Acadia's fraught relationship with Otter Creek gets full vetting; firing range called 'grotesque'

OTTER CREEK, Feb. 10, 2024 - No town-gown fissure on MDI runs deeper than the emotional abyss between this village and Acadia National Park.

If you blink while driving by, you may miss the general store here on Route 3. That would be unfortunate, because you would also miss an authentic island experience not like the tarted-up establishments five miles up the road.

That the store exists at all is a testament to the hardy group of residents who have sustained it even though the park service has rendered this village as irrelevant.

There is no bigger critic of the park service and its mouthpiece Friends of Acadia than the band of citizens in this tiny burg whose social and economic identity was almost snuffed out as the park surrounded all sides and land locked this coastal village which now has no coast, said Town Manager Durlin Lunt.

The following map shows the village of Otter Creek (in white) just north of the Blackwoods Campground surrounded by park land. Even its own waterfront has been subsumed by the park.

Lunt appeared at the Feb. 5 winter meeting of the park’s advisory commission and led a spirited discussion of the park’s overreach over the last century at the expense of island residents. At the request of the select board, Lunt proposed that 3,000 square feet of parkland wrongfully taken from Otter Creek be returned in an easement so that residents may drive their vehicles to use the town landing.

He was opposed by Eric Stiles, director of the FOA, which was not surprising given how jealously guarded every square inch of parkland is on MDI. Stiles said he prefers a “land swap” and that gifting the land would set a “dangerous precedent” and “open the floodgate” to more such demands.

Are Stiles’s fears well founded?

In 2022, the federal government completed a 10-year program to allow native Americans out west to buy back 3 million acres of federal land to settle a lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet nation, alleging the Interior and Treasury Departments mismanaged their stewardship of millions of acres of Indian-owned land.

To settle this suit, in 2010 the government committed $1.9 billion to help tribal governments reacquire land transferred to individual Indian allottees in the late 19th century. This land was largely lost to tribal communities as ownership shares were split multiple times through succeeding generations and mismanaged by the federal government for more than 100 years, according to Stanford University.

Could a similar case be made by the Village of Otter Creek that the park service has mismanaged its land and natural resources?

Acadia is one of the few national parks with virtually its entire footprint consisting of privately donated land.

Lunt recounted a long history of the park’s bullying of the working class inhabitants of Otter Creek, starting with choking off access to their fish houses. In 1936, he said, John D. Rockefeller Jr. ignored previous agreements not to take land relied upon by working class residents trying to make a living.

The taking of the waterfront of Otter Creek was “fraught with risk and unsavory tactics” under Rockefeller who wanted to use the inner cove as a swimming pool for the wealthy, Lunt said in an interview. The federal government helped by building a causeway with tidal encumbrances that kept the water in the inner cove from flowing freely.

That led to unintended consequences such as pollution in the inner cove killing off clams and fish which had been a staple for local families for generations.

Could the Town of Mount Desert or any town on MDI make the claim that Acadia’s growth policies are the biggest source of the housing crisis?

In the Airdna’s rankings released this week of Ellsworth as the second hottest short-term vacation rental market in the United States, it stated:

“What truly sets Ellsworth apart is its proximity to Acadia National Park. The park is a natural wonder where visitors can explore rugged coastlines, hike scenic trails, and bask in the beauty of Cadillac Mountain, the first place in the U.S. to see the sunrise.”

Stiles and Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider gave updates at the meeting on the progress being made to house its seasonal workers.

But does it benefit MDI residents for the park’s concessionaires to be gobbling up residential housing?

Last November Bar Harbor councilor Gary Friedmann called out the park’s principal concessionaire for displacing residents at the former Compass Harbor apartments with its own seasonal workers, much like other tourism businesses which he also called out.

Some of the park’s other claims ring hollow, such as its continued self congratulation to have donated 55 acres of parkland on Town Hill for workforce housing for Bar Harbor and itself.

That land was deemed unfeasible for a trash transfer station. Bar Harbor planner Cali Martinez, who is managing the project, said it is in a “very preliminary stage” and she had no idea how many housing units can be built there given its topography and wetlands.

She said she and the park are trying to figure how their relationship will work.

At the advisory commission meeting, one member urged the park service to consider donating more land for housing development.

“This is directed specifically to the Congressional representatives here. I think the law should be changed so that parks could in fact donate land to a local entity that does affordable housing. I think that we are making a big mistake here by not opening up parkland to being able to donate massive acreage.”

MDI has two such opportunities made possible by unrelated projects in Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor.

The high school trustees have asked the Town of Mount Desert to consider extending its sewers in Somesville to service the school which has escalating waste water challenges. Public Works director Brian Henkel said the Somesville plant was built with plenty of redundancies and could easily handle the capacity.

Guess what is even closer to the Somesville plant than the high school? A large parcel owned by Acadia National Park at the corner of Rtes. 233 and 198 which is not a well-trafficked part of the park.

Similarly in Southwest Harbor, the proposed $27 million upgrade to its sewer plant will give the town “ample room for expansion, especially once the plant is upgraded,” said Steve Kenney, director of water and sewer. The sewer lines on Freeman Ridge are several hundred yards away from the eastern edge of the park.

These would make for much better locations for housing than the 55-acre parcel in Town Hill which has limiting factors.

Mount Desert is asking for a sliver of 3,000 square feet to make good on a historically troubled past with the park.

The park and FOA are not endearing themselves to island people. Here is a chance to reverse past wrongs.

Gun shots at Otter Creek firing range ‘grotesque’ abuse of park’s privilege

The white rectangle in the above map next to the Blackwoods Campground is a firing range where rangers are required to train on multiple weapons. The range is shared with the local constabulary.

Otter Creek resident Mike Olson said at the park’s advisory commission meeting that the park’s use of the firing range is “grotesque” and that the gunshots could be heard as far away as Seal Harbor. Olson said he has seen veterans take cover when they heard the gun shots.

Advisory commissioner Kendall Davis of Mount Desert added that he thought the berm at the end of the range was insufficient protection for hikers who might wander into the area.

Chief Ranger Darren Belskis said it was impractical to send rangers to the indoor range in North Ellsworth.

One ranger told the QSJ that he only heard of the citizens’ concerns this week even though they have been using the range for 40 years.

“Responding to active shooter incidents is the primary thought in every law enforcement officer's mind,” he said.

“If we don't have a place to train locally, the agencies do not have the budget to send officers across the state, or out of state to practice the skills to defend the lives of people that depend on their response.”

The protestation over the firing range is symptomatic of the escalating tension between citizens, local authorities and park officials who seem only to delight in the record number of visitors to the park no matter what the impact of such an influx.

Senior park staff have imbedded themselves in the politics of Bar Harbor to encourage growth of tourism, such as its membership on Bar Harbor’s now defunct cruise ship committee and its parks and recreation committee. The vice president of conservation for Friends of Acadia is a board member of the BH Chamber of Commerce, which is suing local taxpayers for their cap on cruise ship visitation.

This week’s meeting of the advisory commission exposed the park for what it really is - the biggest player in the island’s tourism oligopoly, its promise of sustainability to protect the natural state of the park ringing false while allowing uncontrolled use of the island by hordes of tourists.