Inventory, mapping, and condition assessment of visitor-created trails on the Beehive Acadia National Park

Jacobi, Charles; Anderson, Karen; Doughterty, Kevin

The executive summary: "In July 2009, we inventoried visitor-created trails on the Beehive using Global Positioning Systems technology (GIS) and applied a Condition Class Assessment as we have for similar projects in the park. The study area ran from the top of the Beehive Trail rungs to the West beehive (secondary summit) overlooking the bowl. We found three clusters of visitor-created trails in our Beehive study area, and to ease understanding will refer to them as the Beehive Summit, the Tableland, and the West Beehive. The largest cluster was found on both sides of a ╝ mile segment of the maintained trail at the Beehive Summit and near the North View, a large sloping ledge popular as a stopping point. Some of these trails extended far to the north and south of the Beehive Trail. The southernmost extension of trails appears to have been the result of hikers missing a switchback in the maintained trail, perhaps due to poor trail marking. Although hikers seem to make this turn now, the results are still a Condition Class (CC) 5 section of trail, heavily eroded. Many heavily eroded impacted trail segments (CC4 and 5) are on the north side of the Beehive Trail and associated with the North View and an ôattractionö boulder that can be seen by hikers after they finish the iron rungs. The boulder draws them over, and from there, some move on to the North View. The second cluster is on both sides of the maintained trail through the Tableland, and area found just before the Beehive Trail drops down to a saddle where a connector trail (to be closed per the Hiking Trails Plan, 2002) leads to the Bowl Trial and back to the road. The south side of the maintained trail here offers fine views, but the north side is forested. Both sides are full of CC 5 trails, eroded to bare soil. The third cluster is located on the West Beehive. The Beehive Trail across the West Beehive offers some views to the east and north but it stays on the east side and below the summit. All the visitor-created trails are west of the maintained trail where there are more views in all directions, including over the Bowl. Many of these trails are CC 4. We used GIS to calculate the total length of visitor created trails and the length of trails in each condition class. The total length of visitor-created trails was 2,931.8 feet, or 0.56 miles. Slightly more than 50% of these were in the worst condition, Condition Class 5, and over 70% were Condition Class 4 or 5. Visitor-Created trail on the Beehive can and should be managed to reduce the impacts to soils and vegetation and encourage natural recovery. Strategies will be similar to those used in other park areas, with an emphasis on site management (including area closures), and educational signs." /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /ACADIA NATIONAL PARK/MOUNT DESERT ISLAND/Beehive/ GIS - Category 2

Inventory, mapping, and condition assessment of visitor-created trails on the Beehive Acadia National Park

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