Eric Brunnemann, 16-year veteran of the National Park Service,
has been named to succeed to Cicely Muldoon as Superintendent of
Pinnacles National Monument.
Paicines – Eric Brunnemann, 16-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been named to succeed to Cicely Muldoon as Superintendent of Pinnacles National Monument.
Muldoon, who has been at the Pinnacles since February, 2002 was promoted last month to deputy regional director for public use management. Her new duties include overseeing fire protection and law enforcement for parks in the Pacific West region, with special attention to desert parks such as Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks.
“(The Pinnacles) is utterly beautiful,” said Brunnemann. “It will be good to come back to that sort of climate.”
Since 2002 Brunnemann has served as superintendent of War in the Pacific National Historical Park on Guam. A two-hour flight from Tokyo, War in the Pacific is a monument to soldiers who fought in the Pacific during World War II. At the time of his arrival, the park had recently been ravaged by two typhoons.
“Whatever damage the first typhoon didn’t do, the second one did,” he said. “And I’ve been rebuilding this park for the past three years. It teaches you tremendous patience.”
Brunneman began his career with the NPS at the soon-to-be-created Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico. Brunnemann would later work at Fort Davis National Historical Park in Texas, as well as several parks and monuments in Utah.
“Utah was wonderful,” he said. “But it left me wanting more. In school, I had specialized in Spanish colonial archeology. Guam used to be one of Spain’s main ports, so when the superintendent position opened up at War in the Pacific, I jumped at the chance.”
“I feel good leaving now,” he continued. “I’m leaving behind a park that’s essentially whole, and that’s a wonderful gift.”
With the Pinnacles poised to grow by 1,700 acres in the next three years, and with the condor rehabilitation program ongoing, Brunneman is sure to have his hands full when he moves in mid-October.
“I’ve never been in a park with condors before,” he said. “And I can’t wait for the tarantula migration. Those are all things we don’t have in Guam. One of the biggest focuses we have right now, though, is to start a new visitor’s center on the west side of the park. But I seem to be pretty good at that sort of thing.”
War in the Pacific’s visitor’s center was completely destroyed in the typhoons and had to be rebuilt entirely from scratch.
As excited as Brunnemann is, his move doesn’t come without at least a few regrets.
“I’ll definitely miss the weather here,” he said. “It’s never cold. This is a land where people never fail to take you down to the beach to a family party, whether they know you or not.”
“One of my kids was born here, he’s two, and has never left the island,” he continued. “My oldest is having fun trying to explain to him what ‘seasons’ and ‘winter’ are. She also wants a treehouse. I told her she’d need a special dispensation from the superintendent of the park. When I left for work this morning, she was drawing plans for a proposal.”
