BY KEVIN SCHNEIDER, Superintendent of Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider

In January, back-to-back storms descended on Acadia National Park. These were not typical winter storms bringing welcome snow, instead they were near hurricane events. They brought 70 mph wind gusts, three inches of rain, and a storm surge that has never been seen before in Maine. And they occurred within three days of one another.

After the weather subsided, I went out into the park to see how it had fared during the extreme weather.

What I saw was nothing short of staggering. The news of the storms’ impacts to the community and state were equally sobering. Sporadic sections of the park suffered extraordinary damage. As I’m writing this, we know that about 1,000 feet of Ocean Path has been completely washed out. Seawall campground has an inordinate number of downed trees. Seawall Picnic Area is covered in up to three feet of cobbles and suffered the total loss of part of its shoreline.

Sections of Schoodic Loop Road were undermined by the storm surge, and the roof of historic Rockefeller Hall is leaking. Park teams are still working diligently to assess damage throughout the park – and it may be weeks before we know and understand the true extent of impacts.

Events like these, which none of us have seen in Maine, are hard to wrestle with. What is even more humbling is that storms like these are a larger part of our future. The reality of climate change means the park and its stewards are going to need to reckon with more frequent, and more severe, weather events.

They also provoke us to think about how we respond. While we will seek emergency funding to repair damage caused by these storms, we also need to consider how we rebuild. We need to make sure our investments consider this climate future to the extent we can.

The National Park Service framework of Resist, Accept, and Direct (RAD) provides a structure for our management actions in the context of a rapidly changing climate.

With a future filled with such turbulence, it’s even more important to lean on each other.

Acadia is strong because of our dedicated workforce, our community, and our partners. Acadia National Park has a timeless, enduring ability to bring people together. It will not be surprising to any of you that all the park’s field crews carried on critical operations throughout the storm events. This includes our roads and trail crews, buildings and utilities, custodians, protection rangers, dispatchers, and our interpreters providing timely safety information to our visitors.

It is these same crews that are beginning the long process of assessing the damage and cleaning up. We have had an outpouring of people offering to volunteer their time and support our staff with whatever they need.

And of course, in times of need, Friends of Acadia is always here to support Acadia National Park. Each of you reading this is part of that community of park supporters. You are what will ensure the magic of Acadia is sustained into the future, even if that future is one of a rapidly changing climate.

We need all of you now more than ever.

With our workforce, community, and partners, I know the power of this place will help us weather every storm.