Daniel Smith apologized Friday to all Park Service employees for crude behavior he exhibited in the Interior Department/NPS

While the acting director of the National Park Service says grabbing his crotch in an Interior Department hallway was inappropriate, he told the agency's employees Friday that he's been cleared of behavior that constituted harassment.

In a short email to all Park Service employees, P. Daniel Smith said Interior's Office of Inspector General had completed its investigation into an anonymous allegation leveled in March that he 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. Mr. Smith, a deputy director of the Park Service acting with the authority of the director, said he was recounting a story from time he spent in Alaska.

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."

"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."

Sexual harassment has been an issue the Park Service has been grappling with in recent years. According to a survey of workforce behavior launched in 2016, 38.7 percent of the Park Service respondents complained about some form of harassment. Slightly more than 19 percent reported gender harassment, and 10.4 percent reported sexual harassment.

In the wake of that survey, Secretary Zinke promised immediate and lasting reform, saying "there’s an expectation that not only can (the Park Service) be the greatest stewards of our lands, but also they should be the greatest stewards of our values."

"In the past, zero tolerance has been an empty phrase. Instead of taking real action against harassment, the National Park, some leadership, has fallen back and taken no action," he said during an October 2017 media call. "Clearly, there has been sexual harassment, intimidation, retaliation within the Service, and that is not in keeping of the traditions of the fine Service itself.

“I can tell you, from the president and myself, that’s over. We’re going to root out this virus, and it begins with putting a new culture forward, a culture that embraces diversity of thought, embraces teamwork, a culture that embraces the best of the Park Service values and understanding how important it is of being the stewards of our greatest treasures."

While the OIG investigation into Mr. Smith's actions has been completed, it will not be released to the public until 30 days have passed, the OIG staff said Friday.

"I hope that my mistake and this apology are a lesson for leaders and employees at every level of the National Park Service," Mr. Smith summed up. "Workplace culture is our shared responsibility. We must conduct ourselves in a manner that reflects the great pride we all have for the extraordinary parks and programs we represent."

Traveler reached out to Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift on Friday afternoon to ask if Secretary Zinke would seek any disciplinary action, and was awaiting a response.

Mr. Smith was investigated more than a decade ago by the OIG staff after being implicated for improperly paving the way for the owner of the Washington Redskins to cut down trees on a 2-acre scenic easement along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

Mr. Smith, at the time special assistant to then-NPS Director Fran Mainella, was found by the Inspector General to have "inappropriately used his position to apply pressure and circumvent NPS procedures" to permit Redskins owner Dan Snyder to have trees up to 6 inches wide at breast height on the easement cut down to improve the Potomac River view from his mansion.

According to the investigation by then-Inspector General Earl Devaney's staff, the Park Service failed to conduct the requisite environmental assessment as required by the NPS Director's Handbook before issuing the special user permit to Mr. Snyder.

Mr. Smith had become involved in the matter in 2002, according to the OIG report, and in 2004 called Chesapeake and Ohio Canal staff to say that, "Snyder was not happy with the pace of negotiations with NPS concerning the scenic easement."

"The C&O NHP Lands Coordinator admitted that after his conversation with Smith, he felt pressure to secure an agreement with Snyder," the report (attached below) added. "He related that he met with Smith at least twice after the call, once at Snyder's residence in June 2004 and another time on the C&O Canal towpath below Snyder's residence."

After the tree-cutting episode, Mr. Smith was appointed superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia. He retired in 2014 after 10 years as superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, but returned to the Park Service in January. While the Trump administration has not named a permanent Park Service director, Mr. Smith has been acting as such.