Feb. 22—About half a dozen regular volunteers help keep nine of Acadia National Park’s historic carriage roads groomed for cross-country skiers, allowing visitors to glide past Jordan Pond and Frenchman Bay, said Nikki Burtis, stewardship manager with Friends of Acadia.
“This year, we’ve had a really great year and been able to do a lot of grooming, which is awesome,” Burtis said. “We’re still very nervous with climate change, but we’re feeling optimistic after this winter.”
Now supported by Friends of Acadia, volunteers have been caring for the trails since the 1980s. Initially, they used homemade groomers — like cinderblocks and box springs towed behind snowmobiles — to flatten the snowpack, Burtis said. But these days, crews have access to a small fleet of snowmobiles and specialized equipment.
Advertisement
Advertisement
To protect the roads, crews are only able to groom the trails once the gravel paths below them are completely frozen and covered by at least 6 inches of snow, she said. Last year, for the first time in the program’s history, that meant there were no chances to groom, she said.
But volunteers have been out “pretty much daily, as long as the conditions are good” this year, Burtis said. They provide updates on the latest work on social media and the Friends of Acadia website.
This year, the volunteer work comes amid an atmosphere of uncertainty at Acadia, fueled by terminations at the National Park Service. Eight probationary workers, including trail maintenance employees, were laid off last week, roughly 10% of the park’s total year-round staff, as part of a mass firing of about 10,000 federal employees. The workers at Acadia are among 1,000 National Park Service employees who were fired. At least 35 seasonal job offers were rescinded, although Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, later said that national parks had been exempted from the seasonal worker hiring freeze.
Acadia National Park has received nearly 4 million visitors annually since the pandemic, and last year, it brought in over $475 million in visitor spending and contributed $685 million in economic output, according to the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce.
Copy the Story Link
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
