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| NPS Photo |
| Vidal Davila |
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Date: September 4, 2007
Contact: Tom Farrell, 605-745-4600
Vidal Davila, Chief of the Division of Science and Resource Management at Big Bend National Park, Texas, has been named as the new Superintendent of Wind Cave National Park in Hot Springs, S.D. Davila will assume his new assignment on September 16, 2007. He succeeds Linda Stoll, who retired in January following nearly 34 years of Federal service.
In announcing Davila’s appointment, Ernest Quintana, director of the National Park Service (NPS) 13-state Midwest Region, said, “Vidal’s strong background and expertise in partnerships and community engagement, as well as natural resources management, will serve him well in his new assignment. We are excited to have Vidal as a member of the Midwest Region team.”
During his tenure at Big Bend National Park, Davila developed and maintained an international resource management program with Mexican Protected Areas managers and surrounding natural resource managers, including Texas Parks and Wildlife personnel, to cooperatively manage 2.5 million acres on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
For the past 11 years at the park, he presided over a team that worked on international issues, including resource management projects, and exotic plant and animal control along the border. Davila served as the park’s liaison during the $6 million Big Bend Regional Aerosol and Observational (BRAVO) study between the park, State, Federal government, and contractors, attempting to locate the non-point pollution sources affecting the park’s air quality. He also served as a member of the Rio Grande Water Master Advisory Committee, dealing with water issues along the Rio Grande in Texas. Davila served as the Technical Committee Chairperson for the Chihuahuan Desert Network including six area park units from 2005-2006. He also served as a member of the Exotic Plant Management Team Steering Committee for the Chihuahuan Desert Short Grass Prairie Team.
Davila began his NPS career in 1974, as a seasonal Park Naturalist at Amistad Recreation Area in Del Rio, Texas. For two of those seasons, he worked as the YCC Camp Director for a 50 person camp. In 1977, Davila became a permanent employee at Big Bend National Park as a Park Technician in the Naturalist Division. In 1982, he became the Park’s Resource Management Ranger. In 1985 he was selected for the second Natural Resource Management Trainee Program and worked at the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, N.M. Following that program, he was assigned as the Resource Management Specialist at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Pine Springs, Texas, then at Great Basin National Park in Baker, Nev. He accepted his current position at Big Bend National Park in 1996.
Davila taught 7th and 8th grade science in Pearsall, Texas, in between summer seasonal jobs 1975-1976 and was awarded the Conservation Teacher of the Year by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service for his conservation work in the school and in the community. Davila has served on the local Terlingua Medical Board of Directors for two years in 1997-1998 and has been a member of the San Vicente Independent School District Board of Trustees since 1999. He has been the president of the school board for the past four years. Davila served three years on the Big Bend Little League Board of
Directors from 2004 to present. He also served on the Board of Directors for Leadership Big Bend, a tri-county leadership organization for the past year.
