Acadia visitor, vehicle limits mulled Management plan receives panel’s support

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – Park officials will meet next month with Mount Desert Island businesspeople as the first step toward possibly limiting the number of cars and people who can visit Maine’s premier tourist destination.

The Acadia Advisory Commission on Monday voted unanimously to support developing a new visitor use management plan, which could include closing the Park Loop Road to all traffic during the peak season, prohibiting cars on Cadillac Mountain and requiring reservations to get into the most popular park sites, such as Sand Beach.

The goal of the new plan is to protect both the natural resources of Acadia, one of America’s most popular national parks, while also preserving a quality experience for visitors.

The commission made public Monday a new 11-page staff report that outlines the high-risk areas of the park and a list of “ideas” on how to limit visitors. The commission, appointed by the governor, gave park staff the go-ahead to begin seeking extensive public comment to identify and validate visitor issues and, it is hoped, to develop a shared vision of what Acadia should look like in 10 to 15 years.

Len Bobinchock, acting Acadia superintendent, told the commission that staff would hold public hearings, focus groups with park user groups and other forums, such as an MDI Chamber of Commerce event on March 3, to solicit ideas on how best to address the traffic and environmental impact of 1.7 million park visits a year.

“Most of the staff feel this is perhaps the most important issue facing Acadia National Park now and into the future,” Bobinchock said.

The staff hopes to complete the public comment phase of the work by the spring of 2004. Developing a full-fledged management plan will take up to five years. No one expects dramatic limits on visitors in the next six to eight years, officials said.

“We feel the [new report] is a very good start on some very complex issues,” said Thomas Sidar, chairman of the commission’s subgroup on park use. “We need to begin to lay the groundwork for changes that will take effect in 10 years.”

Acadia covers about 60 percent of MDI and is the most-visited national park in the Northeast and one of the 10 most popular parks in the country.

Sidar said the staff’s recommendations for short-term action to address visitor problems and overuse of some park attractions “should be taken with great urgency.”

Those recommendations include:

. New vehicle regulations at the Jordan Pond House area to alleviate parking congestion.

. Reporting daily visitation and congestion to the public so they can make informed decisions about whether to visit MDI on a particular day.

. Work with the states and towns to develop a way to better enforce roadside parking rules.

. Monitor the impact and volume of commercial users.

. Limit parking to the capacity of existing lots.

. Eliminate parking in the right lane of the Park Loop Road.

Bobinchock told the commission that public comment and support would be vital in crafting a long-term visitor management plan for Acadia. Officials acknowledge the effort likely will be controversial, especially among business owners in the MDI region, but they remain convinced that something has to be done to protect both the natural resources of the park and the experience visitors expect to have at Acadia.

Ken Olson, president of Friends of Acadia, told the commission that his nonprofit organization, which has raised millions of dollars for park trails and other projects, strongly supports a visitor management plan for the future.

“This is one of the most important, if not the most important, project the park will be undertaking in the next few years,” he said.