Winter 2019 Volume 24 No. 3 A Magazine about Acadia National Park and Surrounding Communities PURCHASE YOUR PARK PASS! Whether driving, walking, bicycling, or riding the Island Explorer through the park, we all must pay the entrance fee. Eighty percent of all fees paid in Acadia stay in Acadia, to be used for projects that directly benefit park visitors and resources. Open Seasonally: Bar Harbor Village Green Blackwoods, Seawall, and Schoodic Woods campgrounds Hulls Cove Visitor Center Jordan Pond and Cadillac Mountain Gift Shops Sand Beach Entrance Station Annual park passes are also available at certain Thompson Island Information Center Acadia-area town offices and local businesses; contact the park at 207-288-3338 to find Open Year-Round: additional pass sales locations. Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce/Acadia Information Center Corner of Main and Cottage Streets, Bar Harbor 207-288-5103 Park passes are now available online. Visit www.yourpassnow.com President’s Message Helping AcAdiA prepAre for cHAnge hen a small group of committed favorable for them. Students from the volunteers joined forces to form University of Maine and College of the WFriends of Acadia in 1986, they Atlantic are helping to monitor Acadia’s showed tremendous foresight regarding the lakes and streams, and citizen scientists challenges that Acadia National Park would everywhere are contributing observations face in the ensuing years. Documents from of how wildlife behavior and migrations those earliest days show an emphasis are being affected. on understanding the pressures created These examples illustrate that our by growing visitation, the perils of an responses to a changing climate will vary. increasing backlog of deferred maintenance In some instances, we will resist change— on trails and carriage roads, and how to as with our work to remove invasive plants. better engage community members and In other situations, we will look to adapt— youth in the park. Today, these very issues as with efforts to install larger culverts in remain among the most important priorities the face of increased intensity of rainfall for FOA’s work in helping our park thrive in events. In still others, we will anticipate its second century. and get a head start on change—as with One challenge that our founders could the test plots to evaluate certain species not have fully anticipated, however, is to determine the best possible successor how a changing climate would bring new FOA/ASHLEY CONTI plants as others are no longer able to thrive stresses and threats to Acadia. Still, today, Acadia and other national parks also here in a warmer, wetter climate. we are struggling to understand what the have an important role to play in com- In addition to this work by institutions, future might hold. But the ability of a be- municating climate change to the visiting it takes many individual actions to make a loved place like Acadia to inspire research, public and bringing an issue that can feel collective difference in addressing climate creativity, discussion, and commitment in overwhelmingly broad down to a place- change. By focusing on individual choices, the face of challenges like these means that based scale that is meaningful to the mil- as well as supporting broader policy FOA and partners can provide leadership lions of visitors each year. initiatives and projects, we can help Acadia even as we navigate uncharted waters. With science leading the way, a growing and other natural areas adapt and prepare How will Acadia fare as the climate community of partners here at Acadia is for changing environmental conditions. changes? No one can say for sure. But collaborating on approaches that strive When I was recently asked to be part what we are experiencing already is an to do just that and make Acadia’s natural of a panel speaking about conservation Acadia that is warmer and wetter, with values as healthy and resilient as possible issues to a local fifth-grade class, climate bigger storms, higher and more acidic in the face of unprecedented change. change was clearly the topic weighing seas, longer growing (and visitation) For example, Maine Coast Heritage most heavily on these young students’ seasons, and changing species. These Trust is seeking to conserve lands that minds. They were both proud of, and changes affect every aspect of the park, will allow salt marsh eco-systems vital to worried about, the national park in their from natural and cultural resources Acadia to migrate in the future as sea level back yard; their awareness of what was to the visitor experience, from park rises. Schoodic Institute is experimenting at stake and their determination to be infrastructure and staffing to public safety. with test plots of native plant species involved in solutions was heartening. How can Acadia and its partners that would fare well on the inhospitable Theirs are among the voices that will shape respond? First, we are doing our best to summits of Acadia’s mountains as the future of this organization and this understand this new paradigm and to conditions there change. Municipal public park during its second century, as climate support a park management strategy that works departments are replacing culverts change has become one of Acadia’s biggest must be dynamic and adaptive. Even as to anticipate increased rain events and challenges that we must all tackle together. we often wish that a favorite place like stream flow and to better accommodate Acadia will always remain exactly as we fish and amphibian passage. have known it, we recognize that it will be FOA is funding work to remove —David MacDonald impossible to prevent or resist some of the invasive plant species that are seeking a changes that are coming. toehold here as conditions become more Friends of Acadia Journal Winter 2019 1 15 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Anne Green, Chair Bill Eacho, Treasurer Hank Schmelzer, Vice Chair Jack Kelley, Secretary Mark Amstutz C. Boyden Gray Winter 2019 Julie Banzhaf-Stone Margaret Jeffery Volume 24 No. 3 Emily Beck David Katona Gail Clark Story Litchfield Hannah Sistare Clark Paul Mayewski Sam Coplon Lili Pew Andrew Davis Edward L. Samek Dave Edson Nonie Sullivan John Fassak Christiaan van Heerden Elsie Flemings Bill Zoellick HONORARY TRUSTEES Debby Lash Noni Ames Linda Lewis Robert and Anne Bass Liz Martinez Fred Benson Phoebe Milliken Sylvia Blake George J. and Heather Mitchell Frederic A. Bourke Jr. Joseph Murphy 6 12 28 Tristram and Ruth Colket Nancy Nimick Gail Cook Jack Perkins* FEATURES Shelby and Gale Davis Nancy Pyne* Dianna Emory Ann R. Roberts 6 Hawk Watch Marks Quarter Century Nathaniel Fenton Jeannine Ross Frances Fitzgerald Jack Russell Volunteers Are Scientists’ Eyes On The Sky Sheldon Goldthwait Howard Solomon By Seth Benz Neva Goodwin Erwin Soule Paul and Eileen Growald Diana Davis Spencer 3 Outdoor Classroom Excitement Grows Paul Haertel Julia Merck Utsch Cookie Horner Dick Wolf Expanding Horizons Beyond Four Walls Lee Judd * Deceased By Paige Steele 11 Visitor Center Redo Seeks To Bridge Gap EMERITUS TRUSTEES Aging Facility Refreshed, Improved W. Kent Olson Charles R. Tyson Jr. By Earl Brechlin FRIENDS OF ACADIA STAFF 12 Acadia’s Coat of Many Colors Mary Boëchat David R. MacDonald Development Officer President & CEO Autumn Splendor Is Nature’s Best Show Earl D. Brechlin Amy Magill By Ashley Conti Communications Director Administrative Assistant 14 Transportation Plan Inches Ahead Sharon Broom Dana Petersen Implementation Timeline Shapes Up Development Officer Stewardship Volunteer Coordinator By Earl Brechlin Stephanie Clement Conservation Director Mike Staggs 15 Acadia Is Ideal Winter Classroom Office Manager Lisa Horsch Clark Cold, Snow, Coping Are Core Curriculum Director of Development Paige Steele & Donor Relations Conservation Projects By Lynn Fantom Manager Sarah Curts Accounting & Administrative Julia Walker Thomas P ERS P ECTIVES Associate Digital Media Manager 1 President’s Message The Shape of Friends of Acadia’s Future Jason Irwin Lisa Williams Vice President for Finance Communications 5 What We Heard From You Reflections On A Great Year & Administration Web & Design Associate 8 Studying How You Play Rec Techs Are Boots On Ground Shawn Keeley JoAnne Wood 9 Superintendent’s View Rising to Meet the Challenges of 2020 Senior Development Officer Development Assistant 31 Chair’s Letter Challenges and Unanticipated Joys DE PARTMENTS 4 Where in Acadia? PRST STD 10 Acadia Insider U.S. POSTAGE 19 Business Members PAID 20 New Donors AUBURN, MAINE PERMIT #82 24 Updates 32 Special Person 2 Winter 2019 Friends of Acadia Journal FOA/PAIGE STEELE FOA/PAIGE Students from Deer Isle -Stonington Elementary School explore the outdoors on a nature trail built with the help of Friends of Acadia. The trail connects to the school’s outdoor classroom, also supported by FOA. outdoor clAssroom excitement grows By Paige Steele our years ago, education staff at Acadia and invasive plants. Oceanside High students National Park began thinking of ways in Rockland will also have a new outdoor Fto connect every Maine student to their classroom surrounded by a butterfly garden, national park. Knowing the constraints of time, serving multiple academic and social purposes. distance, and shifting budgets would prevent After years in the making, Deer Isle- some classes from visiting the park in person, Stonington Elementary (DISES) completed a they began to brainstorm solutions. An idea 1,000-foot bogwalk connecting the campus to emerged to cultivate an outdoor classroom their existing outdoor classroom that is already program, connecting students to Acadia on well used. On Oct. 18, the school officially their school campus, while also instilling opened the DISES Nature Trail. Students stewardship values of their shared lands and proudly marched in a celebratory parade waters. Whether in Acadia or their hometown, through a beautiful red maple swamp filled youth can learn how to be the caretakers of STEELE FOA/PAIGE with giant skunk cabbages, cinnamon ferns, their environment.