Educate and Inspire

Acadia National Park ranger Bob Thayer, photographer and park naturalist, leads an evening program at Seawall Campground amphitheater. (Photo by Joseph Philipson/Friends of Acadia).

 

Acadia National Park provides resource-based, nonconsumptive recreation and education for an increasingly urban population. A recreation resource of national and international significance, the park is within a 12-hour drive of 25 percent of the North American population. In a recent study visitors represented 45 of the 50 United States and six foreign countries. Acadia is also regionally important, because public recreation land is scarce. Recreational opportunities are available inland at the White Mountain National Forest, Baxter State Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, the Appalachian Trail, and the Moosehead Lake region. However, with only 6 percent of the Maine coast accessible to the public, and one-quarter of that acreage in Acadia National Park, the park is one of the most intensively used leisure destinations in the northeastern United States.

The park provides excellent opportunities for educating visitors about a significant and diverse environment. Access to the array of scenery and areas of scientific, natural, and historic interest is provided by Acadia's compact network of carefully designed hiking trails, carriage roads, and scenic drives. A broad range of people are attracted to a spectrum of interpretive activities such as guided walks, amphitheater programs, environmental education activities, and outreach programs.