Acadia National Park (Maine) saw a dip in visitation last year, with close to 4 million visitors, a 2.4% decrease from the previous year with over 4 million visitors. Despite the drop, the park still saw record-breaking visitors in consecutive years. Still, this trend is only sustainable with more Congress funding and visitors’ support, according to Eric Stiles, President of Friends of Acadia.
According to a report from Maine Public, almost 4 million people visited Acadia National Park in 2022, nearly 100,000 visitors shy of 2021’s record-breaking total.
One of the park’s significant challenges is a need for more affordable housing for employees, which has stretched staff to their limits. He said the lack of affordable housing on Mount Desert Island is the major threat to sustaining the park’s operations.
Stiles said that Friends of Acadia is exploring solutions, such as buying a former hotel or bed and breakfast to convert to temporary housing for employees and eventually building more permanent units in partnership with the park.
Stiles also highlighted the need for visitors to reduce their physical impact on the environment and suggested that the park’s bus system should be used more often than cars, as it would reduce the impact on the environment and make the park more accessible to visitors.
The park’s bus system, the Island Explorer, has yet to rebound from pre-pandemic levels, despite record-breaking visitation. Ridership last year was down 36% compared to 2019, the last full year that the bus ran a full schedule before the pandemic. However, Stiles is hopeful that a planned center in Trenton will eventually serve as a more convenient spot where visitors can park, purchase park passes and ride the free Island Explorer bus to Acadia.
Acadia offers two campgrounds on Mount Desert Island, one campground on the Schoodic Peninsula, and five lean-to shelters on Isle au Haut.
All park campgrounds are closed for the season and will reopen in May 2023.
Despite these challenges, Acadia National Park remains among the top 10 most-visited national parks.