News Release

Kate Cannon, Superintendent of the Southeast Utah Group, to Retire

Date: December 13, 2019

Kate Cannon has announced her retirement from the National Park Service after thirteen years as superintendent of the Southeast Utah Group (SEUG), which includes Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park as well as Hovenweep National Monument and Natural Bridges National Monument.

Her retirement comes after more than forty years as a federal employee and is to take effect on January 3, 2020. A successor has not yet been identified.

The veteran park service manager has held virtually every position from volunteer to seasonal employee and then to a series of posts of increasing responsibility in park management positions. Her work during more than four decades of federal service has included operational and resource protection roles and spanned the western United States from Alaska to South Dakota to Arizona, as well as a position at Isle Royale National Monument in Lake Superior and as manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

Prior to coming to SEUG in 2006, Cannon was deputy superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park. But, she said, "I left the best for last—coming here." When appointed SEUG superintendent she described it as "a dream come true."

Cannon leaves behind a legacy of work in building local stakeholder engagement and protection of the parks' natural and cultural resources for future generations—goals she set when arriving in Moab thirteen years ago.

"I am incredibly proud of our team and the work we have done to preserve this beautiful land and its treasures," she said. "And much of that success comes because we have established and strengthened partnerships and dialogue with our supporting groups like Canyonlands Natural History Association and Friends of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Their support has been astonishing and long lasting."

Cannon also commended the people of Moab and our larger community including the many city, county, and state agencies that join in management of these parks and surrounding lands as well as the countless volunteers who have given their time to myriad park projects. "We are a community in the greatest sense of the word," she said. "My retirement is truly a bittersweet moment for me but I feel so fortunate to have spent my career doing work I enjoyed, and work that matters."