BAR HARBOR, MAINE – Acadia National Park and Friends of Acadia are excited to welcome back stewardship volunteers through the Stewardship Volunteer Drop-In Program. The drop-in program gives individuals and groups the opportunity to join Acadia’s Trails and Carriage Road stewardship teams in maintaining the park’s trails and carriage roads.

Volunteers get hands-on with important work like cutting back vegetation, rebuilding small rock retaining walls, maintaining and rehabilitating hiking trails, and cleaning up at picnic and scenic areas. A half-day’s help goes a long way with the Stewardship Volunteer Drop-In Program. Projects run 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from now through October (weather permitting), and no experience or reservations are necessary.

“The Stewardship Drop-in Program was put on hold during the pandemic,” said Nikki Burtis, Friends of Acadia’s Stewardship Coordinator. “We are delighted to welcome volunteers back to the park this summer. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and contribute to maintaining our trails and carriage roads. Volunteers make a huge difference!”

Colleen Lundgren and her daughter, Daphne Lundgren, 4, floss the coping stones along the carriage road near the Waterfall Bridge in Acadia National Park. (Photo by Ashley L. Conti/Friends of Acadia)

Volunteers should arrive in work clothes, closed toed-shoes, and have a backpack with water and a snack with you, and our Stewardship Staff and Volunteer Crew Leaders provide the rest. Tools, transportation, safety gear, and instructions are provided. Come lend a hand this season (and drop in as many times as you’d like)!

Many groups such as church groups, rotary clubs, and even groups of friends also volunteer. Groups do need to register and be scheduled in advance. Whether you volunteer for a few hours, a few months, or year after year, you will see a new side of Acadia, feel a deeper connection to the park, and leave this national treasure a little better than you found it.

Many hundreds of volunteers contribute thousands of hours each year on essential projects. Together, they make a real and lasting difference for Acadia National Park.

• Learn more about Stewardship volunteering in Acadia: Drop-in Stewardship Volunteer Program
• Read more in the Mount Desert Islander: Acadia stewardship volunteers are back in action

Kirsten Chery and Tanner Burgdorf, work to widen a part of the Hadlock Ponds Trail as part of a stewardship crew project in Acadia National Park. (Photo by Ashley L. Conti/Friends of Acadia)