A GIFT FROM BEAN’S

The contradiction of people producing large amounts of traffic and pollution so that they can escape into the fresh air of a national park has been noted so often that it barely deserves further mention, except that Acadia National Park and its many friends have actually done something about the problem. Their 17 propane-powered buses, which serve riders without charge, not only have been enthusiastically supported by local residents and tourists; they are now being financially supported by L.L. Bean, which offered $1 million recently to expand the program.

The Island Explorer buses last summer carried 240,000 passengers among hotels, campsites, Bar Harbor shopping and the park. It is a level of ridership unimagined when the buses began service in 1999 – the projected number of riders then was 1,000 a day. In 2001 on the system’s busy days, it carried more than 5,000 people. For the season, Island Explorer officials estimate the buses displaced 80,000 vehicles from park roads, cutting pollution levels in the area and easing the demand for parking in Acadia.

The Bean gift, made to the nonprofit Friends of Acadia, will allow the Island Explorer to expand service into the fall, from Labor Day to Columbus Day, beginning in 2003, and it will leverage federal matching funds to three to eight new buses in 2003 or 2004. Most important, it will add to the system’s operating funds, essential to keep the buses rolling but often the hardest money to raise.

Visitors to Mount Desert Island are the most frequent users of the bus system, but a growing number of year- round and seasonal residents are getting into the habit as well. Those riders have increased from 16 percent in 1999 to 22 percent last year, even as the overall total of riders has risen dramatically. Extending the bus season is especially important for this group and should be welcomed by local businesses that want to attract both tourist business and make it easier for their employees to get to work.

L.L. Bean’s gift, the first corporate contribution to nonprofit public transport anywhere in the nation’s park system, is ideal not just because the longtime outfitter is associated worldwide with Maine’s outdoors. The gift to a good cause integrally tied to a company’s product or services is a model for others to emulate. The national parks certainly could use the help, and places like Mount Desert Island would appreciate the cleaner air and smaller traffic jams.