DINOSAUR I Mark Foust, a 26-year veteran of the National Park Service (NPS), has been named superintendent of Dinosaur National Monument, which straddles the northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado borders, intermountain regional director Sue Masica has announced.
Foust will assume his new responsibilities on June 15.
“I am pleased to select Mark as the superintendent at Dinosaur,” Masica said. “His proven leadership skills, ability to manage complex issues and his dedication to working with communities and partners make him a great fit for the unique resources at Dinosaur National Monument.”
Foust most recently served as acting superintendent at Dinosaur and has been the chief law enforcement ranger at Glacier National Park for the last eight years. Prior to his assignment at Glacier, Foust served as the intermountain region’s branch chief of ranger activities in Denver. Foust’s other management assignments include service as the chief ranger at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma, chief of operations at Oklahoma City National Memorial, and chief ranger at Padre Island National Seashore.
He served in numerous supervisory and ranger positions at Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas, Joshua Tree National Park and at Lava Beds National Monument, both in California. Early in his career, Foust also worked as a police officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oregon and for the United States Park Police in Washington, D.C.
Foust is one of a handful of incident commanders for the National Park Service’s Type II all-hazard incident management teams. As incident commander or chief of operations for the Intermountain team, he has worked on major incidents for the NPS throughout the country since 2004. These incidents include hurricanes Rita and Sandy, the flooding event of September 2013 that ravaged the eastern slope of Colorado, and special events like the 2008 presidential inauguration.
“I am honored and excited for the opportunity to serve with the talented staff, communities, private landowners and stakeholders in and around Dinosaur National Monument,” Foust said. “Dinosaur is an incredible park with wonderful natural and cultural resources. I’m also looking forward to working on the plans for the celebration of Dinosaur’s 100th anniversary in 2015.”
A third generation NPS employee, Foust has lived throughout the country. He is married and has three teenage children. Foust has deep family roots in the Four Corners area, with great-grandparents who homesteaded in Montezuma County, Colorado.
Foust is a 1989 graduate of the University of California at Davis, with a bachelor’s degree in natural resource science. In his role as superintendent of Dinosaur National Monument, Foust will manage more than 210,000 acres, a workforce of approximately 45 personnel, and an annual operating budget of more than $3.3 million.
