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A recording of the virtual Acadia Advisory Committee Meeting hosted on September 13, 2021. Updates shared by park officials, Friends of Acadia, and Schoodic Institute. ACADIA NATIONAL PARK ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETINGMeeting Platform: WebExSeptember 13, 2021 1:00 p.m. ATTENDANCE:Jacqueline Johnston, Vice Chair (Acting Chair) Matt Horton, Member Carolyn Gothard, Member Howie Motenko, Member Dexter Lee, Member Ken Smith, Member Kendall Davis, Member Stephen Shea, Member G. Bruce Wiersma, Member Kevin Schneider, Superintendent, ANP Kevin Langley, Acting Deputy Superintendent, ANP Rebecca Cole-Will, Chief of Resource Management, ANP John Kelly, Management Assistant, ANP Therese Picard, Chief Ranger, ANP Keith Johnston, Chief of Facility Management, ANP Laura Cohen, Chief of Visitor Experience & Education David MacDonald, President & CEO, Friends of Acadia Nick Fisicelli, President & CEO, Schoodic Institute Chris Rector, Regional Rep, Senator King Carol Woodcock, Regional Rep, Senator Collins Members of the Public Staff Members of ANP News Media ABSENT MEMBERS:Fred Ehrlenbach, Chair Katherine Heidinger, Member Ben Worcester, Member Ken Cline, Member
OPENING REMARKSThe Commission Vice Chair, Jacqueline Johnston, called the meeting of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, Monday, September 13, 2021, 1:00 p.m. to order.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDAA motion was made by Ken Smith to accept the agenda for the September 13, 2021, meeting; seconded by Callie Gothard; all approved as is, no opposed. Motion carries. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTESA motion was made by Ken Smith to accept the minutes of June 07, 2021. It was seconded by Kendall Davis. All approved, no opposed. Motion carries. SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT – Kevin Schneider, SuperintendentWELCOME Park Operations with COVID
Visitation (A. Gibson)
▪ Close to 500,000 more visits to the park than in previous years. ▪ About 190,000 more vehicles entering the park than in previous years.
• Three parks (GLAC, ROMO, and YOSE) have reservation systems in place which limit their visitation. Visitor Rescue Stats (T.Picard)
Island Explorer (J. Kelly)
Bass Harbor Head Light Station (J. Kelly)
OLD BUSINESSNone NEW BUSINESS• Kendall Davis brought items to be addressed at a future meeting requested by the Town of Mount Desert: o Prospect of NPS providing fresh water at the Fish House in Otter Creek o Grover Avenue Town Dock- Increasing the size as there is no way to turn around. Jackie Johnston replied they will be discussed at the committee meetings and put them on the agenda for the next meeting *ANP Advisory Commission proposed meeting dates for FY2022 Monday, February 7th, 2022 Monday, June 6th, 2022 Monday, September 12th, 2022 * Approval of the Advisory meeting dates for FY2022 was overseen during the meeting and voting was completed following the public meeting. The motion was made to accept the dates for 2022 by Fred Ehrlenbach; seconded by Howie Motenko; all approved, no opposed. COMMITTEE REPORTSLands Committee – No Report Science & Education Committee – No Report Park Use Committee – No Report History Committee – No Report FRIENDS OF ACADIA – David MacDonald, President & CEOThe busy season has affected all of us. Seasonal staff have been carrying on. We are normally doubled in size during the season. Our seasonal positions are no longer 3 months, but 6 months now. The Congressional Delegation was at Acadia, meeting on Climate Change. They wanted to understand what we were doing around the natural resource, terms of the science, and how we communicate it to the public. We talked about the parks own carbon footprint and how to help visitors make climate-friendly choices on their own visits here. The Benefit Auction was held virtually. This year our Greening Acadia Fund was established to make Acadia more climate friendly. We hope this will, also, help leverage federal funds. We continue to work with Climate to Thrive in a partnership. We have been active on the American Aquafarms proposal. The board did vote to oppose it, along with many stakeholders around the bay. We are working with Frenchman Bay United and Partners around the bay to understand the park interests and to best compliment interests of those stakeholders around the bay. There are many constituencies, well beyond the park, that have addressed concern. We are working hard to plug into those and make sure we are working alongside each other the best we can. We put an op-ed out this weekend and we will be working to push some messages out; and we will put some forums on online for FOA members to answer questions; and give them options on how they can be more active on this. Teams are visiting from EPLEY Institute, working on an accessibility study in the park. We are getting a sense of what the issues are, where there are barriers and what the priorities are moving forward. So, as we work with funding sources, like the Great American Outdoors Act, we can look at accessibility and make sure this is a primary priority. There are sites not friendly to folks with limitations. We are looking at not friendly sites and working to find resolutions for those issues. Last, another important issue is worker housing; Acadia reached out to FOA for ideas, creativity, and help. We want very much to do that, along with other groups like the Island Housing Trust and MV365. This is not new news to anyone. It is affecting every employer on the island. The scale at Acadia is significant. They usually hire approximately 150-175 seasonals; at best the park has housing for 60-70. We need to look for solutions. Most are looking at year-round housing. We are focusing on seasonal housing. This affects every aspect of the park’s operations. This might be a future topic with more detail. Thank you for this meeting and this forum. Jackie Johnston: Thank you for all your continued efforts for the park and for being such a vital partner to Acadia.
SCHOODIC INSTITUTE UPDATE – Nicholas Fisichelli, President & CEOWe were hopeful to see you all at Schoodic this year. It isn’t happening this time but, hopefully, we will see you on campus sometimes soon. It has been a busier year on the Schoodic Peninsula. Cars and bikes are up 10% with 15,000 visitors. Overnight guest numbers were down. There were 4,000 guest nights and 1,000 more planned for the remainder of the calendar year – 50%-75% of the norm. Larger groups take about 6 months of planning, and we are now planning for 2022. Staff more than doubled to about 50. We have 6 education teaching assistants brought on for K-12 programming There have been several groups and visitor stay on campus to include,
ADVISORY COMMISSION COMMENTSNone PUBLIC COMMENTJackie Johnston: I would like to acknowledge we do have some staff from Senator Collins and Senator Kings office with us today. Would you have any comments or questions for the group? Chris Rector, Representative from Senator Kin’s office – We were very fortunate to join with others at Schoodic Institute when the Secretary of the Interior was visiting and we appreciate that, and we appreciate hearing all the updates here and especially how the reservation system is working and all the work that Friends of Acadia and everyone is doing. Carol Woodcock, Regional Representative Senator Collins – I second everything that Chris said. CLOSING COMMENTSThe Commission Vice Chair made closing comments. Please remember to send any suggestions for agenda items for the February 7th, 2022, meeting to Fred Ehrlenbach. ADJOURNMENTThe next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 7, 2022, 1:00 p.m. and will be a virtual meeting as published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. (This is based on the Secretary's Decision that all meetings be held virtually until further notice due to COVID-19. Notification will be published if the meeting is changed to an in-person meeting). Motion was made by Ken Smith to adjourn, seconded by Kendall Davis, and approved by all, no opposed. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 2:33 pm. Minutes Submitted by Kathy Flanders |
Last updated: February 16, 2022