MOUNT DESERT-- You'd never know the trees were gone, unless you knew where to look, and in so doing, you'd find a vista that you didn't know existed. In May 1995, students from the University of Maine, opened scenic vistas overlooking Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island. Led by UM instructors, the students removed trees along the carriage road linking Wildwood Stables and the Jordan Pond Gatehouse. Each May, the forestry students entering their first or third summers at UM must attend a three-week camp. The curriculum differs between the classes, but incorporates on-the-job training at various sites in Maine. Since 1990, Acadia National Park has been one such site. Participating students must pass a first-aid and CPR course in April. The summer camp, requisite for graduation, opens at UM with training in chainsaw safety, fire suppression, and skidder operations. By the second week, students move to their job sites.

While opening a scenic vista in Acadia National Park last May,  Louis Morin (left), a forest-resources instructor at the University of Maine,  examines a red spruce cutting with forestry students.

In 1991, the Department of the Interior decided to reconstruct the carriage roads within the national park. Road maintenance had been neglected since John D. Rockefeller Jr. completed the system in the 1940's.

Since then, trees had grown up to block many vistas personally developed by Rockefeller. Consultants reviewed relevant historical documents and photographs to learn how the vistas had changed. Working with this information, ANP staff then selected certain vistas to be reopened. The work would be tricky, often involving sites with steep slopes and thin soil. Seeking expert advice, the ANP staff contacted the university, and the UM forestry faculty agreed to help the National Park Service reopen the vistas. In May 1994, for example, forestry students removed trees to open the view from Cliffside Bridge near the Jordan Pond House. Students did not chainsaw the site willy-nilly; park personnel and consultants carefully marked each tree to be cut. About 30 forestry students arrived at Acadia in May 1995. While staying at the Blackwoods Campground, they divided into teams to work at different sites in the national park. Their education included: Learning how to use the Global Positioning System to help mark the park boundaries; Determining where beavers might build a dam, then inventorying existing tree species to learn if each site would be desirable to beavers; Mapping potentially hazardous trees at Blackwoods Campground.

Last May (1994), University of Maine forestry students opened a vista along the carriage road between the  Jordan Pond Gatehouse and the Wildwood Stables  in Acadia National Park. The Vista overlooks Seal Harbor and the distant Cranberry Isles.

Each team spent time working on the two sites overlooking Seal Harbor. Kim Adler, a forest technician with the Wood Products Lab, and Louis Morin, a UM instructor of forest resources, worked with the students.

The carriage road that originates at the Jordan Pond Gatehouse and runs to Bubble Pond gradually climbs uphill, shouldering a steepening slope below the Triad. The UM students worked near the road's crown between the gatehouse and Wildwood Stables, accessible by an intersecting entrance with the road.

Mature hardwoods and softwoods--primarily maple, beech, and red spruce--dominated the slope below the carriage road. Trees varied in age and diameter, and the thick growth effectively blocked the seaward scenery. The park service considered this a Category 5 vista, high on the list to be opened.

On a hot May afternoon, the sun beat through the leafy canopy as mosquitoes harassed the sweat-streaked students. A UM-designed and -built portable tower, its bright orange paint contrasting sharply with an adjacent rocky outcropping, stood along the inside curve of the trail. Wires ran in several directions from the raised tower.

Dimished by the slope and the heavy growth, voices carried softly across the terrain as the students pushed to finish the project. The seven- or eight-person teams had spent one day apiece at the site. The project, begun six days earlier, would end today.

Noticeably limping, Adler toured the job site and explained how the vistas had been opened. He had slightly injured a foot earlier during the summer camp.

As they did at Cliffside Bridge, UM students used a cable-logging system to remove felled trees from the slope. The self-propelled portable tower anchored the upper end. Several cables were attached to the tower to stabilize it. Another cable ran downhill to the actual job site. Attached to this cable was a carriage resembling the cab on an aerial tram. From this hung the cables to which the students fastened the cut logs. Wearing the appropriate safety gear, UM students used chainsaws to cut the marked trees. After delimbing each tree and cutting it into 4-foot bolts, the students sent everything uphill via the cable-mounted carriage. The National Park Service took some bolts for use as free firewood in its campgrounds, and the students chipped the limbs and remaining wood. They took out 2 1/2 truckloads of chips with a truck and chipper provided by the NPS, Adler said. The students opened up one vista, then "moved 50 yards up the road to work on the other," he said. They worked carefully to avoid injury and to reduce any potential damage to the site. "We're" teaching them that we can do a timber removal while minimizing the damage to the terrain," Morin said after climbing upslope to the road. He took off his hard hat, wiped his forehead, and slid the hat over his head.

When working on steep slopes in Acadia National Park, UM forestry students used a portable tower to cable  felled logs uphill to a carriage road.

We had a heavy downpour here yesterday. There's no sign of any damage to the slope...There's a lot of teaching going on here. They learn to work as a team, that it requires a lot of coordination on a successful yarding project.

From the coping stones at road edge, the vista rolled downhill through the trees to encompass Day Mountain to the east and Crowninshield Point and Great and Little Cranberry islands to the south. The leaf-strewn slope indicated no damage from logging operations.

The students spent the late afternoon removing cables and breaking down the tower. ANP staffers had invited the students and faculty to a cookout. Despite their desire to return to camp and clean up, the students worked methodically taking no shortcuts.

Text and Photos by Brian Swartz, Advertising Staff Editor, Bangor Daily News
Bangor Daily News, Thursday, October 19, 1995. Reprinted with permission.