Acadia National Park is overflowing with a near-record number visitors again this summer, but a hiring freeze and funding crisis at the NPS during the Trump administration left the Maine park short-staffed this summer and struggling to stop bad behaviors by visitors.

According to a little-noticed report by the National Park Service, Acadia has seen a nearly 30 percent decrease in seasonal staffing levels over the past decade, with a lack of affordable summer housing a key factor. People said they rarely see rangers on the trails or carriage roads, while some said the staff is overburdened with emergencies and other visitor services like fee collections and providing information at a new welcome center in Trenton.

The National Park Service in Washington did not respond to our detailed questions via email, but did issue a statement.

“The National Park Service continually evaluates staffing and budget needs at Acadia National Park to ensure we can meet our core mission of protecting resources and providing safe, high-quality experiences for visitors,” the statement said. “While we don’t have specifics to share, Acadia National Park remains committed to using resources responsibly and prioritizing essential services that support visitor safety and the long-term stewardship of the park.”

Funding crisis at NPS cuts ranger presence on trails

Are the staff cuts and a funding crisis at the NPS leaving Acadia too short of people to provide much of a ranger presence on the trails and carriage roads?

Acadia has been hampered by disrespectful behaviors like loose dogs; speeding bicyclists on the carriage roads who rarely announce themselves to hikers; wear and tear on the carriage roads from e-bikes; litter; illegal parking; rock stacking; graffiti; vandalized cairns, or stone trail markers; and people wading or dipping in reservoirs, visitors told us. Overcrowding is continuing to trouble popular areas.

Brandy Alexander of Columbus, OH, said “park etiquette was severely lacking by both adults and kids” during her visit to Acadia with a friend from June 28 to July 3. She said she saw teens netting frogs at Jordan Pond and leaving with pine cones and rocks and people preparing to swim in Bubble Pond until she warned them it is a reservoir.

“I don’t recall seeing a ranger on any of the trails,” Alexander, a classroom assistant in math and science for a local school district, told us. “The one time I did see a park employee – I assume it was a ranger – was during a medical emergency on top of Gorham.”

She said she was surprised she basically only saw rangers at Acadia at visitor centers and the entrance booths for fee collections. While visiting Arches and Canyonlands in June of 2025, she saw several rangers out checking roads, trails and picnic areas throughout the day.

Vehicle reservation on Cadillac Mountain did not guarantee spot

Acadia has sometimes been so crowded that at least one visitor, Carmen Hail Smith, in July was shut out of parking atop Cadillac even though she had a vehicle reservation. Visits to Acadia through August are only 2 percent less than the same period during 2025, which set a record of 4.079 million.

Smith, an elementary math teacher north of Atlanta, GA, she said she didn’t know one way or another if there was a ranger on top of Cadillac to help.

“We were frustrated with the parking situation because we drove around and around for a good 15-20 minutes before we decided to try driving back down the mountain. But then we found the perfect spot (in a pull-off spot) so we were the lucky ones. It was almost like our own private sunset.”

Amy Faber of Ellsworth, a longtime hiker and bicyclist in the park, said “bad behavior is everywhere” in Acadia including in early June when she photographed a teenager and an adult wading in Bubble Pond, a reservoir, while another teen was putting her shoes back on. In order to reach the pond, the people needed to walk by a sign declaring the pond is a public water supply and that swimming and wading is strictly prohibited, she added.

Biking has definitely increased on the carriage roads, she said. E-bikes were approved in 2019 and have proliferated at Acadia National Park, sometimes crowding the historic carriage roads and the Hulls Cove Visitor Center parking lot, where rental companies drop off bikes for customers.

Reckless bike riding on the carriage roads

One day in July, “I actually had to yell at two people just before the Cobblestone Bridge to stop their bikes,’’ Faber said. “They were flying down the hill and the horse-drawn carriage ride was… [going] up the hill. The bikes did not look like they were planning to stop.”

Maureen Fournier, a former ranger at Acadia who volunteers at the park to repair cairns, said her route to monitor the cairns requires about a half mile walk on a carriage road. The walk can be unpleasant and potentially unsafe because of what she observes as an increasing number of cyclists, mostly riding e-bikes, on the carriage road.

Speed is the No. 1 concern, she said.

“Too often I have to remind people to slow down and to announce  “On your left” when coming up from behind me,” Fournier said. “I am in volunteer uniform and some do slow down when I ask them to, and say “OK” when I ask them to announce themselves to walkers…. But then I have a few times encountered an annoyed cyclist who questions me or just ignores me. I don’t know how often volunteers or rangers patrol the carriage roads on bikes but it seems to me, more presence would be useful…and more education possibly from the bike shop.”

Angie Bouchard, a retired educator from Bar Harbor, said increasing e-bike use is heavily eroding certain carriage roads like the hill toward Witch Hole Pond that leaves from the Hulls Cove Visitor Center, where many rental businesses start operating at 8 am. She said the wear and tear suggests that some sections like the Witch Hole Pond loop might need to be graded especially for e-bikes, much like the area around Wildwood Stables is graded specifically for carriages and horses.

The carriage roads are seeing increased use from e-bikes, and also are absorbing extra pressure because e-bikes weigh more than a traditional bike, added Bouchard, who likes to hike on the carriage roads.

“The hills used to limit riders to those who were physically fit enough to get up the hills,” she added. “Now everyone 12 and over can access carriage roads and for longer distances at a time, which also adds to wear.”

Longtime ranger-guided tours canceled to Baker Island and Islesford

While the Trump administration says it is prioritizing visitor services during the funding crisis at the NPS, the National Park Service has also quietly canceled popular longtime ranger-guided boat tours to Baker Island and Islesford.

Todd Martin, northeast senior program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said Acadia National Park is feeling the effects of a funding crisis at the NPS.

“They are short-staffed,” Martin said outside the Hulls Cove Visitor Center during a national “Day of Action” to support the NPS on its 110th anniversary on Aug. 25. “The park rangers here are doing the work of 2 or 3 other rangers. There are literally trained biologists, archeologists who are instead cleaning bathrooms, emptying trash cans and directing traffic because the park is so short-staffed.”

“The National Park Service is significantly underfunded,” he said. “The parks are funded by Congress and the park service’s budget has not kept up with the needs. The park service budget has been flat or has been cut over the last several years. The park service has had to do more with less.”

In 2025, during the first year of Trump’s second administration, the National Parks Conservation Association said “the National Park Service has lost more than 4,000 permanent staff – putting visitor safety and experiences at risk.” Mass terminations, early retirements and deferred resignations are reasons for the cuts, the NPCA said.

Because of the staffing and funding crisis at the NPS, some key jobs at Acadia are being left unfilled, Martin said.

Vacant positions and sharp decrease in seasonal staff at Acadia

There are about 60 vacant full-time positions at Acadia, including researchers like biologists and naturalists, Martin added. Some of the jobs have recently been filled, but it takes a very long time for them to go through a review in Washington.

“It is very challenging for the parks to hire anybody right now,” he added. “The human resource staff at the park service was decimated. There isn’t anybody to do the hiring process.”

Seasonal employees, who generally work six months, are critical at national parks. Acadia has suffered a 29 percent decrease in seasonal staffing levels since 2016, largely because of the high cost of summer rentals on Mount Desert Island, according to a report by the NPS.

Acadia hired about 115 seasonal employees this year, according to Martin of the NPCA. That’s the same as 2023 and 2024 and far less than authorized. In 2025, Acadia only hired about 85 seasonal employees, because hiring for seasonal workers was initially included in Trump’s hiring freeze and delayed by six weeks, Martin told us. In the past, Acadia has attempted to hire between 150 to 175 seasonal employees each year, a park spokeswoman told us in 2024.

In addition to budget cuts, Acadia National Park lost about $1.5 million in entrance fees last year during the 43-day federal government shutdown when entrance fees were suspended, according to Eric Stiles, CEO and president of the non-profit Friends of Acadia. Congress never made national parks whole for the lost fee revenues, he added.

“That will have significant impacts on what the park can do,” Stiles said in an interview. “Those revenues are lost.”

Public affairs officers eliminated at all national parks

Stiles said the Trump administration still has general a hiring freeze in place for the NPS. Staff is being reduced largely through attrition, he said. If people retire or resign, approval of leadership in Washington is needed for those positions to be refilled, he said.

Acadia is currently below full staffing, Stiles said.  “I can’t tell you exactly which positions by function (are vacant) within Acadia National Park. I think that is something that should be publicly available.”

In a move to save money, the Trump administration this summer also eliminated public affairs officers at Acadia and other national parks and ordered NPS employees at all parks not to speak with the media, said Martin of the NPCA.

“All communications are being funneled to the Washington office and all external communications need to be approved by the Washington office before they go out to the public,” said Martin of the NPCA. “The administration has put a muzzle on the park service staff and is trying to control all the messaging.”

The Department of Interior also failed to publish legal notifications in the Federal Register for meetings of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, causing three out of the past five meetings to be canceled. Months after botching the advance notices, the Department of Interior finally published a notice for a commission meeting, which would be the first in a year, for 1 pm Monday, Sept. 14, at the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel & Event Center in Bar Harbor.

Pearl Barto of Winter Harbor, a member of the commission, said the public had “no opportunity” to hear from NPS leaders when the commission meetings were cancelled.

When asked if she was disappointed the meetings were nixed, she said, “I don’t know if disappointed is the right word. I’m sure the National Park Service has more concerns than I do.”

Absent a public affairs officer, the park did not issue a press release all summer until Sept. 4 to announce the commission meeting.

Annual operating budgets at national parks kept under wraps

The Trump administration’s move to restrict public information about national parks even extends to the budget. In an under-the-radar move, the administration, in its annual budget justifications report, ended the longtime NPS practice of releasing numbers for annual operating budgets and capital projects for individual national parks and instead consolidated all the items into one line item.

Martin said the NPCA is concerned that it could be easier for the Trump administration to divert money from the NPS if individual budgets for the parks are eliminated. He said that Acadia’s annual budget, basically flat for several years, is about $10 million.

Martin said the park collects another $8 to $9 million a year in annual revenues from park entrance fees, helping fund park improvements, visitor services and the fare-free Island Explorer.

Under federal law, Acadia and other parks that collect entrance fees retain 80 percent of the fees with 20 percent traditionally going to parks without fees. However, Martin said, staff at Acadia have told him the park keeps closer to 65 to 70 percent of fees.

Early this year, President Trump proposed $1 billion cut to the National Park Service for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 after deep reductions to the NPS staff during the first year of his second administration. In its budget message, the Trump-led NPS said it is “committed to providing a streamlined and effective government to the American taxpayer.”

Visitors said they are concerned that America’s “best idea” is being shortchanged.

“Our national parks are an amazing resource,” said Joel Rosch, a retired public policy college professor from Raleigh, NC, during a stop from hiking on the Seaside Path at Acadia National Park with his wife, Carol Vatz, a retired psychologist. “It’s penny-wise and pound-foolish not to fully fund the maintenance of our parks.”

“My overall feeling and opinion of the National Park Service budget is that it is really devastating to the experience of tourists and local people,” added Timothy Maxwell, a chef from Houston, TX, at Seal Harbor Beach just outside Acadia.

Washington politicians cut NPS budget and staff

In the current fiscal year, after the government shutdown, Congress and the president approved an NPS budget of $3.267 billion, or 2 percent less than the prior fiscal year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in Washington.

NPS’s full time staff were in the 18,000 to 20,000 range for most of the past decade, but declined to about 16,000 for 2026, the CRS reported.

For the upcoming fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the House of Representatives rejected the president’s proposed $1 billion cut and approved $3.225 billion for the NPS, 1 percent less than this year and 46 percent more than proposed by the Trump administration, the Research Service reported. The House did cut NPS historic preservation grants by 10 percent to $163.7 million. The Senate has yet to act on the 2027 NPS budget.

In the longer term, NPS’s current budget of $3.27 billion is 11 percent higher than 2017 in nominal dollars but 16 percent lower in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the Congressional Research Service.  The combined NPS funding for regular and deferred maintenance decreased over the decade by an estimated 21 percent in inflation-adjusted terms, the service said in a report on July 6.

Park visitors said they are concerned that the lack of staff is making it easier for some to break rules.

Dogs run on Sand Beach in violation of Acadia summer rules

Wendy Newell Dyer, an educator and writer from Jonesport, said she saw at least a half dozen dogs on Sand Beach, including one that growled while confronting another, during a hike in late August, another unleashed dog on the Great Head Trail and a poop bag. A longtime dog owner herself, she noted that the dogs on Sand Beach were leashed but under park rules, dogs are banned from Sand Beach from mid-June to early September.

She saw two separate cars driving the wrong way on the one-way Schoodic Loop Road about a week ago and then also saw four unleashed dogs on the Anvil Trail on Labor Day in Schoodic.

She said she didn’t see any rangers either day.

“This is the land of my ancestors which we have walked on for thousands and thousands of years,” said Newell Dyer, a Passamaquoddy tribal citizen who is of Penobscot descent. “This land is sacred to us. If you come to Maine and go into the park, follow the rules.”

Rangers at Acadia are especially overextended during the busy summer months.

During a meeting of volunteers who maintain Acadia’s historic-style cairns, or stone trail markers, a leader of the Friends of Acadia told the group that the park averages three medical emergencies a day during July and August, said Kevin Young, a volunteer who was at the meeting. “Some days are worse,” Young said. “Those take multiple rangers.”

“Right now, the rangers are spending all day every day responding to accidents and medical emergencies,” another leader of Friends of Acadia said on the Acadia National Park Hiking Facebook group in mid-August.

Key public access eliminated to Baker Island

The park this year for the first full season also staffed rangers at information counters at the Acadia Gateway Center, a new state-owned intermodal transit and welcome center off Route 3 in Trenton. When we visited the afternoon of Aug. 25, the Gateway Center was nearly empty but three rangers were stationed there. On the same day, 11 miles south, there were lines of people seeking information at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center in Bar Harbor.

Facing reduced staffing, the park has not restored some cuts made in prior years such as the closure of the Village Green Information Center after 2019. The park still does not service people who arrive late at campgrounds, for example, and it still closes Cadillac Mountain at 9 pm. During 2024, when the park hired the same number of seasonal rangers as this year, the Trail Crew was dramatically short on seasonal staff and the park could only hire half its authorized number of seasonal fee staff.

Ranger-led boat tours to Baker Island and Islesford have also been eliminated. The NPS did not return an email asking why the ranger-led tours were abolished.

For many years ending in 2024, the Miss Samantha, operated by the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co., offered a five-hour boat cruise from Bar Harbor to Baker Island interpreted by an NPS park ranger. The ranger-narrated tour to Islesford aboard the Sea Princess, which leaves from Northeast Harbor, ended in 2026 also after many years, although the boat still takes visitors to the island.

At its 2026 annual benefit, the Friends of Acadia raised $400,000 to help restore the historic Baker Island Lighthouse. That money comes after a key public access to Baker Island – the ranger-led tour – was ended by the NPS.

Stiles, the CEO of Friends of Acadia, said he knew the ranger-led tours to Baker Island no longer take place but he doesn’t know why. The FOA supports ranger-led activities, Stiles said.

At the same time, the Baker Island Lighthouse requires urgent repairs, including cracking masonry, deteriorating exterior surfaces, and failing paint, to assure it survives for future generations to enjoy, Stiles said.

CEO at Friends of Acadia cites boost in housing

Regarding Acadia’s shortfall in seasonal rangers, Stiles said housing for seasonal employees is a main factor in a candidate’s decision to accept a job at the park.

Stiles acknowledged that new housing for seasonal employees in the recent past basically has not yet increased the number of seasonal employees hired annually at Acadia. However, he said the park will receive a “huge boost” in seasonal housing next year when 56 beds at Harden Farms off Kebo Street in Bar Harbor is projected to come on line for rent to park seasonal employees.

Harden Farms is currently under construction. The FOA has invested north of $16 million in housing for the park, he said.

Stiles said there is a big appetite among NPS seasonal employees for housing with “attainable” prices for rents, demonstrated by the newer housing being at full capacity, and the number of seasonal workers remaining stable, except for 2025.

“All of the seasonal housing that has been added is fully occupied, showing how critical that initiative has been in attracting really good staff,” Stiles said.

The new housing includes the Kingsleigh Inn in Southwest Harbor, for 10 employees, the 13-site White Birches RV camp in Southwest Harbor, six 2-bedroom townhouses in Trenton, with priority to Island Explorer bus drivers, and eight bedrooms at Dane Farm in Seal Harbor.

Friends of Acadia raised $10 million alone for Harden Farms and Dane Farm. The money unlocked another $21 million in federal matching funds and a $2 million grant from the National Park Foundation, according to a 2025 letter by Stiles.

As far as safety on the carriage roads, Stiles pointed out that Acadia’s carriage roads are limited to Class 1 e-bikes. That lower class has a motor that assists riders only when they pedal and stops assisting when the bike reaches 20 mph — the speed limit on the roads. Other rules require bikes to yield to all other users and keep right and warn others before passing on left.

Regarding e-bikes, Stiles said that each year among all people on bikes, the percent of people on e-bikes is increasing. He said roughly 10 percent of visitors to Acadia use the carriage roads.

Stiles said he would support requiring education for people who rent e-bikes, similar to a program he experienced during a visit with his wife to Zion National Park. Before they were able to use their rented e-bikes at Zion, they had to watch a 10-minute instructional video.

Stiles said the highest speeds reported in the park are from people using traditional bikes including lighter-weight carbon fiber bikes.

Bike rental companies, under terms of their permit from the park, are required to brief customers on rules of the carriage roads and safe operation, but a video is not mandated, according information on the NPS web site.

“The education is important for e-bikes. It is also really important for traditional bikes.”

“This an opportunity for us to educate and engage people about how to recreate responsibly and safely on the carriage roads. They are iconic. There are very few places in the country that have this space.”

New sign urged to curtail rock stacking on Bar Island

There is perhaps no more blatant rule breaking than rock stacking, which is plaguing national parks across the nation and is a violation of federal regulations that prohibit the disturbance, removal or possession of park resources.

About 200 rock stacks, some several feet high, stood for much of the summer on Bar Island, a direct violation of federal regulations that ban rock stacking in national parks. Spread out across the entrance to the island, the rock stacks impeded access to a popular hiking trail, created an eyesore and damaged natural habitat.

Summit stewards from the Friends of Acadia finally dismantled the rock stacks on Aug. 9, but only after Bar Harbor Town Councilor Earl Brechlin caught the attention of an NPS official when he complained and ran photos on his Facebook page.

Liz Kase of Bar Harbor said the massive rock stacking on Bar Island is heartbreaking.

Kase, a retiree, is a 35-year resident of Bridge Street, which provides access to the low-tide walk to Bar Island. She regularly dismantles rock stacks herself, clearing the illegal rock piles at low tide before crowds arrive.

An NPS sign saying “Do not remove or stack cobbles” stood for several years on Bar Island until 2022 when it was spray painted by a vandal and never replaced.

Kase said, “My question is, ‘Where is the sign that used to be there that said, ‘No stacking rocks,’ she asked. “Respectfully, there needs to be a sign.”

She said Bar Island is “the orphan child” of Acadia but she does not blame the NPS. “It’s especially upsetting because the park has been blocked from getting much needed funds,” Kase said.