This is a video recording of a hybrid in-person and virtual meeting of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission on Sept 11, 2023 at Moore Auditorium at the Schoodic Institute in Winter Harbor, ME.
Schoodic Institute – Moore Auditorium Meeting Room
Winter Harbor, Maine
September 11, 2023 1:00 p.m.
ATTENDANCE:
Ben ‘Lee’ Worcester, Chair
G. Bruce Wiersma, Vice Chair
Fred Ehrlenbach, Member
Jacqueline Johnston, Member
Carolyn Gothard, Member
Matt Horton, Member
Ken Smith, Member
Kendall Davis, Member
Howie Motenko, Member
Bonnie Newsom, Member
Stephen Shea, Member
Carl Brooks, Member
Kevin Schneider, Superintendent, ANP
Brandon Bies, Deputy Superintendent, ANP
Darren Belskis, Chief of Visitor & Resource Protection, ANP
Keith Johnston, Chief of Facilities, ANP
Amanda Pollock, Public Affairs Officer, ANP
John Kelly, Management Assistant, ANP
Rebecca Cole-Will, Chief of Resource Management
Joy Absher, Chief of Visitor Experience & Education
Mike Eastman, Supervisory Ranger, Schoodic
Eric Stiles, President & CEO, Friends of Acadia
Stephanie Clement, Vice President of Conservation, Friends of Acadia
Nick Fisichelli, President & CEO, Schoodic Institute
Congressional Representatives
Members of the Public
Staff of ANP
News Media
ABSENT MEMBERS:
None
PLATFORM:
In-person & Virtual via Zoom
OPENING REMARKS
The Commission Chair, Ben (Lee) Worcester, called the meeting of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, Monday, September 11, 2023, 1:04 p.m. to order.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
A motion was not made to accept the agenda for the September 11, 2023, meeting.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
A motion was made by Fred Ehrlenbach and seconded by Carolyn Gothard to accept the minutes of June 05, 2023. All approved, no opposed, Motion carries.
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT
WELCOME – Kevin Schneider, Superintendent
Introductions (Kevin Schneider)
Introduction of Joy Absher, Chief of Visitor Experience & Education.
Mike Eastman is our new supervisory ranger here on the Schoodic peninsula.
Dave Schlag is the new trails foreman and fills the position that Gary Stellpflug was in for many years.
Lastly, we've hired Matt Outhier to be in a new position as Chief of Project Management.
Park Updates (Kevin Schneider) Concessions
Concessions prospectuses are out for bid. The Wildwood Stables concession prospectus was released in July. Those bids are due on September 15th.
Concession led bus tours in Acadia was released in June. Proposals are due at the end of September. There will be three contracts for three different businesses providing bus tours. This will eliminate full size motor coachesfrom the Park Loop Road and Cadillac Mountain Road.
Visitation
2023 was very busy. Visitation is down 2% compared to 2022, but up 16% when compared to the pre-pandemic averages. Changes are coming from early and late season visitation. July and August have not changed very much. Where we see the increases are in the months from March-June.The reservation system at Cadillac Mountain has gone very well this summer. We saw a smaller, lower number of reservations sold this summer so far. We think in large part due to weather in the month of June. We see many sales occurring within 48-hours of the reservation time. Whether or not a person shows up for a reservation seems to be correlated with when the reservation was purchased. Somebody who purchases a reservation at the earliest possible time, 3 months in advance, are less likely to show up thansomebody who purchases the day before
Economic Impact
Traffic on Thompson Island bridge is up by about 2% this summer according to the Maine DOT data. That's interesting giving that our visitation is down about 2%. Visitors have an extraordinary economic impact on our surrounding communities. They generate about $479 million in visitor spending and 6,700 jobs in local communities within 60 miles of the park.
Recruitment
This last summer we wanted to fill 175 summer seasonal positions and we only filled approximately, 115. That's comparable to last year. We had a much more difficult time recruiting for positions, particularly in the trades,trail crews, heavy equipment operators, people required to have a driver’s license to operate equipment, custodians, fee collectors, lifeguards, and emergency service rangers. We did not have lifeguards or emergency service rangers the last few seasons. And hiring for next season begins again today. We have a number of headwinds for filling these positions; housing, pay, a job market here which is hot for these labor related positions, and the federal hiring process and how long it takes to onboard people. And there are unique resume requirements that can result in people not being selected for a position. A federal resume is very different from a private sector resume. It requires a lot more information. There's a lot more detail that is required and our positions require background checks to be a federal employee. So, we are stepping up the recruitment effort to try to boost our hiring and we are working in collaboration with Friends of Acadia. We have been sponsoring resume writing workshops within the local community as well as communicating how to apply for a federal job. We have been reaching out through social media posts highlighting the positions our employees fill and the types of jobs available. We are also advertising jobs beyond USA jobs, which is the normal federal hiring website. You will be hearing more about these efforts over the next 6-12 month.
Inflation Reduction Act (Brandon Bies)
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by the President a year ago last summer, is important to the park service. It provided $500 million to the National Park Service for staffing. A key piece is that it is not an annual appropriation but a one-time lump of $500 million and it must be expended by 2030. That money is then split up among all 425 units of the National Park Service. Ultimately, Acadia National Park will be receiving $3.25 million, as well as St. Croix Island and International Historic Site, which we also manage. So, between the two parks we will be $3.25 million dollars. These monies are to be spent oneither term positions, which is full time but hired only for a term between one and,typically, four years, or on permanent positions. But if it is a permanent position, we must absorb the position into our current operating budgets because these funds go away and must be spent by 2030. And so, the guidance that we received from the Washington office is that these positions should be transformational positions that allow us to either change the way we do things or operations, adjust to the way things are going now, or deal with a specific backlog, a one-time thing. We have a mix of those positions and we have ten positions which we are recruiting for.
The first couple were to respond to our increasing visitation, especially our increasing call volume and dispatch center and search and rescue operations. Those numbers have gone way up so we are looking at hiring a full-time, permanent Search and Rescue and Emergency Services Coordinator and an additional dispatcher for our dispatch operation. Next, we have a Youth Engagement and Stewardship Coordinator, and a park housing maintenance position. With the increase in housing, we need somebody to continue to help us deal with the issues that we have at housing. We have more positions to maintain our housing and a part-time fleet manager. Our total fleet for Acadia National Park is about 265 pieces of equipment total and we need somebody to help manage all of that.These will all be permanent positions. And then there are a number of short-termpositions - an IT Specialist, Archivist, Wildlife Biotech, and a GIS Data Manager.
We are also working with Joy, who was just onboarded, to hire a position or positions to be determined to help with our Interpretation and Education programming. And then finally I would say that Saint Croix is hiring a four-year Youth Outreach and Education Program Coordinator and that position is advertised right now. That's a little bit of information about how we are using the Inflation Reduction Act funding.
Housing (Brandon Bies)
In June, I reported we have made some great strides on employee housing. First, I want to recognize that we are making great progress, thanks to Friends of Acadia. We have 10 beds at the Kingsleigh Inn to support park and Friends of Acadia staff. Thanks to Friends of Acadia funding, they have also supported work on our current housing inventory. Eric will speak a little later about some housing updates on Jordan Pond Road. The park has received funding for the design phase to build out Harden Farms on Kebo Street in Bar Harbor. Currently, it is eight, one-bedroom units that date back to the late 1950s-early 60s. We are excited to announce that, as of last week, we have a contract for the design and a local engineering firm that we work with frequently here in Acadia who will be handling the design process for the buildout of Harden Farms. We hope to have the design process completed by this spring. We are looking at building about 56 +/- at that location in two phases. Some units will be 8-bed suites to include private bedrooms with a shared Jack & Jill bath, common space, and shared kitchen. We will also have a number of one-bedroom, single efficiency private units. Ultimately, we are planning on four buildings of suites (32) and 2 buildings with 12 one-bedrooms private units(apartments) in each. This is preliminary but we are hoping for the first phase of construction to be awarded next summer and phase two being funded and awarded in fiscal year 2025.
Jordon Pond Road (Keith Johnston)
Bridge Work
For the last two-years we have been working with a team at Federal Highways to look at our major road interfaces and bridges that have state highways and park roads and looking at long-term strategies for these bridges. For long-term repairs on bridges, we need to open them up on the deck and take them down to the concrete arches and waterproof the drainage part of the arches. Over time, that water has been leeching down through roadways and through the concrete arch and getting into the steel infrastructure and causing cracking. Most of all experts we've worked with recommend that the right solution is to expose these bridges, waterproof, and get the drainage correct. The first two bridges that we will work on is the bridge on Jordan Pond Road where the carriage road goes underneath, right before it runs into the Land and Garden Preserve land on Stanley Brook bridge. That will close next spring. The other bridge is the one at the Park Loop Road, one-way section. There's a bridge that goes over an abandoned section of Carriage Road that used to go to the Dane Farm, which is Wildwood Stables. We have not awarded the contract yet. But if successful, these bridges will be worked on from February until Memorial Day. They must have them open for traffic during the summer and then finishup anything in the fall after Labor Day. So, for the four residences on the Jordan Pond Road north of the bridge, they can use Stanley Brook Road to access the residences. For everybody else, that would be closed during an interim time for doing the work. So, the contract has not been awarded yet but our hopes are to get it done earlyand have the least impact to the public, as well.These bridge decks have not been opened since they were built. We've tried other alternatives to prevent water from getting in but they're not as successful as doing this the right way, and probably the hard way, which is to open the bridge up and do the right treatment on them. Those are the two bridges that we will tackle next year. There's a lot of other bridges we have held off until we can learn how this will work and how we can refine our construction process. Are there any questions?
Construction/Maintenance Updates (Keith Johnston)
The other big jobs are the Great American Outdoor Act projects. The one here on the Schoodic Institute campus is taking care of our water lines and sewer lines. The water supply for this peninsula is pumped and piped from all the way up the mountain and across the bay to this campus where it is treated for drinking water and that water line is not deep enough and subject to freeze in winter. The goal of this project is to make itdeep enough and insulated to keep it from freezing. The sewer system is getting repairedand the water line replaced to help us reduce waste and to be better stewards of our water sources.
The other big project at headquarters is the construction of the maintenance facility. It's making progress. The whole space is exposed and there is a lot of granite and they are working on ledge removal. If you swing by the campus, it's hard to miss the site. It is moving along.
Kevin Schneider - These are two high-priority projects and there are only two fiscal years left before this law expires - it is a crucial piece of legislation. And another important piece of legislation is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. That has funded some critical projects in the part that Rebecca Cole-Will will talk about. Becky is the Chief of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Updates– (Rebecca Cole-Will)
Last year I told you about the funding we received through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) for ecosystem restoration for two ecosystems in the park, The Great Meadowand Bass Harbor Marsh.
The bipartisan infrastructure will have funding capacity for long term to do ecosystem restoration. We were successful in getting funding for two big important projects into the park. One, The Great Meadow, is the largest freshwater wetlands in the park. It is adjacent to the park and has been heavily impacted over the 100 years of the park and is in poor condition as far as a wetland is concerned. The second project is Bass Harbor Marsh, which is the largest salt marsh in the park. Both have places where they are heavily inundated by invasive plants. We have teams working to figure out how to remove all the Glossy Blackthorne and how to restore some natural plant functions and ecosystem work. These are two big, ongoing projects. A lot of work has been done over the summer. And we want to touch on a couple of the highlights of what's been going on this summer.
The crews have made a lot of progress removing this Glossy Blackthorne and starting to restore some native plants. And we anticipate expanding that work over the winter and into next year and start working on some of the hydrology that's been disrupted for ditching and other things at Great Meadow and Bass Harbor Marsh. There will be trail work done at Great Meadow, as well, and expanding the plants work. We are bringing in more indigenous science into these projects going forward. Our anticipated date of permanent design and installation of the culvert is next fall 2024. These will be at least three-year projects. Do you have any questions?
Resource Stewardship Strategy (Rebecca Cole-Will)
We have this Research Stewardship Strategy document, which is a planning tool used as an assessment to understand and identify key resources and stresses and threats to them. For example, forest pests are one of those threats and our forests are incredibly important and a fundamental resource to the park. Some stresses in the threats are climate change is always one of the calculation pieces into this work and then, what are some of the things that we already know? What are some of the strategies in the work that we need to do to address that priority resource? We worked through this work and it’s not just our natural resources, air, water, forests, and zoology, but the intent was to be very interdisciplinary and integrate our national resources and cultural resources, as well, because Acadia is a big complex park and it is a heritage landscape and a cultural place for Wabanaki nations. There's a lot of history here. Our visitor numbers and the way our visitors interact with our Park and our resources is a critical piece of this as well, understanding social science and understanding our visitors and how they interact with our resources. We work through this with a lot of different partners, Wabanaki Scientists, Preservation Officers, Schoodic Institute partners, Friends of Acadia, universities, and other academic partners and scholars as well, as well as our own staff to understand a long list of critical resources here. With knowing that our resources and other resources are limited in terms of staff capacity and our funding, how do we really prioritize where we are going to plan and do our work in the next five to ten years. This is a living document recognizing that things have changed a lot and that things will continue to change.
Island Explorer Updates/Acadia Gateway Center (John Kelly)
I will give a summary about how Island Explorer is operating this year. As of the end of August, a couple of weeks ago, we had 328,000 riders.. It's up from last year, 8% year to date. We are still down from 2019 by 55%. Because even though our visitation is down, ridership has gone up.
The other news this year, due to continued struggles with hiring drivers it resulted last year in a change of schedules in the fall that had to basically be reprinted. This year, Downeast Transportation got ahead of the game and purposely had the schedule go through most of August but with a newly printed schedule-initiated August 23rd. The other new thing that is coming up this fall is the test pilot of electric buses. We started out with potentially having six electric buses loaned to the Transportation Department. We are down to two. They run for one week each starting September 17th through October 1st. The idea is to analyze the capability and the functioning of buses on the route. We will also be testing how it could serve Cadillac Mountain (terrain), even though Island Explorer does not serve Cadillac Mountain. Again, it will be two companies testing their buses. It's not going to look anything like Island Explorer. It will be labeled differently and will be running on different routes for this service. We are working with Downeast Transportation, but also, the National Renewal Energy Lab and the United States Department of Transportation. It's a partnership which is also doing a pilot in the Grand Canyon. We are the two parks this year where these groups are serving us to provide the pilot
OLD BUSINESS
Status of Appointments (Brandon Bies)
Of the 16 positions on the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, there are currently two members who are serving under appointments that are active and approved. They are Bonnie Newsom, Member at Large, and Carl Brooks representing the Town of Cranberry Isles. KatherineHeidinger had been reappointed when she unfortunately passed a few months ago. That position is vacant and we will need a nomination for a representative for the Town of Winter Harbor for us to send forward. The remaining positions are not under active appointments. If you were on and were appointed at one time and it has expired, you can continue to serve until you are reappointed or somebody is appointed to replace you. Meanwhile, we submitted a very large packet of 13 positions of nominations up to the Department of the Interior on April 20th of this past year. Of those 13 positions, it's important to know, that there are several of those who have more than one nominee. There will only be one person selected by the Department, but there were multiple nominees for some of those 13. We have heard that things are moving forward. It just takes a long time. It's time consuming but we have seen progress so I am hopeful that the next time I sit before you in February, we can start saying that some, or all, of those 13 positions have been filled. I will leave it at that. If you have any specific questions, reach out to me, or better yet to Kathy Flanders, who is our lifeline between Washington and the park keeping us posted on what is going on.
September 09, 2024 – 1:00 pm, Schoodic Institute, Winter Harbor
The meetings will be combination meetings, held in person and virtually. A motion was made by Kendall Davis to accept the 2024 Acadia National Park Advisory Commission meeting dates as stated. It was seconded by Fred Ehrlenbach, all accepted, no opposed.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Science & Education Committee – Bruce Wiersma
The S&E Committee meeting was held at Rockefeller Hall at Schoodic. Members and ANP staff present are listed below. Brandon Bies, ANP Deputy Superintendent gave us an overview of the S&E activities at ANP. Rebecca Cole-Will gave us an overview of the Resource Stewardship Strategy program. She also passed out ANP’s Resource Stewardship Strategy Summary* which contains details of the results of this significant planning effort. We were introduced to Joy Absher who is the new head of education at the park and heard from Kate Petrie on the continuing middle school education program she manages. Over 800 students were in the program in 2022. Several of the Committee members had visited with Kate a few years back to get a firsthand look at this program. A suggestion was made that we (S&E Committee members) get an updated tour. I fully support this idea. Abe Miller-Rushing presented an overview of ANP research activities. He noted that The Science Symposium will be held at the Schoodic facility on October 18. He also reported that the 2nd Century Stewardship Fellow program will be renewed, but with a new name, Acadia Science fellows.
S&E Committee members present:
Kendall Davis
Steve Shea
Carolyn Gothard
Bruce Wiersma (Chair)
Lee Worcester the Commission Chair also joined us.
Acadia National Park Staff present:
Rebecca Cole-Will
Brandon Bies
Abe Miller-Rushing
Joy Absher
Kate Petrie
Park Use Committee – Jackie Johnston, Chair, The Park Use Committee did not meet but I am happy to be able to join you from Scotland. Lands Committee – No Report History Committee – No Report
FRIENDS OF ACADIA –Eric Stiles, President and CEO
We all take credit for each other's work which in some ways makes a great partnership but I will touch on some things briefly that you may have heard about or will be hearing about from my partner, Nick. It's been a fun summer. Friends of Acadia’s benefit raises dollars for immediate need for the park. They have two boats in operation for their holdings on over a dozen islands right now which aren’t equipped for the needs getting out, i.e., more crews, materials, and so forth. Brandon, Kevin, and the team did a great jobspecking out a new boat. It's like floating a F350 pickup truck. The bow drops, think about an ATV orwheelbarrow coming off the front. The benefit through the generous support of the community is allowing us to purchase that boat, which is under construction right now. I want to recognize Stephanie Clement, Vice President of Conservation, for Friends of Acadia. Her team worked very closely with the men and women, people of the National Park; the Summit Stewards, Stewardship Crew, the Wild Garden’s Supervisory Gardner, and Recreation Technicians, who continue to work through the summer and at a reduced clip this fall.
Friends of Acadia also financially supported numerous programs including the Acadia Teacher Fellows program. We have teachers from Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and New York. Concurrently we also have a cohort of teachers that meet on Thursdays throughout the school year. This is really about how we bring the national park into the classroom and bring those classrooms back into our great national parks. The Acadia Youth Conservation Corp is a cool program that has been beefed up the last couple of years. They say that youth is wasted on young but there is no better back than an 18-year-old back but the National Park Service also uses this opportunity to expose them to a variety of professional careers within the National Park. And hearing directly from parents about that kind of workforce exposure and how that has helped elevate the sites. There is nothing quite like trying to get your kid motivated for a great career in the future.
We also help support six urban and diverse youth groups in their participation at the Acadia National Park. You want to uplift local talent but you want to include others in America's greatest invention. Nick will talk about the Schoodic Education Adventure, which we are pleased to be a partner in. So, we continue to provide financial support for Wild Acadia. We are also continuing to fund the planning and design work needed to construct an accessible trail and sidewalk in the east and west parking lots of the summit of Cadillac. We talk about diversity which includes accessibility as a significant portion. If you think about the grant of the structure here at Acadia it's one of the greatest in the world. We could create a high-quality experience who otherwise have barriers to these treasures.
Coming this fall, come celebrate my birthday on November 4th and Take Pride in Acadia Day. We usually get several hundred folks out contributing to helping to rake the leaves out of ditches and all sorts of things that are incredibly important to long-term. I think having lived here a year just a sense of community pride and ability to give back to a park which means so much to all of us.
A quick update on the Dane Farm project. I want to thank Mr. Motenko who's been a key part of this conversation. We talk about the Dane Farm which is 4.1 acres located at the northern end of Jordan Pond Road. It is an inholding within the congressionally approved boundaries of Acadia National Park and upuntil Friday morning, was owned by the Rockefeller family. We purchased and closed on that propertyFriday morning. We are excited for that. And of the 4.1 acres, about one and a quarter acre is currently used as a public works yard by the Land and Garden Preserve. It is graded and cleared and the soil is compacted. We will be looking at building a five-bedroom and a three-bedroom residential suite on that site which is allowed by zoning. The remainder will be converted into a warm season meadow. So, we are going to be giving back to the air, water, and the pollinators on the island and we are excited for that. We (Acadia National Park & Friends of Acadia) had a great community forum meeting on July 11th to share the concept plans with the community and about 50 folks attended. We heard from residents withthree primary concerns about street safety regarding Jordan Pond Road, specifics on the site design, and potential expansion plans at that site.
Again, Jordan Pond Road is a municipal road. Any changes to traffic patterns, et cetera, is a municipal decision. At the invitation of Jordan Pond Road residents that reached out to Mount Desert, Kevin Schneider, John Ipe from the Jordan Pond House, and I attended the meeting. As part of that community conversation there was a number of things discussed. Currently the Public Works Director and law enforcement are looking at some options for what might be done to make it a safer street and will be coming back to the select board at a fall meeting for those proposals. I can share that one of the residents was pleased that Mr. Ipe was able to talk to folks about commercialvehicles, whether its vans or trucks, moving off Jordan Pond Road, and there was a thank you e-mail from the individual that John recognized the efforts to move commercial vehicles off that street. Okay, so we will be finalizing the design plans at the end of September and will be having a following community forum in person and hybrid to share the final plans with the community residents. It's open to the public but our primary target is the Seal Harbor village residents and business owners. This is for follow-up conversation.
We are reaching out to local construction firms and, if I win the lottery, we will have a groundbreaking this fall but that's a little ambitious. If not we would assume that we would begin construction in the spring. At the end, the land and improvements will be gifted to the national park. It would be an asset of the taxpayers of this great nation. FOA is not going to retain ownership. We don't feel that is our role. Are there any other questions?
SCHOODIC INSTITUTE UPDATE – Nicholas Fisichelli, President & CEO
I don't think it's too late to say welcome to Schoodic Institute, Acadia’s Research Learning Center campus. This is one of 17 research learning centers across the national park system and the only one with the partner organization that is co-leading the science and co-leading the Research Learning Center. And as Eric mentioned, the partnerships here are kind of what to make the magic really counts, I think, at our Research Learning Center. Through our work as being a nimble Park partner, we are being able to more than triple the National Park Service investment in science and education. So, through additional philanthropic support, as well as additional land funding, we are able to chip away. And really trying to build this thriving community of science here in Acadia.
You've heard about some of those projects today, the big restoration projects on summit areas in the park. This summer, about 200 volunteers carried over 3,000 pounds of soil to the summits of Penobscot and Sargent Mountains. This was part of the big restoration project and this was a big event with Friends of Acadia and others. There are volunteers, ages were 5 to 80 years of age, carrying soil up to those summits. Much gratitude to the community for trying to help us restore areas that have experience 150 plus years of heavy human use. Some of the other restoration projects are in Great Meadows, which is ongoing. And Bass Harbor Marsh, as well. And there are lots of other projects every year. There are at least 85-plus research projects happening in Acadia.
In addition to being an amazing park, it's also a field station. It's a place to understand our changing world. One of our staff scientists, Anna Weber, a Marine Ecology Director, is right now at the Organizational Biological Field Station, which is an annual international conference is where field stations from all over come together to work on best practices for how we can better understand our changing world and respond to it.
In the past, Abe and I had reported on the Second Century Stewardship Fellowship program. I think I can call it a prestigious fellowship when we only select the brightest individuals for fellowships. There happens to be a member of the commission that is a former fellow. Bonnie Newsom was a former fellow doing research here in the park. We are continuing that program and rebranding it, calling it the Acadia Science Fellowship. We will have a new request for proposals that will come out this Friday, September 15th, and we will be supporting a couple new fellows in 2024 for that fellowship. That is for original research which typically backs a student's postdoc early career faculty level, doing original research of the park that is focused on some of the park priority stewardship challenges. The Resource Stewardship Strategy that Rebecca mentioned earlier helps to direct what those priorities are. I'm really excited to have that program continue.
On the education side, today is the very first day of the Schoodic Education Adventure fall session. We are really excited to have students, typically middle school students that come for 3-days, 2-nights, for an outdoor school program led by the National Park Service educators and the Institute, and of course Friends of Acadia who is the important partner holding that program as well. We have 14 schools on the schedule for this fall, about 450 students or so. So, lots of local schools from Sedgwick, Tremont, Hancock, Connors-Emerson School, Trenton, and Brooklyn. Some local area schools and then some from further, Eastern, which is up in the county, and next week Caribou is coming and even the Freeport,Maine, school. We do draw from schools across the state for that program. Last time we met, I mentioned the legislation to support outdoor school for all Maine students which did pass and is currently on the appropriations table so it is carried forward until January of 2024. Hopefully, it will get funding and that is a statewide effort that every student in the state would have an opportunity to attend an outdoor school program such as the Schoodic Education Adventure here at Acadia.
The Maine Public Broadcasting TV has a new program called ‘Borealis’ which premiers this Thursday and there is a ten-minute piece of that program. The last thing, speaking of things to watch. Tomorrow we have our evening lecture with Hawk Henries here in the auditorium across the hall. He is an indigenous artist and musician. He will be talking about music and the nature of reflection, which is part of our summer lecture series. And that is it for me. Any questions? Thank you.
ADVISORY COMMISSION COMMENTS
Carl Brooks: I am new to the commission here, but as I see and I read the charters of various committees and our own charter, I think we should consider a long-term issue committee. I understand the federal hiring process. But the key personnel here do turn over here on a regular basis and there are some very long-term issues, let’s call them the nearer-term kinds of things. We can comment on them here and we are quite aware of these problems and I think some of us should put these together and bring them out so you understand them. I'm not suggesting that that is a decision committee that decides a solution. Maybe we come up with 29 different solutions and just throw them at you. But there are some real, long-term issues here that I think those of us that have been around a while we could well identify and could be a benefit to you. What brings this to my attention today is, I just read the postmortem on Maui. I mean what happened in Maui was a change of culture and nobody paid attention to it until somebody threw a match into it and it burned the entire town. This is sort of what happened, none of you were born before 1947, I was. I lived through 1947 and I know what happened before 1947. There was a very similar culture change that had started already here. It exacerbated the problem. Is that culture change still going on and still being ignored? Are we setting ourselves up for a 2047 that's worse than 1947?
Then, I look at the transportation situation here on a short-term, politically popular basis. We are building this inter-modal terminal in Trenton, but is that really a solution to the problem? I look at the other side of that and is that it's going to make that so much easier to get into the park that now it will become the popular entrance to the park. And is it going to drastically increase the number of people coming and the traffic? If it is, then what are our options to do something? We have an immediate issue. Should we consider an alternate route which didn’t exist in the past? The personnel at the park is on a relatively short-term basis. It seems to me that if we had a committee here there's a long-term issue committee that have a history around here and we know what's happened in the past, we could relate it to what’s going on now or into the future. It would give you a real heads-up on the underlying situations that we’re not identifying and talking about. I throw that out for what it's worth and the suggestion that maybe we should try to do something along that line. Thank you.
Kendall Davis: Okay, but I worry about here is that I am not against what you suggested here. I am against redundancy. Redundancy creates a quagmire. We get bogged down with the committees that already exist and if the issues cannot find a place in those committees, I could see doing this. But I am concerned that we would go ahead and form yet another committee when committees are hard to get people to participate in as now. There is an issue with that.
Carl Brooks: I have been on enough Federal Advisory Boards long enough to understand what you're saying and absolutely don't disagree. Thinking about this I looked at the charters of our existing committees and as I see our activity in our existing committees, I see it it's to look at the near-term kinds of things the park is doing and proposing to do and provides a combination of input from the local communities that's appropriate. This kind of committee, the number one job is to put holy water on what the park wants to do. Our means of operation is that we can flavor that holy water one way or another based on things that impact us.
I absolutely agree. If we could find a home for that on one of these committees, let's do it. But when I read the charters of these committees, it does not seem to me that they have a flavor looking at the hundred years past and hundred-year future. If we could find a way to stick it into one of the existing committees effectively, I don't disagree.
Kevin Schneider, Superintendent: I know that the transportation plan has been a big subject of the park use committee that Jackie has chaired. And Jackie you could speak to that. That certainly could nest, and has nested, in the park use committee. The questions around fire management are good ones and that could potentially be nested to the science education committee to the extent that were looking at forest ecology and the science of these forests and those would be appropriate topics I think for those committees to concern. I think what you’re suggesting is to back up and look at the bigger picture to which could be something that the committee chairs try to do as well, and then bring it back to the commission.
Carl Brooks: There's individual issues that we might have identified that might fit a particular committee. But I'm thinking there is a whole wide class of things going on that you don't see an applicable committee. I think that committees may be more coming up with a solution rather than identifying the issues. What I'm talking about is getting the issues out there so, as people cycle through the park personnel system, it could be brought on board. You have issues here that we should recognize exist. And then they would probably call for some kind of decision-making but it's not my purpose here to make a committee for an organization that is going to give us solutions. The committee could suggest alternatives. Historically we had a parallel path to MDI. Clearly, that is a problem not being solved by this inter-modal facility, like a traffic jam on a two-lane bridge across from Trenton. Clearly we need to think outside of the box. You have an unfortunate problem. And when I read the post forums, there was a great parallelism between there and what happened here in 1947 and I have raised the question, are we continuing that same cultural process that led to that destruction? That led to the exacerbation of 47 here. That's on the fire management side. There was an article a couple weeks ago in the FT. They parsed the likely destructive dangers of different parts of climate change and wildfire was number three on the list. Raising sea levels is number five on the list. And as I say, another issue is, historically, the flux that has happened from the days when horseless carriages were banned on MDI and we had parallel rail service. Are the issues that we have a facility with traffic jams happening. Is that really going to deal with the issues or are the issues more fundamental here? And we need to get those issues up in front of us.
Fred Ehrlenbach: From my perspective, that goes beyond the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission on park. That is an island-wide issue and a regional issue that eventually will be addressed by somebody, I don't know who it's going to be. As a representative from Trenton, I can tell you that only one end of the bridge in in Acadia National Park and that is on Thompson Island and the other end is inTrenton and its two lanes. The train service was combined with the ferry service from Hancock Point.
The train went to Hancock Point and the ferry went to Bar Harbor. This has been discussed through Maine Emergency Management and Maine Emergency Agency-Hancock County; about how to respond to an incident at Acadia National Park. How would they evacuate. That is an issue. I agree with what you're saying but I don't think it's within the purvey of this commission. It has to be addressed regionallysomehow, not by the park or this commission.
Carl Brooks: I absolutely agree. There's no question. As you say, it’s going to take a joint effort of all the towns and the park, MDI, and Trenton and so forth.
Ben Worcester, Chair: We don't have to try to reconstruct the past, we need to look to the future. I think your topics are fine. I do think they are ones that should be looked at. I think the basic committee structure that we have presently is probably adequate. They're just not all going to go into the same committee. Transportation may go into one. And fire into another. I do think that they are worth looking at. I think they probably should be, and maybe there already is a concern to say we could we have the redoing of the 1947 fire. There's a lot of fuel out there and, if the right conditions come along, it's not too far from anybody's imagination what could happen. Transportation could go to another committee. I must say that our purpose in here is to advise the Secretary of the Interior. We're not here to quote, in the real sense, to do anything. We are here to monitor the activities within Acadia National Park.
Howie Motenko: This is Howie. I just wanted to add one other thing that I think this commission also serves a purpose for the community forum to let the public to engage with the park and we are a vehicle for that so I want that to be equally as clear.
Matt Horton: My problem is very simple and it is a question. I have noticed along the bluffs in Bar Harbor, the encroachment, and the growth of the black locust trees along the guard rail and it's kind of obscured the vista. I have had a few people talk to me about that and I know this is park lands and I'm wondering if something can be done about that? Can we have the smaller trees thinned out before they can become bigger trees and completely obscure the Vista.
And you should be aware that the same trees I'm talking about are starting to obscure the Acadia National Park sign that is down by the yacht club. It's kind of a mess. They are hanging over the guard rails and what was a nice vista two or three-years ago has kind of been taken over. That's my question, I don't expect you to have an instant answer but I thought it should be brought to the committee's attention and to the staff of Acadia National Park.
Kevin Schneider, Superintendent: We have been a little behind on our Vista maintenance. That Vista historically was cleared by the town of Bar Harbor.
John Kelly: It had been probably ten-years ago but we intervened to say the town could not cut trees on park property. So, we sort of pushed the town back with that.
Kevin Schneider, Superintendent: We can take it up with the town potentially.
Keith Johnston: We have been in a recent conversation with Becky about the species and how it might be managed in the future. Because it's becoming a concern for a lot of folks and it has come up several times recently. There is opportunity for conversation about how we incorporate that vegetation management into the bigger picture.
Kendall Davis: I had a conversation with Brandon Bies earlier as the Science Committee meeting regarding the trails and the difficulty of trails at Acadia National Park. I had it brought to me by one community member that said it would be nice to have something at the very beginning of the trail when you are up there in years to be notified if you’re going to run into a level four- level five difficulty and not a ladder facing you with you looking up. And Brandon reassured me that is something that you are working on.
Brandon Bies: As I understand it, Jay Elhard, our Information Specialist, is working on a pilot. I think the Tarn is where we were thinking about doing. It would give you notice of the topography of what the trail would look like.
Jackie Johnston: I neglected to jump in when I should have at the end of the Superintendent reports. I wanted to go on record now. In hearing Keith Johnston's summary of all the work that has gone on and all the projects that will be going on, having been part of that process on the Navy side years ago, I fully appreciate the effort that has been made and what has been accomplished between the congressional delegation advocating for funds in various forms to flow through to the national parks. And this team sitting in this room, as well as the Friends of Acadia.
But the team sitting in your room right now putting together projects, planning them, and evaluating them from a cultural and historical resources perspective, and executing the acquisition process to get these projects out, it's amazing that they have kept up with these opportunities with the various funding flow to do what the park needs the most in certain areas. I just wanted to be on record to say kudos to this entire team on what they have accomplished so far and what they continue to do on the project site. Thank you.Any other questions or comments from the commission?
PUBLIC COMMENT
Steve Smith, Otter Creek: I find it ironic that we are talking about invasive species today, which is a topic I am bringing here. And I did not make enough copies but I am here about a different type of invasive species. *Mr. Smith distributed a handout.
George Davis, Otter Creek: It's been about three and a half years since I spoke to this group but I'm sad that I have to do it again. My name is George Davis and I am from the Village of Otter Creek, the town of Mount Dessert.
I went over to the Rockefeller Gatehouse yesterday and what I complained about three and a half years ago is that a little bit of work has been done on the woodwork on the outside. But it's 88-years old and needs to be done soon. I think someone, one person with a paintbrush could put a clearcoat on that woodwork out there and it would probably last another 88-years because most of it as recessed back in the wall. If it wasn’t for that, it would be all gone. But it really needs attention Mr. Superintendent. Kevin Schneider, Superintendent: There has been some work done. Were you at Brown Mountain or Jordan Pond Gatehouse? There has been some work done on the gatehouses and there's work happening right now on the piers at Jordan Pond Gatehouse, which are the historic, masonry peers when you cross onto the carriage road. There's a lot of work done on the Jordan Pond Gatehouse in the last couple of years and Keith can talk more about that in specifics. But if you're looking at Brown Mountain, Keith?
Keith Johnston: Preservation work is being done, following the preservation status set up by the Secretary of the Interior. I assure you we are doing our best with those assets in the manner in which they were built.
George Davis: I believe one person with a paintbrush could really make a dent. I mean it. Thank you.
David Carre, Gouldsboro: In the spirit of staying in the community for a moment to make a short comment. I wanted to point out a conflict, and I don't know the solution. I have noticed that Acadia National Park has posted on social media about the night sky visibility in this area. I very excitedly looked for Charles Sumner High School to come online which it has and it is admitting the campus is admitting a tremendous amount of light, it seems to me in conflict with the night sky experience in this area. Maybe there's an opportunity for some sort of conversation between the Park Service and RSU 24. Particularly, if the park is going to run a night sky event in September. I would suggest that maybe something be done to dim it down for such an event. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the public?
CLOSING COMMENTS
The Commission Chair made closing comments. With no further comments, I move we make a motion to adjourn. Fred Ehrlenbach made a motion to adjourn. Kendall Davis seconded. All agree – no oppose. Motion carries.
ADJOURNMENT
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 05th, 2024, 1:00 p.m. at Acadia National Park headquarters in Bar Harbor. It will continue to be an in-person and virtual meeting as published in the
FEDERAL REGISTER.
Meeting adjourned at 2:50 pm
Minutes Submitted by Kathy Flanders
