Fort Clatsop Administrative History

Cynthia L. Orlando, 1990-Present

Walker's replacement and the memorial's present superintendent is Cynthia Orlando, formerly the Project Manager [12] of Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve on Whidbey Island in Washington State. She is the first woman to hold this position at the memorial. From working at the historical reserve, Orlando brought an awareness of community involvement in the planning and protection of NPS areas.

Arriving in October 1990, Superintendent Orlando oversaw the construction of the visitor center expansion project. Her first priority was the accomplishment of planned construction and the planning of dedication ceremonies, scheduled for August 1991. The completion of construction, moving out of temporary facilities and back into the visitor center, the assembly and installation of new exhibits, and other final touches of the project consumed Orlando's first year. Dedication ceremonies included the keynote address by Congressman Les AuCoin, presentation of the NPS 75th anniversary plaque by Senator Bob Packwood, and the presentation of the Take Pride in America award from Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan, Jr. by Regional Director Charles Odegaard to FCHA. [13]

After the completion of the rehabilitation project, Superintendent Orlando concentrated on mobilizing the memorial against increasing external threats and adjacent land use issues. Development trends and changing land use patterns threaten to impact the memorial's resources. The potential for threatening development was noted in the boundary recommendations of the memorial's 1958 Suggested Historical Area Report. The memorial first opposed threatening development with its stand against a proposed aluminum reduction plant in 1970. In order to direct the memorial against developing external threats, Orlando campaigned to the Regional Director, Pacific Northwest Region, for a new general management plan to replace the thirty-year-old Master Plan written by Superintendent Peterson. Under the current system, management plans are written and produced through the Denver Service Center (DSC), but due to budget and time restraints, the memorial would not have been scheduled for a new management plan for at least another 5-7 years, if not longer. [14]

Working with Regional Chief of Planning Keith Dunbar, Orlando convinced the Regional Director that the memorial could not afford to wait for a new general management plan to be funded and produced through DSC. A planning team, consisting of regional office and park staff, was organized to produce a new management plan at the park and regional level. It was funded and begun in 1992. Superintendent Orlando has spent much of the last two years working with the regional office in developing this new management plan, which will establish goals for the next ten to fifteen years.

Superintendent Orlando also reallocated funding for the addition of a park ranger position, a resource management specialist, laborer, and office automation assistant. She has implemented a program which she has called "professionalization" of the memorial staff in order to meet the increased management needs. Historically, the park staff took on the responsibility of all areas of park management, regardless of the division in which an employee worked. As an example, for years the interpretation staff was also responsible for cultural resource management issues, the library, and collections, in addition to their specific interpretive programs. The maintenance crew, beginning with Ross Petersen and continuing through Curt Ahola and Ron Tyson, have been responsible for natural resource management through the reforestation planting and maintenance program, in addition to regular maintenance projects. Superintendent Orlando took steps to create a working situation in which each management program within the memorial only has to be responsible for the goals and needs of that program. [15] As a result, a formal resource management program was implemented at the memorial in 1992. [16]

Superintendent Orlando has also placed emphasis on landscape design improvements at the Salt Works site. Working with historical landscape architect Marsha Tolon and revising development plans from the 1985 landscape design, site improvements have been targeted to enhance the site. The split-rail fence has been removed and a new cobblestone wall was constructed during August 1994 to match similar design features on the western easement of the site. The vegetation maintenance has been continued. Recommendations also include design of natural history markers similar to those on memorial trails, placement of the bulletin board on the Seaside Promenade leading to the site, new site exhibit signs, and possible development if additional acquisitions become available.

Over half of the Fort Clatsop superintendents were serving as first-time superintendents at the memorial. The main areas of management emphasis have historically centered around interpretation, routine infrastructural maintenance, reforestation activities, and visitor access. In recent years, greater management emphasis has been placed on law enforcement needs and the development of a resource management program. Over the years, the memorial's staff has: expanded its interpretation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through different interpretive mediums such as costumed demonstrations, furnishing the fort replica, and the development of educational programs; expanded its involvement in the Lewis and Clark historical community and developed a research library for use by the public and scholars; and replanted native species of the 1805 coastal forest environment through reforestation programs. The memorial's staff has, for thirty-five years, endeavored to present the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as accurately as possible, while at the same time meeting the day-to-day management needs of a public memorial.