Eric Stiles, president & CEO of Friends of Acadia, has presided over big expansion of housing for Acadia National Park’s seasonal workforce. (Photo provided by Friends of Acadia)
The Friends of Acadia charity is helping advance some major projects at Acadia National Park. The philanthropic group is led by Eric Stiles, who started as president and CEO of Friends of Acadia in July 2022. Formerly leader at New Jersey Audubon, Stiles lives in Bar Harbor with his family including wife Lydia, a teacher at Mount Desert Island High School. Stiles spoke with Acadia On My Mind about a wide variety of issues, including the record-long federal government shutdown, an expansion of housing for seasonal workers at Acadia National Park, the Trump administration’s treatment of federal employees and major projects at Acadia such as the initially estimated $850,000 East-West Connector Trail on Cadillac Mountain, called a “visionary project” by FOA. Here are edited questions and responses:
Q. No entrance pass was required during the federal government shutdown that ended Nov. 12, and the park lost a significant amount of entrance fees that normally would have been collected during October and part of November. Entrance fees could be used on major projects such as the Cadillac East-West Connector Trail, considered a visionary project by FOA.
ERIC STILES: You can’t make up for the lost visitor fees. The park may have lost $1.7 to $1.8 million in entrance fees considering it collected $1.5 million in October 2024 and there was a 5 percent increase in visits this October and fees were not collected during two weeks in November. That is big money. Eighty percent of those fees would have remained at the park to fund visitor service programs, personnel and infrastructure projects. In addition, the staff that worked during the shutdown were largely being paid from prior entrance fee revenue. The park was spending its existing kitty at a much higher rate while starving revenue that would be important for the future. It’s a double whammy.
