Acadia Partners Blog

We often make the case for conservation by arguing that conservation brings benefits to mankind. This may be true, but it also takes us away from what may be the real work that needs to be done, which is to develop a “land ethic.” Focusing on the utility of Acadia National Park and of other conserved places reinforces the idea that the Park and the animals and plants that live there are just property and that our relationship to the Park, as Aldo Leopold put it, “is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations.” This essay argues for a deeper, more reciprocal relationship with nature, and for a different rationale for conservation.

This summer I am spending part of each day working out of the Research Building at SERC. The Park and Acadia Partners have just opened this building up this year for the summer season, and what is going on here is exciting. The building is the daily workspace of a group of scientists and students doing interesting work that is good for the Park, good for the researchers, and ultimately good for the community. This post takes a look at what is going on and at why it is important.

I live in a one species town (it’s a one horse town too, but that’s a different story). The species is lobster and it is estimated to account for about half of all income earned in Winter Harbor and the surrounding community … but it wasn’t always this way

Acadia Partner’s mission, when rendered down to its core, might be as simple as “Protect the Park.” But I often find it difficult to reduce our mission to a single, pithy phrase. In part this is because the scientific, resource management, and socio-economic issues related to our mission are dynamic, diverse and complex […]

This is the last of a series of three short writings that talk about Acadia Partners’ mission. The first piece focused on the place where Acadia Partners is located, since Acadia Partners’ mission is rooted in the importance of place. The second installment looked at the question of who we have to thank for preserving this place and keeping it available to the public. This final segment looks at Acadia Partners’ role in continuing the work, started over 100 years ago, to protect this place for future generations.

This is the second of a series of three short writings that talk about Acadia Partners’ mission. The first piece focused on the place where Acadia Partners is located, since Acadia Partners’ mission is rooted in the importance of place. This second installment looks at the question of who we have to thank for preserving this place and keeping it available to the public.

This is the first of a series of three short writings that talk about Acadia Partners’ mission. This first piece focuses on the place where Acadia Partners is located, since Acadia Partners’ mission is rooted in the importance of place.

Yesterday I told the story behind the decision that Gouldsboro needs to make about its two bronze bells. Now let’s have a look at how the town is making the decision. The approach grows out of traditions here in Maine. It touches on the values underlying the mission at Acadia Partners.

The question of how communities go about making decisions is central to our work at Acadia Partners and SERC. Gouldsboro is faced with a decision about two bells. This decision is a good example–and a good jumping off point–to use in some broader thinking about how communities make decisions. But, first, I need to tell you about the bells, and about hurricanes and shipwrecks. It is a story that stretches back 140 years.