Jonathan Gormley, Volunteer Coordinator, Acadia National Park: “I think the Carriage Roads here are one of the major reasons that many people come to Acadia. When the Carriage Roads were designed, they were designed with overlooks and vistas that provide views of oceans, of mountains, of these beautiful bridges and they’re just unparalleled. It’s very difficult to find something like this in any other national park.”
Louis Morin, Instructor, School of Forest Resources: “The first object is to provide the students with training so that they’re more comfortable when they go out for a job that they’ve seen and used equipment, and they’re familiar with it. And as far as the park is concerned, we’re trying to help them solve a problem they have. They don’t have the resources to restore what we call the vistas along the Carriage Roads. The very difficult ones that are extremely steep to access, we can do that with the equipment that we’ve designed and it gives the students a lot more experience in difficult situations.”
Tucker Pearson, Forest Operations Major: “Right now we are working on a certain section where you can see the mountain range in the background and basically trying to open up the trees around here in this area so you can get a better view of it. Trying to restore it back to how it was back when the Carriage Trails were first put in by the Rockefeller Family.”
Louis Morin, Instructor, School of Forest Resources: “What’s unique about the way we cut the vistas, perhaps versus what others might do, is we try to make them look as natural as possible. So, we carefully select each tree that is being removed and we make sure not to make what we call a “square box” that if you are coming along looking at the vista, it looks natural and that’s what we are trying to accomplish. And the students get involved in that process as well; they help us select the trees that are going to be removed.”
Jonathan Gormley, Volunteer Coordinator, Acadia National Park: “You’ve got ocean views, mountain views, but nature isn’t static. Trees grow up, plants come in, plant communities change and to keep those vistas as the Carriage Roads were originally designed requires work.”
Tucker Pearson, Forest Operations Major: “There’s a lot of just knowing what trees would be good to cut. I mean, we are trying to thin–you know, there’s a snag right here that we will leave as kind of a wildlife tree, and there’s other trees. You know, you don’t want a complete clear-cut of acreage, you want some growth so you will have some regeneration on the small scale.”
Louis Morin, Instructor, School of Forest Resources: “We’re concerned about the quality of work that we do. We want to set a good example for people visiting these roads to see how well they can be maintained. The work that we do is well-known within the park system.”
Jonathan Gormley, Volunteer Coordinator, Acadia National Park: “It’s everybody who benefits from that. The park benefits because we get the work done. The visitor benefits because the vistas are maintained, and the university students benefit because they then get practical experience that would be hard for them to get otherwise.”
Tucker Pearson, Forest Operations Major: “The best part about this is that we have, like, our measurements class and everything, the forestry majors. Being able to take that information and put it to a practical use is, I mean, really rewarding. This is awesome–I would recommend it to anybody.”
