Acadia National Park is facing a worker shortage as the park’s busiest season kicks off.
The park says that it has hired 120 of the 150 seasonal workers that it typically hires for the summer season, according to the MDIslander. Part of the shortage is being attributed to a lack of affordable housing, the newspaper reported.
So far, the park is short on fee collectors, interpretive park rangers, law enforcement rangers and its trail crew members. Acadia also is lacking lifeguards at Sand Beach and Echo Lake at this time, according to park officials.
Acadia provides 75 seasonal employee housing berths, but a lack of affordable housing on the island has prompted the park to seek development of a 50-acre parcel into workforce housing.
Last summer was the busiest tourist season that Acadia had ever recorded, and this summer is expected to be just as busy, if not busier than last year.
