David Vela, superintendent of Grand Teton National Park since 2014, is said to be President Trump's choice for director of the National Park Service.

Several sources in and out of the Park Service said Tuesday that they had heard Mr. Vela had interviewed with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the White House in recent days and that the president would soon submit his name to the Senate for confirmation, if he hasn't already.

"A lot of us have been hearing he is the preferred candidate for some time now," said Rob Arnberger, a long-time Park Service veteran now retired.

Superintendent Vela came to Grand Teton from Washington, D.C., where he worked as the Park Service's associate director for Workforce, Relevancy and Inclusion. He oversaw NPS programs including Human Resources, Learning and Development, Equal Opportunity, Youth, and the Office of Relevancy, Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to that, he was director of the agency's Southeast Region based in Atlanta.

The Park Service has been without a permanent director since Jon Jarvis retired shortly before President Trump took office. Mike Reynolds, at the time a deputy director, served as acting director for roughly a year, and then P. Dan Smith was brought out of retirement to serve as deputy director "exercising the authority of the director."

Mr. Smith encountered some unflattering publicity when an anonymous Interior Department employee complained back in March that he had grabbed his genitilia in a crude manner while walking down the hallway with Bert Frost, the regional director of the Park Service's Alaska office. The allegation presented to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke claimed that Mr. Smith “grabbed his crotch and his penis and acted out as though he was urinating on the wall."

Last month the deputy director sent a Service-wide email apologizing for the incident, though he never came out and described exactly what he had done.

"I want to start by apologizing to any colleague who witnessed this," Mr. Smith wrote in his email. "I recognize that the story was inappropriate for the workplace, even though it does not rise to the level of harassment. I am very sorry for my mistake in telling this story and any discomfort it clearly caused.

"I also want to apologize to each of you. As a leader, I must hold myself to the highest standard of behavior in the workplace. I take my responsibility to create and maintain a respectful, collegial work environment very seriously. Moving forward, I promise to do better."

Late last month the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General released a brief statement that, "Smith acknowledged he gestured with his hands to simulate urinating while telling a story and stated that in hindsight the story and the gesture were not appropriate for work. The other employee said he was not offended by the story or the gesture but also acknowledged that they were inappropriate for the workplace. We found no other witnesses to the incident."