Summit Stewards 2017
Ley S, Jacobi C, Peruccio C, Murphy S. 2017. Summit Stewards 2017. National Park Service, Acadia National Park and Friends of Acadia. Bar Harbor, ME
From the executive summary: "This year the Friends of Acadia Ridgerunners and Cadillac Summit Stewards merged to form the Summit Stewards. The 'merger' happened in order to plan for park staff transitions and coordinate the similar programs more efficiently. Initially eight stewards for the summer dwindled down in size through the fall. The primary goal for Summit Stewards was to educate visitors about Leave No Trace and help the park however they could, especially on the summit of Cadillac Mountain. Highlights for the 2017 season include: - 8,843 visitors contacted about Leave No Trace - 694 cairns rebuilt or repaired - 1102 false cairns or rock stacks destroyed - 255 hours postering - 20.5 hours at Beech Mountain Fire Tower - 778 hours hiking - 575 hours on Cadillac Summit - 37 hours on Search and Rescue carry outs - 3 trails with refreshed blazes - 4 videos created with Acadia Youth Tech Team - 2 trips to IAH - 1 trip to Schoodic Summit Stewards worked closely with Law Enforcement staff to establish and enforce traffic management protocols during sunrise, midday, and sunset on top of Cadillac Mountain. Summit Stewards spent 37% of their time on Cadillac Summit managing traffic. The increased traffic measures, communication, and staffing resulted in 69 closures of Cadillac Mountain Road due to congestion. 24 closures occurred during the middle of the day, this number is up from the 11 that occurred last year. This was the first year the park actively managed the traffic during sunset (32 closures) and sunrise (13 closures). Sunrise was only managed during a test period with Law Enforcement. We support the program continuing as the Summit Stewards but provide several suggestions to future seasons: - Expanding Leave No Trace opportunities and materials, including collaborating with AYTT - Maintaining an interdisciplinary program via trails projects and visitors use counts - Scheduling Cadillac in pairs during sunset and the day, hopefully with VSAs Suggestions to the park for Cadillac Summit include additional signage, coping stones, and trash cans."
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Ley, Stephanie; Jacobi, Charlie; Peruccio, Carly; Murphy, Shane
- Date of Issue
- 2017-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service, Acadia National Park and Friends of Acadia
- Units
- ACAD
- Keywords
- Bicycling, Buses, Carrying capacity, Facilities, Geologic formations, Human impact, Human use, Lakes and ponds, Mountains, Parking area, Roads, Social trails, Traffic, Trail use, Trails, Trampling, Transportation, Visitor experience, Visitor use, Visitors