BY KEVIN SCHNEIDER

Acadia National Park superintendent Kevin Schneider (Photo by Ashley L. Conti)

Since we moved to Maine, the Schneider family has always found winter in Acadia to be particularly magical. I was reminded of this as I skied 12 miles across perfectly groomed carriage roads on a February weekend. In many ways, winter in Acadia is the most peaceful time of the year.

Yet, January of 2024 was anything but peaceful when Acadia was hit by two back-to-back winter storms within days of one another. The island, and the state of Maine, saw storm surges like never before.

In the aftermath of these storms, I went out in the park with our leadership team to get an idea of the storm’s impact on the park. It wasn’t lost upon us that this was no ordinary winter storm. (See the following pages of this magazine for images captured after the storm to get a better sense of the damage.)

Thanks to support from Friends of Acadia, many dedicated volunteers, and the efforts of our maintenance crews, we successfully cleaned up enough to be able to have the park open and accessible to visitors during our busy 2024 summer season. In fact, in most places in the park, it may have looked like everything was back to normal.

> ’24 Storm Update: Progress and Repairs Following Intense Winter Storms

The reality, though, is that a lot of damage remained.

For example, the roof of Rockefeller Hall, a historic building on our Schoodic Institute campus, suffered extensive damage. This led to major leaks, causing damage to interior walls and ceilings.

The stairs providing access to Sand Beach endured structural damage because of the storm surge and high levels of erosion to the adjacent bluffs that threaten to undermine the area. Temporary repairs were made to stabilize the stairs, and park staff continue to assess the stairs for safety until a more permanent repair can be completed.

KEVIN SCHNEIDER is the superintendent of Acadia National Park. 

Thanks in part to the work of Maine’s federal delegation, Congress passed a supplemental appropriation that allocated funding to the National Park Service for damage across the agency from extreme storms and natural disasters. Acadia National Park will receive some of that funding to fix damage caused in the 2024 storms. This will give us an opportunity to build back in a more resilient fashion, to make investments that will hopefully stand the test of time—and future storms.

The National Park Service’s mission statement has always been my north star: to preserve unimpaired for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of future generations. We want the work we do and investments we make today to have a lasting impact so that Acadia can be a place to visit and make memories forever.

It’s this mission that constantly guides our work—and it’s this mindset that is going to guide our approach to storm restoration. What solutions will help native plants and animals thrive in our ecosystems? What structural solutions will help prevent future damage from extreme storms?

How can we share lessons learned with our community so we can be better prepared in the future?

Change is inevitable in the world we inhabit. Oftentimes, those changes can be daunting, especially when the most current science says we will need to prepare for a world with more frequent and more intense storms.

The National Park Service’s mission keeps us grounded and guides our path forward. We will always find ways to preserve the power of this place through the turbulence.