Gackenbach to Retire After 5 Years as Parks Superintendent

David E. Gackenbach, a low-key career federal parks official who oversaw a large expansion of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in his five years as superintendent, is retiring, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Gackenbach, 51, took a voluntary buyout offer from the National Parks Service and is expected to depart next month, said spokeswoman Jean Bray. A replacement has not been named. Gackenbach could not be reached for comment.

“The regional office was indeed shocked when they found out he wanted to take early retirement,” Bray said.

Under Gackenbach, the national recreation area grew from 13,000 acres to 21,000 acres, said Joseph Edmiston, who heads a state parks agency that worked closely with Gackenbach.

“In my opinion, he’s the best superintendent the park has had,” said Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

“He worked closely with the congressional delegation, and he worked closely with us. And he saw as his No. 1 job getting the park expanded. . . . in as fast a manner as possible.”

Edmiston said Gackenbach did “miraculous things” to line up $16.7 million in NPS funds to buy the 2,300-acre Jordan Ranch in eastern Ventura County from entertainer Bob Hope in 1993--the largest single addition to the national recreation area.

Gackenbach also was instrumental in lengthening the Backbone Trail, a hiking trail along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains from Topanga State Park to Point Mugu State Park, Edmiston said.

Dave Brown, a longtime Sierra Club activist, said Gackenbach came under fire from environmental “purists” who opposed an early version of the Jordan Ranch deal that involved a swap of 59 acres of national parkland for about 1,200 acres of private land.

However, more pragmatic conservationists believed Gackenbach did a good job with the limited public funds available for purchases of new parkland, Brown said.

Gackenbach, who spent 17 years with the National Park Service, eschewed publicity and often worked behind the scenes, taking advantage of his wide network of NPS contacts to benefit the Santa Monica Mountains, Brown said. Edmiston said Gackenbach worked at the NPS Washington headquarters for about 10 years as head of the park-concessions division.

“A lot of good he did very quietly,” Brown said. “A lot of it was interpersonal contact he didn’t get a lot of credit for.”

Since he started with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in June, 1989, Gackenbach established business partnerships between the park and filming companies, one of which resulted in the $300,000 refurbishment of two Park Service buildings, Bray said.

Times staff writer Duncan Martell contributed to this story.