OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Karen Gustin, Olympic National Park superintendent since April 2008, will retire early next month, she announced Wednesday.
Her last day will be March 2.
Todd Suess, who has served as deputy superintendent since February 2010, will serve as acting superintendent until a new superintendent is chosen.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working at Olympic National Park,” said Gustin, 55, who took the top spot at the park after serving as superintendent of Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee, Fla.
“The staff is a great group of people to work with, as are the communities of the Olympic Peninsula,” she added.
Gustin has 30 years of federal service, said Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.
She is an avid horsewoman and plans to move with her family to Lexington, Ky., where she will work with horses.
“There are a host of nonprofit organizations and companies that work in all facets of horse breeding, training, conservation and management,” she said.
“I look forward to making new contacts, taking advantage of employment opportunities and learning more about the business.”
During Gustin’s tenure, dam demolition for the three-year $325 million Elwha River restoration project began, with the first bites taken out of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams in September.
The park worked with many partners to celebrate the start of the long-planned project last fall.
Work on the park’s wilderness stewardship plan — the development of which was included in the park’s 2008 general management plan — resulted in public scoping meetings being planned this summer.
Gustin had said the plan was at the top of her agenda when she began work at the park.
Her first act as superintendent was representing the park in the signing of a memorandum of understanding with eight Olympic Peninsula tribes at Ocean Shores.
The intent of the agreement was to create a process that dictates communication between the tribes and the park, she said.
In 2009, the Quileute tribe and the park reached an agreement in principle to exchange land so the tribe could relocate buildings from the tsunami zone.
The agreement, which requires action by Congress, would end a half-century boundary dispute at the northern edge of the reservation in LaPush.
Legislation approved by the House earlier this month would give the tribe 785 acres of parkland in return for the Quileute ensuring access to Rialto, Second and other beaches reached by trails that pass through tribal land.
A similar bills awaits action in the Senate.
Several public access projects were completed during Gustin’s tenure, including nearly $4 million in storm damage repairs to trails, roads and wilderness bridges in 2008 and more than $2 million in road repairs and improvements around the park in 2011.
In 2010, emergency repairs were made after a landslide destroyed a section of the Hurricane Ridge Road.
The $2 million contract to a Port Angeles firm restored access to the park’s most popular winter destination.
Slated to begin later this year is the long-awaited installation of a new bridge over Staircase Rapids, a $1.1 million project that will restore the popular loop trail.
Maynes said she knows of no time line for filling the superintendent position after the regional office of the National Park Service announces the vacancy.
Suess has worked in the National Park Service for 17 years.
Before joining Olympic National Park staff, Suess served nine years as superintendent of Jewel Cave National Monument in western South Dakota.
Prior to his arrival at Jewel Cave, Suess spent two years at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.
Suess grew up in the Minneapolis area and studied forestry at the University of Minnesota.
