Head Of State Parks Is Leaving His Post

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

October 4, 2012 | 2:00 PM

The Patriot-News has details on a major shakeup at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources: John Norbeck, who runs state parks, is unexpectedly stepping down.

StateImpact Pennsylvania will have more details on Norbeck’s depature and other changes at DCNR later today. Here’s what Don Gilliland is reporting:

Under Norbeck’s leadership, the state parks increased visitation and won a gold medal national award for being the best-managed park system in the United States.

Before coming to Pennsylvania in 2006, Norbeck had spent nearly 30 years in the Maryland state parks system.

Environmentalists and advocates for the state parks fear Norbeck’s abrupt departure could be a sign that the Corbett administration is preparing to open the park gates to drilling rigs to tap natural gas under the Commonwealth’s popular park system; Norbeck is known to be an opponent of drilling in the state parks.