Acadia Youth Conservation Corps using a highline to move rocks on the Pond Trail

Through the Acadia Trails Forever program, Friends of Acadia supports maintenance of Acadia's 130-mile footpath system, used by hundreds of thousands of people each year. Some trails have been made wheelchair accessible. Some abandoned trails are being restored, and new village connector trails are being established to encourage people to walk (rather than drive) from island towns into the park.

The Acadia Youth Conservation Corps (AYCC) is comprised of 16 high school students (many from Mount Desert Island) and four leaders who join the staff of Acadia National Park for the summer. They make visible improvements to Acadia's trails and carriage roads, reconstruct stone drainages and retaining walls, clear vistas, cut wood at campgrounds, and assist wherever else needed. Friends provides the salaries, work boots, AYCC T-shirts, and scholarships. The park provides program leadership and training.

The Island Explorer is a fare-free, seasonal, propane-powered bus system that runs through Acadia National Park and its surrounding gateway communities. Since its first day of operation in 1999, 1,196,766 passengers have ridden the buses, 442,105 private vehicle trips have been eliminated, and 33.7 tons of smog causing pollutants have been reduced. Friends of Acadia has been involved with the bus system since its inception. Friends has provided approximately $420,000 in funding, and secured a $1 million gift from L.L.Bean in 2002 to enable the system to continue operating through the fall.

Americans for National Parks is a non-partisan effort to increase the operating budget of our national parks by $600 million over five years, funding the estimated annual operating shortfall across the park system. Friends of Acadia is spearheading the effort in Maine to fully fund Acadia, and advocating on its behalf with the Maine Congressional delegation. More than 30 Maine agencies, organizations, and businesses have joined the Acadia full-funding coalition. For more information about Americans for National Parks efforts, go to the National Parks Conservation Association site at www.americansfornationalparks.org.

Ridge runner Katie builds a cairn with volunteers.

Each year Friends of Acadia grants funds from its Carriage Road Endowment to Acadia National Park for the ongoing maintenance of 44 miles of historic carriage roads. Off-limits to motorized vehicles, the scenic gravel roads and stone bridges are used by hikers, runners, bicyclists, and equestrians.

Ridge Runners work with park staff to monitor visitor use on mountain summits..

Each year Friends of Acadia funds several interns to work in Acadia, with park staff. Ridge Runners and the Recreation Intern are typically college-age students who serve as roving educators and researchers in the park. They are hired and trained by park rangers to spend the summer hiking Acadia's trails, educating hikers in "Leave No Trace" principles, performing light trail maintenance, and carrying out trail censuses and other park research.

Friends of Acadia also helps fund the Peregrine Falcon/Hawk Watch program. Each year, thousands of visitors to Acadia National Park attend a Peregrine Falcon/Hawk Watch program to learn more about the 13 species of raptors that migrate through this area. Spotting scopes are set up at the base of the Precipice so visitors can view nesting peregrine falcons. On Cadillac Mountain, binoculars are used to watch birds of prey circling overhead. An intern helps visitors identify the birds while discussing their biology and protection efforts.

Project Tranquility is a set of initiatives to reduce traffic and restore the quiet character of Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island, Maine. This is being accomplished by expanding the island's fare-free propane bus system, creating an off-island transit hub, and encouraging park staff to limit the number of cars and motor homes in some parts of Acadia.

Since 1996, Friends of Acadia has been putting Village Connector Trails on the map. These trails re-establish the tradition of walking and/or biking into Acadia National Park, into town, and in neighborhoods. Village connector trails enhance the character of Mount Desert Island's villages, and improve the quality of the island's air by reducing the number of cars on island and park roads and at trailheads. Connector trails complement the Island Explorer buses, providing another option to get into the park, out into quiet landscapes, or to in-town destinations. The trails provide an opportunity for a long, one-way hike or bike ride with a return by bus.

Annually, more than 2,000 Friends of Acadia Volunteers contribute more than 14,000 hours in Acadia National Park, clearing drainage along carriage roads to reduce erosion, re-opening and maintaining vistas, cutting along park boundaries for fire protection, maintaining village connector trails, and reconstructing existing and abandoned trails. Friends of Acadia provides transportation, tools, training, and the salaries of two field crew leaders to organize volunteer activities through the summer.

In 1997, with help from the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation, Friends of Acadia purchased two Wheelchair Accessible Carriages for Acadia. These horse-drawn carriages provide an opportunity for visitors with physical disabilities to see areas of Acadia they may never have been able to reach before. To make a reservation for a carriage road tour on the wheelchair accessible carriages, contact Wildwood Stables at (207) 276-3622, carriages@wildwood.acadia.net, or go to their website at www.acadia.net/wildwood. To learn more about accessibility at Acadia National Park, go to www.nps.gov/acad/.