The executive who President Donald Trump picked for National Park Service director has spent decades working with high-profile parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone as a leader with a hospitality firm that that once took on the agency in a high-profile lawsuit.
Scott Socha has worked 27 years with Delaware North, a hospitality firm based in Buffalo, New York, that’s long operated lodges, hotel, tours and concessions contracted with parks. That includes current national park lodges, such as the Squire outsides Grand Canyon National Park and the Tenaya Lodge that’s connected to Yosemite National Park in California.
Other Delaware North operations also depend on public lands like bus tours at Yellowstone and ATV rides in Colorado national forests, according to its website. It’s currently the concessionaire at Shenandoah National Park.
Socha’s nomination, which the White House sent to the Senate on Wednesday, could underscore the interest that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has expressed in elevating park relationships to park gateway communities and businesses, including ordering new liaison positions at parks to connect park management to local leaders.
