Fresh from a stint as superintendent of Yosemite
National Park in California, Michael Finley will take over the helm
at Yellowstone in early fall. When Finley, 47, replaces Robert
Barbee, who has been in charge for 11 years, he will inherit a wide
range of management controversies including the proposed Noranda
gold mine adjacent to the park, wolf reintroduction, rapidly
expanding winter use and summer auto gridlock. “The greatest
challenge for me will be to reserve judgment and withhold action
until I’ve thoroughly listened and investigated thoroughly,” Finley
told the Casper Star-Tribune. At Yosemite, Finley pleased
environmentalists by urging that Mono Lake, east of the park, be
allowed more water. “That was the first time that the National Park
Service had taken a position – very strongly – in favor of Mono
Lake protection,” says Martha Davis, director of the Mono Lake
Committee. Finley grew up in Medford, Ore., and studied biology at
Southern Oregon State College. He was superintendent at Assateague
National Seashore in Maryland and at Everglades National Park in
Florida. Finley says his first Park Service assignment in 1967 was
on a Yellowstone fire crew.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Life after Barbee.
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