Friends of Acadia

This independent nonprofit organization of 3,000 members, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Bar Harbor, strives to protect Acadia National Park  “beyond what the government can do,” in their words, by:
  • Making crucial conservation grants to the park and communities;
  • Recruiting and leading a corps of dedicated volunteers
  • Defending the area against threats
  • Advocating for Acadia before Congress and the Maine legislature.
The Friends’s stewardship of Acadia involves a wide variety of contributions including Acadia Trails Forever, the Acadia Youth Conservation Corps, their Carriage Roads endowment, the Island Explorer bus system, the Peregrine Falcon/Hawk Watch program, Ridge Runners, wheelchair-accessible horse-drawn carriages, and the Village Connector Trails.
Every year, as well, over 2,000 volunteers from the organization contribute more than 14,000 hours of work in the national park, clearing drainage along carriage roads to reduce erosion, re-opening and maintaining vistas, cutting along park boundaries for fire protection, and reconstructing existing and abandoned trails.
To learn more about Friends of Acadia, please visit their website.
Header Image Courtesy of Friends of Acadia