Acadia chief to retire from park service

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – Paul Haertel will leave Acadia National Park in better shape than he found it when he retires as superintendent this month. So said friends and colleagues Wednesday as news of his departure spread.

Although Haertel won’t work at the park after Sept. 30, he and his wife, Margot, intend to spend even more time in Acadia in the coming years. Avid hikers and skiers, the Haertels live in Southwest Harbor and have no plans to move.

“I’ve had a career with no regrets,” he said. “I’ve had a wonderful experience in the park service, and Acadia is just at the top of all of that. It’s been a great life.”

Ken Olson, president of Friends of Acadia, said Wednesday that Haertel’s legacy will be his willingness to take risks and experiment, his progressive thinking and his emphasis on protecting Acadia’s natural resources.

“We could have had someone who goes by the book, who thinks the rules are supreme,” Olson said. “But Paul thought the resources were supreme, and so he focused on actions that would protect the natural resources, and that sometimes meant working outside the box.”

Olson said Haertel’s contributions to Acadia will be lasting and meaningful: He made sure the rehabilitation of the carriage road system was completed; he took $4 million in user fees to match $9 million in private funding to endow the Acadia Trails Forever program; he helped launch the wildly successful Island Explorer bus system; and he lobbied federal officials to allow parks, including Acadia, to keep 80 percent of the revenue they generate to rebuild infrastructure.

“By any objective analysis,” Olson said, “he leaves Acadia better than he found it.”

Haertel, 62, will complete his 40th year with the National Park Service this fall, and decided it was time to move on to other things. He plans to “decompress for a while” and finish some personal projects before considering other potential opportunities.

He announced his retirement late Tuesday to his staff, waiting until after the peak tourism season to make it official.

“It was a sense that it was time to make a change,” he said, “and a sense that most of the projects we were able to initiate when I first came have been accomplished.

“We’ve been able to rehabilitate a lot of the facilities that had fallen into disrepair,” he said, “and to be blunt about it, I’m proud of the way this park looks right now.”

Bar Harbor Town Manager Dana Reed, whose town includes some of the most beautiful Acadia vistas, said Haertel’s efforts would be enjoyed by visitors for years to come.

“He’s accomplished a lot that will enhance the park not just for people today, but for future generations,” Reed said.

Haertel started his career the summer before his senior year at Michigan College of Mining and Technology, when he asked for a summer job at Isle Royale National Park in Houghton, Mich.

He spent 18 years in Alaska, the last eight of them as assistant regional director, where he supervised projects at 16 parks. It was while he was in Alaska that he heard about the Acadia job and applied. Although he had never visited the Maine park, or worked anywhere close to the East Coast, Acadia had a good reputation within the park system and “I always thought I would be interested in being here.”

Ed DeWitt, manager of Downeast Transportation in Ellsworth, parent company of the Island Explorer bus service, praised Haertel’s easygoing nature and his commitment to improving the park.

“It took a lot to get [the Island Explorer] off the ground,” DeWitt said. “I worked closely with Paul and [assistant superintendent] Len Bobinchock, and we found nothing but an excellent working relationship.”

DeWitt had not heard about Haertel’s pending retirement until Wednesday.

“I don’t blame him” for retiring, DeWitt said, “but I’m sorry to hear the news.”