Vista Management Plan for the Historic Motor Road System, Acadia National Park

Foulds, H.; Killion, Jeff

The “Cultural Landscape Report for the Historic Motor Road System” outlines a wide range of management issues discussed at a treatment workshop in November 2006 with park managers and staff. Among the issues identified then, and still relevant today, was the ongoing challenge in properly maintaining the vistas along the motor roads that currently exist. Some of the scenic views have become increasingly obstructed along the historic motor road system due to the widespread growth and maturation of forest vegetation. Where the former visitor experience once provided for expansive views that could be admired at length from the vantage point of a moving automobile, the current visitor experience has become increasingly foreshortened to an episodic experience of travelling viewpoint-to-viewpoint, where the relative scarcity of scenic vistas compels motorists to stop their vehicle, exit, and take in each surviving view. These circumstances have magnified both traffic congestion at viewpoint pullouts and environmental impacts related to increased parking pressure and pedestrian foot-traffic on the foot trails at the surviving unobstructed viewpoints. Of additional concern, some motor road vistas may harbor state-listed rare plant species that could be adversely affected by the removal of woody vegetation. Since the preparation of the two vista plans in 1958 and 1961, several consultants have undertaken vista studies on the motor roads, and as such there is a need to consolidate and organize all of the available information. The Cultural Landscape Report recommended the preparation of an update of the 1961 vista plan to provide detailed documentation of historic vistas, a description and evaluation of existing conditions, a presentation of treatment guidelines, and procedures and practices for maintaining, enhancing, and monitoring the motor road vistas. This report serves as an update to the existing vista plan for historic motor road system referenced in the Acadia National Park General Management Plan. The following report addresses sixty-nine of the seventy-one historic vistas identified on Mount Desert Island in the 1961 vista plan. These vistas are located on the historic motor road system (#s 1-67) or otherwise on access roads connecting to the system (70-71). Vista 68 at Pretty Marsh and Vista 69 at Ship Harbor are not associated with roadside views along Acadia’s historic motor road system. This updated roadside vista plan also identifies eleven new vistas observed along the two historic motor road segments on the Schoodic Peninsula. A significant component of this project involved defining the exact locations of the historic vistas in the field. Following reconciliation of vista locations marked on paper maps with accurate field locations, this project also has also provisionally identified the geophysical boundaries of areas supporting each roadside vista.

Vista Management Plan for the Historic Motor Road System, Acadia National Park

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