The centerpiece of the annual meeting of the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park is usually the park superintendent's "State of the Park" address. After just two months on the job, John King told the audience at Cinnamon Bay on Sunday afternoon that "some of you are probably better-equipped to speak about the state of the park than I am."
Then King gave it his best shot anyway.
"The year 2000 was a busy, successful and productive year for the park," he said, citing big increases in the operating budget over the past two years, the completion of the new Visitors Center, and land acquisitions. The park also put together a draft Commercial Services and Vessel Use Management Plan and installed 215 mooring buoys to protect the sea floor from anchoring vessels.
But he reminded the 100 or so in attendance that much remains to be done.
"Not long ago, this was a park perched on the precipice of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. We were a poor park, no doubt about it. Conditions are certainly more favorable now, but there's a long way to go," he said.
King took over as park superintendent in November, replacing the retiring Russ Berry. He has been with the National Park Service for nearly three decades and served as deputy regional director of the Intermountain Region for six years. One of his main priorities at the V.I. National Park, King said, is developing a business plan, and he expressed confidence that the park will be among those chosen to participate in the National Park Service's Business Plan Initiative.
"This will bring a core group of MBAs here in summer 2001 to put together that business plan," King said. "To ascertain what he have, what our needs are, and our strategies for marketing."
In the meantime, the park faces what he called "huge challenges." Despite recent gains, he said there is still a more than $4 million shortfall in the operating budget. And without major acquisitions of some of its 200-plus inholdings, the park, already "bombarded by incompatible development," could come to resemble much of St. Thomas.
King stressed both the need for partnerships—lauding the cooperation between the Park Service and the Friends of the Park, for example—and for education. "We need to instill the conservation ethic and appreciation for our natural and cultural heritage," he said.
"Our work has never been more important."
