Trump nominates hospitality executive to lead National Park Service [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Donald Trump has nominated the hospitality executive Scott Socha – whose company once sued to claim trademark rights to the name “Yosemite National Park” – to lead the National Park Service.

The nomination of an outsider with business ties to the agency he’d oversee comes at a pivotal moment for the service, which lost a quarter of its staff under Doge’s civil sector purge and which has been the subject of the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to erase mention of historical events from NPS sites that portray Americans in an unfavorable light, such as slavery.

US national parks have historically been overseen by people with experience in conservation and land stewardship, with nominees over the past three decades typically emerging from within the agency ranks.

Socha, by contrast, spent the last 27 years working at Buffalo-based Delaware North, a food and hotel management company that provides hospitality services in seven national parks and runs lodging operations in five national park gateway communities, according to the company’s website.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/12/trump-nominates-scott-socha-national-park-service