Barclay Trimble is the interim leader of Yellowstone National Park following last month’s departure of longtime superintendent Cam Sholly.
Trimble started Oct. 14, according to a park spokesperson. The three-decade park staffer formerly led Kentucky’s lone national park, Mammoth Cave. In his new position he oversees a staff five times the size, even after cuts by the Trump administration. Yellowstone did not make Trimble available for comment before his start date.
Trimble is well respected within the park service, said Betsy Buffington, a regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. Longtime peer Chip Jenkins, who leads the neighboring Grand Teton National Park, was encouraged by Trimble’s expertise as a park manager, including as deputy superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park. Jenkins did not know whether Trimble could become Yellowstone’s permanent superintendent.
Some conservationists worry the next leader of America’s first national park may not continue Sholly’s track record of prioritizing natural resources. Trimble can only hold the post for 120 days under federal civil service rules that require a competitive selection process for longer promotions.
“When you’re leading in Yellowstone, your primary goal is don’t screw it up,” said Scott Christensen, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He said Sholly deserves special credit for developing a bison management plan that prioritizes transfers to tribal nations over slaughter.
Sholly was a “very savvy political operator” who cultivated relationships with the Trump administration and congressional delegations in three states, Christensen said.
“I view our public lands [as] generally at risk right now from proposals in Congress to sell off and transfer them to big reorganizations and massive staff layoffs and reduced funding to things like repealing the Roadless Rule,” he said.
Brian Yablonski, CEO of the Property and Environment Research Center, a free-market conservation think tank in Bozeman, Montana, described Sholly as a “once-in-a-generation” leader.
Sholly – now chief operating officer for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – leaves big shoes to fill.
Other partners were quick to praise the longtime public servant who oversaw an influx of COVID visitation, the aftermath of a mass shooting attempt and a speedy recovery from a historic flood in 2022 that marked the park’s first natural-disaster-related closure in decades.
“We will all miss his service, leadership, and the positive direction that he’s been able to steer Yellowstone,” said Todd Walton, sales and marketing director for Xanterra Travel Collection, the park’s largest concessionaire.
Jenkins said Sholly had been “one of the best” leaders in the park service and the mark of his leadership “had been felt across the entire service.”
The pair first met when they held leadership positions at Yosemite National Park in the early 2000s. Together they’ve managed the pandemic and employee housing challenges.
Sholly left behind a “roadmap of work” for the next three to five years, Jenkins said. His full-time replacement will be decided by leaders in Washington. That could include NPS Deputy Director Frank Lands, who recently scouted Grand Teton for a Major League Baseball game before the league abandoned the idea.
Lands told KHOL he was reviewing several construction projects on the tour that also reportedly included Yellowstone and Grand Canyon National Park. Yellowstone did not say where specifically he visited.
After his own lengthy tenure in public service and eight years at the helm of Grand Teton, Jenkins said he has no intentions of following Sholly to the private sector.
“I have the best job in the National Park Service,” Jenkins said, “we’ve got really important work that we need to do here.”
This article has been updated to reflect Trimble’s correct start date and to correct attributions for Scott Christensen of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Brian Yablonski of the Property and Environment Research Center. A previous version conflated the two. — Ed.
