This is a video recording of a virtual meeting of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission on June 6, 2022. Agenda topics included: Update on the 2022 season; Construction projects, including the park headquarters maintenance facility and Duck Brook bridge repair; Great Meadow culvert replacement and wetland enhancement, including funding received under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; Reports from Friends of Acadia and Schoodic Institute.
Fred Ehrlenbach, Chair
Jacqueline Johnston, Vice Chair
Ben Worcester, Member
Carolyn Gothard, Member
Ken Cline, Member
Ken Smith, Member
Kendall Davis, Member
Howie Motenko, Member
Stephen Shea, Member
G. Bruce Wiersma, Member
Kevin Schneider, Superintendent, ANP
Brandon Bies, Deputy Superintendent, ANP
John Kelly, Management Assistant, ANP
Rebecca Cole-Will, Chief of Resource Management, ANP
Keith Johnston, Chief of Facility Management, ANP
Matt Way, Fire Management Officer, ANP
Sean Bonnage, Acting Public Affairs Assistant
Stephanie Clement, Acting President & CEO, Friends of Acadia
Nick Fisicelli, President & CEO, Schoodic Institute
Congressional Representatives
Members of the Public
Staff of ANP
News Media
Absent Members:
Katherine Heidinger, Member
Matt Horton, Member
Opening Remarks
The Commission Chair, Fred Ehrlenbach, called the meeting of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, Monday, June 06, 2022, 1:00 p.m. to order.
Approval of the Agenda
A motion was made to accept the agenda for the June 6, 2022, meeting; all approved as is, no opposed. Motion carries.
Approval of the Minutes
A motion was made by Ken Smith to accept the minutes of February 07, 2022. It was seconded by Howie Motenko. All approved, no opposed. Motion carries.
Superintendent's Report
Kevin Schneider, Superintendent
Welcome: Kevin Schneider
Introduction
Sad news to report that Paul Haertel passed away yesterday. Paul was the superintendent at Acadia from 1994 to 2002. He was truly one of a kind and a great advocate for Acadia. Paul had a long career with the National park Service, from Alaska to Isle Royale in Michigan, culminating here at Acadia and retiring to Southwest Harbor with his wife, Margo.
Introduction of New Staff
(Kevin Schneider)
Matt Way - Matt is our new Fire Management Officer. I will let Matt introduce himself and say a few words.
Matt: I am the new fire management officer for Acadia National Park, what is considered the New England Fire Zone for the park service. I have been here for about two weeks, and I am still learning about the location and getting my feet on the ground. I am excited to be here, and I am looking forward to working with everyone in the future.
Sean Bonnage - Sean is helping with the vacancy in our public affairs position. Sean is the public affairs assistant for the next couple of months. Sean usually works at Schoodic in our facilities management position. I will let Sean say hello.
Sean: Hello and it is nice to meet everyone.
2022 Summer Season Update
(Kevin Schneider)
Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer and it was very busy in the park on Memorial Day. Saturday was rainy so it wasn't quite as busy, but everyone came out on Sunday. I helped direct traffic at the Sand Beach Entrance Station. We had queues that day waiting to get in anywhere from 25 minutes to 45 minutes.
Early indications from what we can tell is that the visitation was pretty consistent with last year's for visitation for that holiday weekend. That was our first test of seeing what this summer might bring and how the effect of the price of gas may affect visitation. It may be affecting it a little bit, but it didn't seem to significantly affect it over Memorial Day weekend. April was down about four and one-half percent compared to April 2021.
We expect the Island Explorer to be fully up and running again this year operating its normal schedule. They will reassume service on June 23rd. It's critical to get people on the bus and helping us resolve congestion issues. On Memorial Day, we could see the effects of not having the Island Explorer operating.
Cadillac Mountain Reservation System is up and running and has started off the year very smoothly. We are seeing better messaging around the need for a vehicle reservation and are seeing fewer numbers of people getting turned around. System will be running into mid-October again.
Schoodic Education Adventure (SEA) program has reassumed at the Schoodic Institute in collaboration with Friends of Acadia, Schoodic Institute, and Acadia National Park. The SEA program. which targets middle school students, is a place based immersive educational program. We are seeing the first schools after a pause through the pandemic so it's great to see kids getting out there and participating in the program again.
Staffing - One of our bigger challenges for us this year is going to be our staffing levels - various components of our operation are just down in number of people. It's for a myriad of reasons, but a big piece of it is simply lack of employee housing. We have about 75 beds for our seasonal workforce here in Acadia and we intend, in a normal year, to hire about 150 summer seasonals. This year we're only at about 120.
We're down about a dozen or so fee collectors. We were not able to hire as many Interpretive Park Rangers that help answer visitor questions and work in the visitor center and present programs. We are short on the trail crew. We have no lifeguards, unfortunately, this year at Sand Beach or Echo Lake, which is a trend we are seeing across the country. And we're down a couple of seasonal Law Enforcement Ranger positions.
So, it makes it challenging for us when we're short staffed and dealing with the volume of visitation and demonstrates the need for employee housing and just how important that is for our workforce. Businesses in the communities are also seeing this very same dynamic. So, something that we are trying to address is providing more housing for our workforce.
Town Hill Affordable Housing
(Kevin Schneider)
And related to housing is a piece of legislation, introduced by Senator King and co-sponsored by Senator Collins, to address workforce housing. A 55-acre parcel in Town Hill was supposed to be deleted per 1986 legislation. After a couple of years of work behind the scenes and working with the communities and stakeholder groups, the consensus proposal that's reflected in Senator King's legislation is to allow us to transfer 40-acres of that parcel to the town of Bar Harbor to be used as an island-wide resource for workforce housing for our communities, and it would allow the park to retain 15-acres that would also be used for park administrative purposes, namely our employee housing. I'm pleased to report that the bill had a hearing on May 11th, along with several other pieces of legislation, for Senator King's National Park subcommittee and the NPS testified in support of the bill. It’s great to see the community come out and support it and develop this compromise consensus proposal that really does a nice job of addressing many interests and needs. And then to finally see this come to fruition with being introduced into the Senate.
COVID Update
(Brandon Bies)
Since we last met, the park and National Park Service has ended maximum telework, which we were on until the end of March. Most staff are back in the office full-time. We are seeing more folks teleworking than before the pandemic and we certainly support that for positions where that works. But by and large, the office is, more or less, back to normal operations at this point.
Staff have been doing a great job adhering to the guidance and taking precautions to protect one another. Most folks are probably familiar with the new CDC three-tiered level for community levels for COVID- 19, and that's the trigger that the Park Service follows to inform our masking decisions.
Up until just a few days ago, Hancock County was in the red, the highest level, so we went to a period of about a month where masking was required for park staff and park visitors who were going to be in indoor spaces. We are now back in the medium or the yellow community level. Hopefully we will stay there and continue to improve.
Vaccination requirements are still in place, but we are waiting for guidance on implementation of that because of recent challenges but, overall, we are fully operational and have no closures. There's no more occupancy or space limits and we hope we stay that way for the foreseeable future.
American Aquafarms
(John Kelly)
American Aquafarms had two 60-acre leases, with the closest being 2,000 feet from the park, to develop an industrial sized fish farm on the waters of Frenchman Bay. It had been about two years in progress. The National Park submitted letters to Department of Marine Resources (DMR), through which the leases are issued, and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), through which an overboard discharge license and permit would have been issued. The applications were never found complete and on April 19th the DMR submitted a letter to American Aquafarms saying that it would terminate the review of the applications because American Aquafarms was unable to provide documentation to show that they had a qualified source for the fish for the salmon species. DMR felt that the applications were not valid and have since basically terminated their review.
DEP also had a separate process reviewing the discharge permit and license. It followed suit with DMR saying without the applications in play that the applications for the discharge were also moot. So, they terminated that review as well. This does not mean the end of American Aquafarms interest in the area. They have since filed a lawsuit against the state claiming the DMR decision was arbitrary and did not give them the opportunity to prove that they did have a qualified source.
The National Park Service and others are going to monitor that process. We will continue to be interested if they reapply and we will continue to work with partners and show the same interest as we had through the process up to now.
Acadia Gateway Center Update
(John Kelly)
The Acadia Gateway Center, which is a Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) proposed facility transit hub in Trenton, three miles north of MDI, was first conceived in 1992 with planning that began in 2002. It looks like we are very close to being able to transfer the funds from the National Park Service to the MDOT to complete the construction. We are working with the state, and they are reviewing the agreements that we need to move that money. Out of the $25 million project, we are funding $4 million of it and the state is matching that money with its own bond funding. The 11,000 square foot facility in the Acadia Gateway Center property near Route 3 will provide National Park Service information and partnering with the Maine Tourism Association to provide regional tourism information as well. If the funding works out in the next one to three months, they're looking to go to contract in the winter of 2023, with the ground-breaking in the spring and an opening in 2025.
Construction Projects
(Keith Johnston)
The Duck Brook Bridge project is $3.5 million contract awarded to Lee Construction Group, who will be doing major repairs to the inside of the bridge. This involves the restoration of a safety walkway and expansion system that expands the arches on the inside and significant mason repairs. Then they'll be moving on to the west side to do repointing, which is to repair the damage to cracked masonry between the stones. They will be on a shut-down hiatus from June 15 to July 15, the peek maternity period for bats which are an endangered species. When they start up on July 15th, they will go back to their one-way construction lighting system on the road. It will make inspections in the future easier to do and we'll also repair the exterior work on the other side of the bridge.
The next big job that's close to being implemented is the maintenance facility here at park headquarters. It is funded through the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), and we are in the final clearances in contracting and legal for the project to be announced and for bids to be submitted. We are hoping the contract will be awarded by the end of the fiscal year. That will be happening on the other side of the ridge on campus, where the volunteer’s campground is presently located, and it gets us out of the watershed of Eagle Lake. While construction is in process, we will be able to stay in our existing facilities and we have already began moving buildings and parking areas around to be ready for those impacts to the campus and our operations.
The next big and exciting project is the Great Meadow culvert. The 40-inch concrete pipe on the Park Loop Road, which serves as an outlet for the Great Meadow, was due for replacement. Partnering with resource management, with support from Friends of Acadia, we looked at the overall health of the wetland and how that will work in conjunction with a culvert redesign effort. We are just about to wrap up the predesign phase, which will get us our conceptional alternatives and hydrology of the area. Friends of Acadia and resource management have helped to determine what needs to be done in conjunction with the replacement of the culvert. Once complete with the predesign phase, we will move into more design efforts.
In response to questions from Commissioner Motenko, reported that the Schoodic water tower is complete, and that an upcoming GAOA project is in its final phase design for water wastewater that addresses the overall wastewater system on campus.
Bass Harbor lighthouse received repairs to the keeper's quarters to get it ready for a volunteer occupancy this summer helping with sharing the story of the light and helping folks navigate that space, and we have some more opportunities to do work on the exterior in the fall.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for Great Meadow and Bass Harbor Marsh
(Becky Cole-Will, Powerpoint Presentation)
Congress passed the Bipartisan infrastructure law last fall. A segment of that was for Ecosystem Restoration Projects (ER) and Acadia submitted two project proposals. Both proposals were accepted, one for this year and one for 2023.
This year's project is for the Great Meadow restoration work. Looking from the undersized culvert on the Park Loop Road and back towards the Great Meadow and Sieur de Mont looks like a beautiful space but it's not in very good shape. And part of that has to do with the fact that the stream and the watershed has been impacted by that undersized culvert, but there are also a lot of other issues as well, in terms of fixing landscape scale problems and that is what Bipartisan Infrastructure Law- Ecosystem Restoration (BIL-ER) funding was targeted for; improving functioning resilience and ecological adaptation and ecosystems, climate adapted or climate informed at a landscape level and really leveraging partnerships.
We have been in a great position as a result of the significant funding from Friends of Acadia for the Wild Acadia project, science being done in partnership and collaboration from and with the Schoodic Institute, and we have significant partnership with Wabanaki partners who are helping us inform; thinking about climate approaches that are really targeted, and landscape scale and people-informed.
Great Meadow is one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the park; a very popular site for hiking trails, Sieur de Mont is located there, and wildlife viewing. Project includes whole watershed scale approaches to ecosystem reconstruction and restoration work. The problems there are fairly well identified now. The culvert really impinges on flow. Roads and trails, while they're significant cultural and recreational resources, also do affect how the watershed works. Lots of ditching and alterations have been done. Even before George Dorr's time, there was alteration in this wetland. It has poor hydrology, loss or lack of species, and the rating as a watershed is actually poor quality, and that's something we don't see in Acadia's watershed generally. Wetlands are usually in good condition, but this one has a lot of these issues. This $500,000 will start to address those issues. This also leverages the Park Service's infrastructure work that Keith Johnston talked to you about and the investment of Friends of Acadia in the Wild Acadia Project. It will improve the streams and channels, plug ditches, and remove invasive species, like glossy buckthorn, which is a nasty invasive species that we're targeting and tackling here. And it will provide for some work to improve and connect trails to continue to enhance the recreation opportunities that already exist.
The other project, which we acquired funding for in fiscal year 2023, was $400,000 for Bass Harbor Marsh. This is the biggest salt marsh in the park, and it is a significant cultural landscape for the Wabanaki tribes, with whom we have been working as partners for six years identifying and assessing how to manage the sweet grass and to build a relationship of co-management with the tribes for harvesting in the salt marsh. But if it's threatened by rising sea levels it could change the whole system, and a lot of invasive species that encircle the marsh, as well. So, we want to continue to work with tribal ethnobotanists and other consultants to think about how we manage this space for the future; climate adapted, climate-smart work for parks.
I was on a couple of interviews with Director Sams of the National Park Service, and the fact that he was available for these interviews, points out how important these ecosystem restoration projects are to the Park Service.
Listing of Acadia’s Trails on National Register of Historic Places
(Becky Cole-Will)
The Acadia hiking trail system was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in May and that's a very significant honor that identifies and recognizes the hiking trail system as a nationally significant resource. This is a process to fully document it and have it officially listed to the National Register.
Community Science project for Otter Creek Causeway
(Becky Cole-Will)
The Thriving Earth Exchange is bringing in community questions around science and how to tackle them and think about managing the health of the inner Otter Creek (previously referred to as the Inner Cove). We are working with scientists, Chris Peterson and Hannah Weber, at the Schoodic Institute to understand impacts to the health of the inner cove. We had a great community meeting back in April where about 50 community members came together with great conversations around what people remember about how the creek and cove were used, changes observed, and how can we build an agenda around science. But it's also around community input into the process as well. The work is progressing, and Chris is out there now doing some shellfish recruitment studies in the inner cove.
Kevin Schneider: Another component of BIL for us is transportation-related and we have submitted a number of funding requests internally for funding related to transportation because of transportation needs here at Acadia between visitor parking, the Island Explorer, and roadways. A couple of the high priorities are trying to expand parking at Hull's Cove and integrate the Island Explorer into that parking lot better. That was a component of our transportation plan approved in 2019, and we think that could be a great candidate for funding potentially under the Bipartisan infrastructure Law. So, hoping that could compete for funding along with some other transportation-related priorities.
In response to questions from Commissioners Howie Motenko and Kendall Davis about Cadillac Summit Road being closed overnight and about the reservation system, Superintendent Schneider responded that the park was seeing visitors going up before opening to try to watch the sun rise and work around the sunrise reservation. And closing it was simpler from a staffing standpoint to swing the gate at night. We allow for some amount of star gazing to take place and then must start clearing it out for the next morning's sunrise and that staffing was a piece of that equation for us. And within our fee collection staff, we're short-handed about 12 people. Also, regarding reservations, 30% are sold 90 days in advance and the other 70% of the Cadillac vehicle reservations are released 48 hours prior and those are available for purchase on recreation.gov at any moment, as long as there's reservations available. Visitors can use the app, which is the easiest way, or they can go to the website, recreation.gov and purchase them. It is an adaptive system and we have and will continue to make adjustments. We've tried to keep fees for the reservation as low as possible, and are recouping the cost for the technology, for the website, recreation.gov, and then for our own operational costs.
In response to Commissioner Ken Cline’s statement about visitor demographics, Superintendent Schneider responded that it is important to recognize that visitation to Acadia National Park does not reflect the demographics of our country. Visitation to this park, both socioeconomically and racially, ethnically, is a larger issue that we are concerned about as managers and as an agency, in making sure that National Parks reflect the face of America, both in visitors and in our workforce. And these are sort of larger systemic issues that our nation's National Parks face.
Old Business
Status of Appointments
(Brandon Bies)
Of the 16 positions on the commission –
We presently have 2 commission members whose appointments have lapsed and are waiting on their appointments – Town of Winter Harbor (Katherine Heidinger) and Member at Large (Ken Cline)
We have 2 new nominations waiting for their appointments, Town of Swans Island (with the resignation of Dexter Lee) and The Member at Large (vice Emory). [vice, to mean in place of (the absent)]
We have 2 positions with no appointments or nominations, Frenchboro and Cranberry Isle
We have checked on these appointments and they are working through the process but, unfortunately, we don't have any substantive updates to share at this point as to where they are and when we might expect those to come through.
With that context, we will probably need to have a larger conversation at our next meeting because the majority of the remaining commissioners' terms will be expiring next spring or summer and based off of how long it is taking for these to move through, when we get together in the fall, we should probably have that conversation so we can get the appointment process initiated sooner rather than later.
People who are serving in those roles can continue serving in those roles until they've either been reappointed or someone else has been appointed.
Otter Cove Launch Ramp
(Kendall Davis)
There have been requests expand the town-owned public landing at the end of Grover Avenue in Otter Creek. The benefits of the expansion of that public landing do exist, and it would also be beneficial access to that body of water for emergency circumstances, whether it be a sea rescue or other occurrences down there, law enforcement.
We're doing a wonderful job through the Thriving Earth Exchange of looking at the pollution that has occurred in the cove. But there could be improvements made there, but do we stop and say that after this is worked with, and if discovery is made that the science supports that the environment needs to have some mediation done, that we should not do anything with that area in any longer?
That area has never been a preservation area, it has always been conservation. Culturally, that cove has been part of the community for many years. But the public landing that is there is such a small size, and it might have been oversight, it might have been intentional. There are ways that we can look at this matter to benefit the community, as well as park visitors, as an interpretive facility.
I've been asked to bring this forth so that it can be open for discussion before the commission and the public so that they can talk about their thoughts regarding this.
Kevin Schneider: The launch ramp is pretty constrained.
Becky Cole-Will: The park has explored this - the town owns the boat ramp, and it is constrained by park land. Anything that is not in the intertidal zone, and it's right on the shore. In terms of being able to install a boat ramp that uses, for example, concrete instead of slippery granite rock, it didn't seem that we had any options for what could be done in that really narrow confined space.
Emily Seger-Pagan: Confirmed it is very constrained in terms of where you can put a turnaround. We've talked about whether we can do it legally and whether you can do it physically.
Kendall Davis: Is it accurate that the possibility of a land exchange does exist, but it would take the society signing over through conservation easement their rights and the entirety of the property?
Emily Seger-Pagan: The only way the government can do this is via an exchange. For example, if more land was needed for the boat ramp, the Park Service cannot give it or sell it. To do an exchange, what the Park Service gives up, that land, they need to receive land that is like a net increase of public benefit; the exchange cannot solely benefit the landowner.
There is the public (i.e., town residents), but we also have the public of the National Park Service visitors. What was brought up was that perhaps giving up the Otter Creek parcel in exchange for more land at the landing could be a potential parcel for the exchange. Or it could also be something else.
Kendall Davis: From an engineering standpoint, can it be done? Would it require blasting? Has anything ever been done to look at this?
Emily Seger-Pagan: Not by the park.
Kendall Davis: Will suggest that through the Board of Selectman the town look at what expansion would entail.
Kevin Schneider: No objection, but yes, would seem enlarging could be a major undertaking.
Keith Johnston: The parcel is maximized in its constructability right now. What you're asking is what would be the cost of making a turnaround at that location; the permitting, Army Corps, shore land zoning, the blasting, ledge removal, embankment support, etc. Would it be worth it?
Kendall Davis: Understood – I do not necessarily support every one of these proposals, but I do understand where certain parties are coming from, and not one particular party. Also, still curious how it came into position about the town’s possession.
Fred Ehrlenbach: Before this issue gets brought back to the commission, it would be in the commission's best interest if there would be some sort of resolution between the town and the park and then bring something to the commission.
Kevin Schneider: We can work towards that and will look to schedule a walk through with the town.
Water to The Fish Shack
(Kendall Davis)
Kendall Davis: Have heard talk in the community of an interpretive facility, and I was asked to come forth again after we did our assessment. If there is an interpretive facility in the works, could the park extend the water line to that location, which would provide water needs to people as well as fire protection and suppression. Understand from the water company when I did my assessment was that that's something they don't want to take on – they do not want to own that line. Acadia National Park maintains that line right now – is there an interpretive facility in the works for that area?
Kevin Schneider: No, there hasn't been any discussion at the park about an interpretive facility for a visitor center or anything like that for Otter Creek. The only discussion we've had about a visitor center is in the future potentially replacing the Hull's Cove Visitor Center and the Acadia Gateway Center.
Keith Johnston: As long as there is any other entity that owns that lot, that's what prohibits the split in the water line providing water. It wouldn't matter who owned that space, it's the regulations that lock us into this. It would not change unless it was owned by the National Park Service.
New Business
Election of 2022 Officers
(Carolyn Gothard)
Fred Ehrlenbach and Jackie Johnston have reached the end of their term limits, so we need new officers. Ken Smith, Ken Cline, and Jackie Johnstone made the following nominations:
Ken Cline: Nominated Carolyn Gothard as the Secretary for the commission. Seconded by Kendall Davis
Ken Smith: Nominated Ben (Lee) Worcester for the Chair. Seconded by Kendall Davis
Jackie Johnston: Nominated Bruce Wiersmer for the position of Vice Chair. Seconded by Kendall Davis
Fred Ehrlenbach: Called the vote. All in favor, no opposed. The slate of officers have been adopted.
At this point, Ben (Lee) Worcester assumed his position as Chair for the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission.
Carolyn Gothard: We have a list of our members for the different committees, and according to our bylaws we can have three to eight people on a committee. The recommendation is that we have at least one person from the federal appointments and one from the state appointments. We have two of our committees that no longer have a chairman and that needs to be rectified, and one committee that doesn't have enough members. Will send an e-mail to the membership with the list of the names and affiliations of the people on each committee and then volunteers can come forward to fulfill the requirement of the bylaws.
Committee Reports
Lands Committee
Reported by Ben (Lee) Worcester
Lands committee did meet prior to the Commission meeting and reviewed three conservation easements and went through the processes with Emily. All found in order and the lands committee agreed with the park in accepting these easements and we recommend that to the commission. Made a motion that we accept the Conservation Easement on the Rechholtz property exchange on Route 3; the Conservation Easement at the Parker Farm Woodland property in the town of Mount Desert in the village of Somesville, and the Fernald Point Conservation Easement in Southwest Harbor. Seconded by Fred Ehrlenbach. All in favor and no opposed, the motion was accepted.
Science & Education Committee
No Report
Park Use Committee
No Report
History Committee
No Report
Friends of Acadia
Stephanie Clement, Acting President & CEO
Very excited our seasonal teams are back out in the park. They started last week and our last two employees arrive tomorrow. If you're out hiking around the park look out for our summer stewards or if you visit the Wild Gardens, you may see our employees there. We have recreation technicians in the field and stewardship crews who help with the trails and carriage road volunteers, as well as the Acadia digital media team that takes beautiful photographs and videos that help the park.
We're also excited the summer to see the return of the drop-in volunteer stewardship programs on the trails and carriage roads on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday morning now through about mid-October.
We're also excited about the return of the Acadia youth conservation core after a two-year hiatus because of COVID, in partnership with the park. The program provides employment for high school- age students new for this year will be working with various divisions in the park. While it was previously dedicated just to the trails and carriage road stewardship program, we wanted to provide the students with a broader experience and seeing what other park employees do as well.
We're also excited about the return of the Island Explorer service, but perhaps most importantly we're looking forward to the arrival of our new President and CEO, Eric Stiles, who will begin work with Friends of Acadia June 30th. We have your fall meeting on his schedule, so he will introduce himself at that time to all of you. Friends of Acadia's annual meeting is coming up on Wednesday, July 6th. It will be both in-person at the Bar Harbor Club and online, so that will be a good opportunity for you to hear a more from Eric as he begins his work.
Another event to take note of is the Wild Gardens of Acadia plant sale, a fundraising event that helps support the operations of the Wild Gardens and that sale is happening this Saturday at the Saint Savior's church in Bar Harbor.
We’re excited about supporting a design of an accessible trail between the parking area at the summit of Cadillac where we funded a consultant to start looking at a potential route to consider. This funding came from a donor who was particularly interested in accessible trails and the idea is to provide safe travel between the summit parking lots, which are both part of the reservation system at the summit of Cadillac.
Our benefit auction will be in person at the Asticou in August and the paddle raise this year which is pure philanthropic support for Wild Acadia. Also, we’ll be supporting the restoration work at both the Bass Harbor Marsh and at the Great Meadow. We’re also looking to support some of the work at Cadillac and the other summits to restore the plant communities and are always forward thinking about what future climate conditions will be at Acadia.
Finally, we're working with the park on various housing projects, and we're excited that some of our youth and education programs will return, such as the Acadia Teacher Fellow's outdoor classroom support and, as Kevin mentioned return of Schoodic Education Adventure. We'll continue to partner with the park and other groups in the area to fight American Aquafarms and the salmon pens if they return.
Schoodic Institute Update
Nicholas Fisichelli, President & CEO
The community of science here is thriving. We had Schoodic Education Adventure happening this spring for the first time in two-and-a-half years and it’s exciting to get middle school students back on campus. We had five schools, two from MDI, Conner's Emerson, and we had the Peninsular School, the Penobscot School and Otisfield. 96 students came and spent three days, two nights here in Acadia for an immersive learning experience. We've been taking the steps to make sure everybody is safe and keeping those kids outdoors as much as possible
Recently held a two-day strategic planning workshop for Schoodic Education Adventure (SEA). It was a chance for the National Park Service, Friends of Acadia, and Schoodic Institute to come together to think about the future of SEA, how to continue the great work and how to increase the positive impacts of SEA. It remains high priority for all three of our organizations. We see it as a flagship education program that happens here in Acadia.
There is science happening across the spectrum, from science for discovery to science for decision-making. There have been 47 research permits approved already for research this year, with another 11 in review.
Our seasonal science staff are coming aboard now - this includes early career college interns, field technicians and fellows, and teaching assistants. We'll have anywhere between 11 and 16 living and working together here on campus between now and November. This is part of our effort to span the college to career gap in conservation fields and to engage learners of all ages in science and advance science to inform park stewardship.
Through our partnership with the park and other great organizations, we'll support about 30 seasonal positions in total this year, including our new Kathy Gero Early Career Fellows and our new Second Century Stewardship Fellows for 2022. Our early career staff will be working on 20+ research projects that Schoodic Institute staff are working on or leading, including intertidal projects, looking at the diversity of species and the mud flats in the park - building on decades of past studies- to figuring out how much Rockweed is found along the coast of Maine. This important seaweed species is harvested outside the park, and no one knows how much there is of this important resource
.We'll be working on restoring vegetation on summit areas in the park and collaborating with Friends of Acadia on the Wild Acadia initiative and bringing our climate change adaptation and citizen science expertise’s. Landscape of Change is a collaborative project to repair historical records on birds and climate with contemporary data to understand changes on Mount Desert Island. This is a collaboration led by the MDI Historical Society and, also, with other partners including MDI Biolab, A Climate to Thrive, College of the Atlantic, and Acadia National Park. It is a citizen science effort that everyone can participate in by posting observations of birds, bees, butterflies, etcetera, to e-bird and I-naturalist.
Finally, next Tuesday, June 14, our evening lecture is “Competing for the Commons Along Maine's Coast, a talk by Paul Anderson, Executive Director, with the Maine Center For Coastal Fisheries. The commons in Frenchman Bay are an important topic and Paul brings several decades of experience on managing coastal waters.
Advisory Commission Comments
None
Public Comment
None
Closing Comments
The Commission Chair made closing comments. Please remember to send any suggestions for the agenda for the September 12th meeting to Ben (Lee) Worcester.
Adjournment
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 12th, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Schoodic Institute, and there will continue to be a virtual meeting component as published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. (This is based on the Secretary's decision that all meetings must have a virtual component until further notice due to COVID-19. Notification will be published if the meeting format or locations is changed.
Motion was made by Ben (Lee) Worcester to adjourn, seconded by Fred Ehrlenbach, approved by all, no opposed. Motion passed.
Meeting adjourned at 2:37 pm
Minutes Submitted by Kathy Flanders
