Unlawful trails marring Acadia Controlling violators is difficult

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Hikers love Acadia National Park. There are 125 miles of signed, maintained trails of virtually every type and difficulty, ranging from easy lakeshore and seashore paths to steep, rocky climbs up to open summits.

Almost all of them have one thing in common, unbelievable scenic beauty. So, this spring, when I heard from the trail supervisor for the park, Gary Stellflug, that there is a problem with neighbors of the park building illegal trails on park property, my first response was: Why?

Gary told me I could talk with Charlie Jacobi to find out more. It only took a couple of tries to get in touch with Charlie, the Natural Resources specialist with the park, for some answers as to just how bad it’s getting.

We eventually met over the past couple of weeks and he showed me an example of the type of intrusion that he’s facing and trying to repair. We hiked along one of them.

The latest illegal trail network is on Great Hill. The damage done by the amateur trail builders is extensive, including pulling rocks from sensitive soil, lopping branches, building cairns, laying logs at corners for visual clues to find the trail and finally, trampling sensitive vegetation.

Charlie showed me a GPS- created map that his crew developed detailing the amount of damage on Great Hill. There are about four miles of trails, all illegal, just in this one location.

“It’s partly forested and partly rock outcrop, it was burnt, so you’ve got what most people would consider to be sensitive vegetation with lichens and mosses. This large block of unbroken property was set aside, along with Young’s Mountain and MacFarland Mountain as part of our trails management plan to be free from trails, where people could roam around.

“It’s a sensitive environment that just won’t stand the kind of impact that having a maintained trail would encourage. There needs to be someplace where people are free to explore without a trail. That’s why we determined that we wouldn’t build trails at this location,” he said.

Later, he and I joined park ranger Kevin Cochary of the Law Enforcement Division, at park headquarters to discuss the breadth of the problem and what some of the solutions might be to fix the damage, find those responsible and prevent further illegal trails from being built.

First, I asked Charlie how the trails on Great Hill were discovered.

“Last fall a park volunteer was on the road and just happened to notice a rock cairn. Then he saw the trail and notified us,” he said.

To fix the damage, Charlie took a crew of about a dozen trail workers from other tasks. They took the cairns down, scattered the rocks and hauled in brush to obscure the routes. Then I asked Kevin if there were other illegally built trails in the park. His response was a surprise.

“We’ve found trails on Young’s and MacFarland Mountains, Aunt Betty Pond, Cadillac Mountain and Schooner Head,” he said.

I told him I never knew about all these trails before and I’ve hiked all over this park since the 1970s. I said it sounded like it’s a problem that’s getting worse.

“I’m not sure if it’s getting worse or if we’ve just getting better at finding them and giving them a priority,” he said. “We know that some of the activities have gotten worse in terms of ATVs and snowmobilers cutting trails and enhanced, building bridges and signs on the west side of the island.

“But the park has all of our divisions working together to giving the protection of this park a priority, trying to find where these trails are, map them, rehab them and keep these trails from going back in again.

“There’s a lot of inter-division cooperation that’s making this possible,” he added. “Karen Anderson, our GIS specialist, has been mapping them, so we can tell whenever a new trail has been found. Some we know, some are new. It takes a coordinated effort between all our divisions working together.”

When asked about their success in catching people for building illegal trails, Kevin said, “We are making a difference by having that team effort. We’ve had court cases that we’ve been successful on.”

Most of the outlaw trails are cut by neighbors to the park from their property into the park, not by summer visitors. Summer visitors may do other damage by building stone sculptures, removing rocks from sensitive soil.

But in terms of neighbor activity, most people want their own way into the park.

“Most people, whether they know it or not, do not tread lightly. It starts by someone saying, ‘You know, if that tree wasn’t there I’d have a nice trail into the park.’ So, they cut a tree down. Usually, once they realize they are on park property, they stop. But, sometimes they don’t. Then, we have a problem,” he said.

I wanted to know what steps the park is taking to educate their neighbors and prevent this activity from occurring. Kevin told me that there are more than 900 private parcels adjoining the park and controlling all of them is difficult.

“We tell people that if they want to find their own way into the park without building a trail, they can. Just don’t take the same route into the park from your property so you’re not establishing a trail by continued use,” he said.

Charlie told me about the establishment of the Village Connector Trail Program, a formal process that involves the communities. To allow input as to where trails should be built, the park has set up a process whereby neighbors of the park can go to meetings with the park and Friends of Acadia to suggest locations where trails can be built.

Obviously, they can’t approve a trail out of everyone’s back yard, but, they said, it at least allows for a careful review of what neighbors and communities see as a solution for a way into the park, in their vicinity.

After talking with Charlie and Kevin, I realized the scope of the problem and how they are trying to solve it.

Personally, I’m not sure I could be as even-handed and measured in my own response. I see all this illegal activity as selfish and just downright un-neighborly.

I would no more think of cutting trees and building a trail on my neighbor’s property than committing any other unlawful activity against my neighbor. To think that just because it’s Acadia National Park, that it’s okay or doesn’t matter is wrong.

I hope they catch these people and throw the book at them. But, that’s just me. I hope I’m not the only one who feels that way.

If you come across any trails that you think are a result of illegal trail building, just call the park at 207-288-3338, between the hours of 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. When you get the automatic message hit “0” for operator and he or she will direct your call to the appropriate personnel.

Brad Viles can be reached at sball1@prexar