Behind the Scenes: Acadia National Park Superintendent Interview

Happy Tuesday! Today we dropped an episode with Acadia Superintendent, Kevin Schneider, yeehaw!! Talking about Acadia has me dreaming about early morning blueberry pancakes in Bar Harbor 🤤 Listen NOW on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts 🪩🎉 

We are back with my top three moments from the interview, three new things I learned from Kevin and three new facts about Acadia National Park 🤠.

Top 3 Moments From Interview

1. Kevin & I bonding over our love for skiing. Kevin’s favorite way to spend time in Acadia is by skate skiing (a type of Nordic cross country skiing) on the carriage roads in the park. Listen here.

2. Learning about the Teacher Ranger Teacher program (a national program with its own flare at Acadia) that enables teachers to be a ranger for the summer & hearing about the inspiration they bring to Acadia. Listen here.

3. The amazing quotes & one-liners Kevin dropped throughout our conversation

   • “If I worry about what's happening today, I'm not doing my job. I really have to be thinking about what's going to happen in Acadia for the next 10, 20, 30 years out.“

   • “You know, we're in this business forever, so we have to have that long-term outlook.”

   • “I think that as a manager, its really important that I’m also a visitor of the parks”

3 Things I Learned Interviewing Kevin

• The Student Conservation Association (listen to the episode to hear how Kevin had to go to the library —gasp— to research the different national parks) which enables high school students to work at National Parks building out trails (wish I knew about this in high school but also don’t think I was tough enough for it then 🤔)

• 20,000 year old human footprints were discovered at White Sands National Park (when Kevin was Superintendent) that essentially rewrote the story of human history in North America. Listen here.

• Great American Outdoors Act: In Kevin’s words, “one of the most important laws we’ve seen get passed by Congress since the 60s”. It funded a huge investment in deferred maintenance across the entire Park Service. See how Acadia is using its funds here.

3 Fun & Interesting Facts About Acadia

1. An eroded shipwreck was discovered in the aftermath of a storm days before Kevin & I’s interview. Checking out a shipwreck, just another day in the life as Acadia Superintendent

2. Acadia was the first national park in the country to have their whole trail system identified as being historic. This is because many of the trails were created during the Rusticator Era (which I learned was in the late 1800s when families began to come spend long summers on the coast of Maine, sounds dreamy).

3. Bar Harbor being the popular (& expensive) town it is has made it hard for employees to afford housing. Due to these challenges, Acadia is in the midst of “a once in a generation opportunity to put some new housing units onto the landscape for our staff” - Kevin

Maddie’s Outdoor Obsessions

This section will always highlight my favorite picks from the past week in the outdoor & adventure world

• Helinox Chair Zero: MY FAVORITE BACKPACKING CHAIR EVER. Ask any of my friends & they’ll confirm I will use any excuse to bring it places. Waiting in line for Broadway tickets? ✅ Watching my friends play tennis? ✅ On any length backpacking trip? ✅ Car camping? ✅

• GearJunkie Podcast: I came across the GearJunkie (known for its rad gear reviews & buying guides) podcast last week, hosted by their Editor-in-Chief, Adam Ruggiero. I really like his conversation style, especially given I seem to fly through the 1h30m episodes. Some that I’ve listened to thus far: Athletic Brewing Co (Non-Alcoholic Beer) & the Mountain Gazette owner/Editor-in-chief.

• Mountain Gazette: A bi-annual publication that I’ve been debating signing up for for the past few weeks, regretting that I didn’t sign up soon enough to get mountain gazette 200 because each print is a limited edition. Listening to the GearJunkie episode with MG’s Editor-in-Chief sold me to sign up (yes, I literally just subscribed, proof below. I can’t wait for the Spring issue!!!)

WRTP Updates

• I’M GOING TO SXSW!!! I got ‘media passes’ to attend the National Park Foundation & National Park Service discussions 😍😍. As a local Austinite, I’ve never actually been to SXSW so am stoked!! Stay tuned for recaps of all NPF/NPS sessions!!

• I’m going to be getting more creative on Instagram with National Park related videos in an effort to expand my reach so more people can hear the stories of our superintendents. These will start rolling out March 1st — have any feedback? Drop me a line.

K thx for making it this far, love y’all — see you in two Tuesdays !!

Maddie

p.s. Get your friends to sign up for the newsletter at whorunsthispark.com/newsletter.