent of Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, Hawaii, will move to the North Olympic Peninsula this fall, she said Thursday in a telephone interview from her island home.
Creachbaum will replace Karen Gustin, who retired in March after more than 30 years with the National Park Service.
She will be the 15th superintendent of the park and the third woman superintendent after Maureen E. Finnerty, named 22 years ago, and Gustin, named in 2008.
Todd Suess, 46, has been acting superintendent since Gustin’s retirement and will return to his duties as deputy superintendent when Creachbaum arrives on the North Olympic Peninsula, said Rainey McKenna, park spokeswoman.
Her exact start date is unknown, McKenna said.
“We think she will be a great fit for Olympic National Park,” McKenna said.
“We are looking forward to welcoming her.”
Haleakala is composed of 34,366 acres compared with Olympic National Park’s 922,000 acres.
“I’m excited, of course, for the challenge, and I do know 95 percent of that is wilderness acreage,” Creachbaum said.
“Wilderness management is an area of expertise and a love of mine, so I’m excited for that challenge.
“Large parks and small parks have pretty complex challenges these days.”
Creachbaum, whose first park service job was cleaning trails of branches and rocks in Arizona’s Saguaro National Park in 1983, turned 54 Wednesday and learned of the appointment this week.
That made her birthday “a nice one,” she said Thursday.
“I have always been a person who like diversity in landscapes,” she said.
“That’s such a rich diversity of ecotones and ecosystems, and of course, I really like managing parks that have to do with the ocean,” she said.
“I’m just going to another Pacific Ocean park,” she said.
“Another thing that really attracts me is the Native American and other cultural aspects,” Creachbaum said.
“Part of what I have worked on most diligently in Hawaii is opening up the park to be more welcoming to the native Hawaiians who regard the mountain that is Haleakala as a very special and spiritual place,” she said.
“Working with the native Hawaiian people is one of my greatest accomplishments.”
Creachbaum has been superintendent of Haleakala National Park since 2009.
“Sarah is a proven leader and team builder, with strong wilderness management expertise,” said Chris Lehnertz, Pacific West regional director for the National Park Service.
“She is known for her creativity and inclusive management style.”
Creachbaum, an Ohio native who grew up on a farm, earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture and environmental planning from Utah State University in 1994.
“I really thought I could go to school and get a job and work outside and do something that I really cared about and make a difference,” she said.
“I waited a lot of tables to get through college,” she said.
“In between those seasonal jobs, any serious job I’ve had that was directly related to a profession has been park or National Forest Service related.”
Creachbaum began her professional career as a recreation and wilderness manager for Shoshone National Forest in Cody, Wyo., in 1990.
Since then, she has worked at national parks in the western United States including Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
Before being named superintendent of Haleakala National Park, she was superintendent of War in the Pacific National Historical Park on Guam and American Memorial Park on Saipan.
She also was the 2004 National Park Service Bevinetto Fellow and served in Washington, D.C., as a staff member for the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks.
She now serves as co-chair of the National Park Service Wilderness Leadership Council.
Creachbaum will move to the North Olympic Peninsula with her husband, Bob, 65, a retired park service planner and hydrologist, and their border collie, Jimmy.
The couple have two grown sons.
________
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach contributed to this report.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
