New Ariz. parks chief once vandalized park property

The woman chosen to be the next director of Arizona's state parks once carved her name into a historic park property in southeastern Arizona. She also helped recover thousands of acres of burned parkland in San Diego County and launched an innovative system for making campground reservations online. The Arizona State Parks Board's unanimous selection of Renée Bahl to take over the parks system next month has polarized state leaders. Bahl, a former assistant state parks director, oversaw historic preservation at the San Rafael Ranch. San Rafael, which is not open to the public, is a 3,500-acre preserve purchased by the parks board in 1999. It sits at the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River and is home to a variety of wildlife and endangered plants. In 2001, another employee caught her etching her first name and the year into the wall of a historic adobe barn. Bahl was disciplined but remained in her job until 2002, when she left to become director of parks and recreation for San Diego County, Calif. State Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson, criticized the selection. "She was in a position overseeing the state's historic preservation office," said Patterson, the southwest director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, who wrote about the issue on his blog. "It's hard for me to understand that someone in that position could be so clueless that they would think it would be OK to vandalize a state historic property."...AZCENTRAL