Glacier Park Chief to Head Yosemite Current Yosemite superintendent Stanley T. Albright is expected to accept a National Park Service post. By Mark Grossi The Fresno Bee - October 6, 1999 Glacier National Park Superintendent David A. Mihalic, 53, is expected to be named superintendent of Yosemite National Park Thursday, replacing Stanley T. Albright, 68, sources said Tuesday. Albright reportedly will be named natural resources consultant to National Park Service Director Robert Stanton. Stanton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt are scheduled to make the announcement Thursday in Yosemite. Interior Department officials could not be reached to comment. Neither Albright nor Mihalic was available. Sources did not know the reason for the change, but the park's long-awaited Yosemite Valley restoration was stopped by a Sierra Club lawsuit earlier this year. One of Albright's goals was to complete a valley plan. Just before Albright's arrival in October 1997, Congress agreed to give Yosemite $176 million to repair damage after the big flood of January 1997. The money was supposed to be used in the valley's restoration and repair. Interior officials were poised to announce a preferred alternative on the plan in late summer, but the lawsuit stopped a key road-construction project and forced a study on the Merced River. Nothing else can be done until the river study is completed - perhaps late next year. Sierra Club official Joyce Eden said she hoped the new superintendent would mean more protection for Yosemite's vast resources. She said she would encourage Mihalic to work with the Sierra Club. "We continue to be concerned by the direction of park planning," she said Tuesday. "We challenge the new superintendent to halt the rushed timetable being pursued by the National Park Service." Jay Watson, regional director for the Wilderness Society, said he had no quarrel with Albright. Watson said he was happy to see the new Yosemite superintendent comes from a large, western park. Glacier National Park in Montana covers about 1 million acres. About 2 million people visit the park annually. Mihalic has been working on a General Management Plan update in Glacier. In Yosemite, he will encounter a General Management Plan process filled with controversy and already 19 years old.