Park Director Named for Santa Monicas

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area will get a new superintendent next week, park officials said Thursday.

The director of concessions for the National Park Service, David E. Gackenbach, 45, is to assume the post. He succeeds Daniel R. Kuehn, who left in October to become superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Gackenbach is a 12-year veteran of the Park Service. For the last eight years, he headed the agency’s concessions management division, overseeing services by 520 private companies in 125 parks throughout the country.

Gackenbach’s experience with private companies influenced his selection, Park Service Director James Ridenour said.

Efforts to expand the mountain parklands, which consist of more than 16,000 acres from Griffith Park to Point Mugu, have often been in competition with private efforts to acquire and develop land.