A report released last week revealing that Acadia National Park was underfunded wasn’t so surprising; analysts can go to lots of places in government or private business and find shortages in staffing and programs. What was remarkable about the Acadia study was the amount the park was behind, some $7 million annually or more than its total current budget. The members of Maine’s congressional delegation said they would work to change this, but getting more money will take a lot of work over several years.

The $7 million shortfall means Acadia’s staff is 109 full-time employees short, that federal health and safety mandates are not met and that the number of instructional tours has been reduced while a million artifacts in Acadia’s collection remain to be catalogued. For a park that is visited 2.8 million times a year and is loved by countless millions more, the lack of support is an embarrassment. Not only is Acadia badly funded, but among the 40 national parks reviewed so far, it ranks third worst, behind Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi and Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, for federal funding.

A business plan for Acadia that emerged from the analysis shows how the park would likely use additional federal money, with resource protection, maintenance and basic operations accounting for more than half of the new money. The business plan also included a half dozen strategies for the park to use its funding more effectively. One of the best of these is benchmarking, in which parks across the country look at common problems, share ideas for solving them and measure outcomes. Benchmarks not only let park personnel know where they are making progress and where they are falling behind, but provide a way for the public to see specifically what is occurring.

Sen. Susan Collins, who attended last week’s press conference on the Acadia report, commented that Congress recently has increased the budget for the National Park service by $91 million, including an additional $1.4 million for Acadia. Sen. Collins said she recognized that this was not enough and that full funding was essential to maintain the value of the park. But full funding, she said, “will take a commitment of several years, and it will not be easy during these times of economic uncertainty.” A key to getting additional funds will be for Maine to keep making noise in Washington about the value of the park, which means that public support of the senator’s effort is crucial.

If the public needed coaxing in this direction and the natural charms of the park itself weren’t sufficiently inspiring, residents need only consider that Acadia, as a top spot for tourists, produces about $130 million a year

for the local economy. It no doubt brings in additional revenues to other parts of Maine as tourists stop along the way or take interesting side trips.

Acadia, however, cannot afford to have its full funding take side trips between Washington and Mount Desert Island; the relatively small park is used far too heavily for that. It deserves much more generous federal support and needs public pressure to ensure the money comes.