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President's Column: Completing the Vision
Over Thanksgiving week, my family
and I traveled to California to visit
colleges and a national park or two.
We poked around Fort Point in San
Francisco, walked small among giant
Redwoods, watched elephant seals on a protected
beach along the Pacific Coast Highway,
and explored the desert at Joshua Tree
National Park. The latter receives my personal
thumbs up as the highlight of the trip. I
approached Joshua Tree with a minute trace
of disappointment that we weren't visiting
during March when the desert is in bloom,
something I have long wanted to witness. Any
hint of disappointment vanished when a park
ranger - who also had worked at Acadia - told us that the park was experiencing a rare
spring bloom. Twenty-six species were
blooming as if heralding the end, rather
than the beginning, of winter. My wish had
been granted.
But what did it mean? I am not a scientist,
but I am sufficiently cautious not to
take it as an irrefutable sign of climate
change. Yet, someday a spring bloom may
herald the dramatic impacts of our choices
today. I thought about how we chose
to visit our destinations. In San Francisco
we walked, rode cable cars, and took a
train. The journey was as satisfying as the
destination. Everywhere else we drove,
not necessarily by choice. While we might
have been able to discover more environmentally-
friendly travel options in the Los
Angeles area, we wouldn't have seen
Joshua Tree.
Which brings me to our choices here at
home. During Acadia's busiest season, residents,
visitors, and commuters have the
ability to travel to, through, and around the
park and our communities on a propane-powered
bus. Designed for lower emissions,
the buses further reduce impacts on
air quality and traffic congestion by reducing
the number of vehicles on the road.
Ten years ago, partners‹the National
Park Service, Maine Department of
Transportation, Downeast Transportation,
MDI League of Towns, and Friends of
Acadia‹envisioned the Acadia Gateway
Center to complete the Island Explorer
shuttle system. The Acadia Gateway Center
will give commuters and visitors an opportunity
to leave their cars off-island to ride
onto and around the island on this low-emission,
fare-free shuttle. It will be a first
stop for many visitors coming to Acadia, to
learn about the park and the area, and to
buy a park pass. Passes sold at the center
will generate additional funds to support
important park projects. And finally,
Maine's largest bus system, the Island
Explorer, will have a permanent base of
operations.
This fall, Friends of Acadia exercised its
four-year option to purchase the 369-acre
Crippens Creek property in Trenton to
serve as the site of the future Acadia
Gateway Center. With the generous support
of Tom Cox, the Maren Foundation,
Butler Conservation Fund, Shelby Cullom
Davis Foundation, and individuals who
donated to the Tranquility Fund, Friends
purchased the property in December and
sold 150 acres to the Maine Department of
Transportation (MDOT) for the facility.
Ultimately, all of the land will be sold
or donated to partners for long-term
protection.
The Island Explorer provides a bright
future for our region, reducing greenhouse
gas emissions, providing a convenient way
to visit Acadia and the area, and reducing
traffic and parking congestion in the park
and our communities. The Acadia Gateway
Center will make it possible for the Island
Explorer to continue to grow and improve.
The end of the year is a time to look
back, to assess our accomplishments over
the year. Throughout the Journal you will
find updates on the many accomplishments
you, our members, have made possible.
Acquiring the Crippens Creek property in
Trenton, the future site of the Acadia
Gateway Center, is one of several accomplishments
in 2007 providing a bright
future for Acadia and our communities.
Thank you for a tremendously successful
year, and best wishes for the year
to come.
- Marla S. O'Byrne, President
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