Blixa Brann, Peter J Miano

Jul 13, 2025

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SFOA IS FILLED WITH EXCITEMENT FOR KIDS AND IT NEEDS OUR SUPPORT

Dear readers,

Hi, I’m Blixa. I have been a camper at SFOA for three years now, and without a doubt, it’s my favorite camp ever. I have always liked doing live action role-play, hanging out with friends, and painting. In fact, as I am writing this, I am covered in blue paint that I used to paint a papier-mâché globe.

Days like today fill me with joy. Today I had fun playing with friends, making armor, painting, and making a mobile for my baby brother.

SFOA is filled with excitement each year. It costs a lot to run camp, which is why you should donate to SFOA so there can be even more fun stuff and allow more kids to come. They are giving a lucky donor an e-bike. To be able to donate and get your ticket, go to sfoamaine.org/donate.

Blixa Brann

Bar Harbor

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Question Authority

When I was a kid, I had a t-shirt that proclaimed in bold lettering: Question Authority. That slogan became a habit for me. It is generally helpful, although sometimes disturbing.

It is remarkable how much alleged fact turns out to be pure fiction when it is exposed to the light of even mildly critical scrutiny. In the few short years that I have lived in Bar Harbor, observing and learning about how things work, I’ve come across a number of widely held views and positions, often assumed or taken as fact, that turn out to have little, if any evidence to support them. Some are harmless. Others are held by influencers and policy makers and that is where the trouble starts.

Take, for example, the widely held notion that each year millions of tourists descend upon Mt. Desert Island. I’ve heard citizens state with rock hard confidence that that number is as high as five million tourists annually. Four million visitors annually is frequently cited in print, verbally in town meetings, and in casual conversations among citizens.

According to the Bar Harbor Story (13 March 2025), one full time, Bar Harbor employee asserted in a hearing in Augusta that 3.5 million tourists visit Bar Harbor each year. These are huge numbers. These are alarming numbers. What happens, however, when we ask for evidence? The answer is equally alarming. The Town of Bar Harbor is embarking on a conversation about “sustainable tourism.” This is something that we can all get behind. A task force has been selected. I raise the issue of accurate data, because sustainable tourism is driven by evidence, not impressions and anecdotes. The problem is evidence is hard to find.

It turns out that policy makers, influencers and full-time professionals frequently misinterpret Acadia National Park statistics. The Park Service frequently cites the number of visits, lately in the neighborhood of 4.3 million visits per year. However, the Park Service carefully avoids quoting the number of visitors. While it is very difficult to estimate the number of visits, it is even more difficult to calculate the number of visitors. One visitor might account for 1, 5 or maybe 10 visits.

No one really knows, but ANP converts the number of visits to the number of visitors using two different methods, both of which can only produce tentative conclusions. Those tentative conclusions indicate that the actual number of visitors to ANP is nearer to 1 million visitors.

What difference does it make? Who cares? Well, maybe it doesn’t matter, because no matter the number, the volume of tourists has become uncomfortable for many. Some call it unsustainable.

On the other hand, it turns out that it makes a big difference. Credibility matters. If popular opinion is misinformed on this one issue, how misinformed might it be on other issues? When misinformation is used by professionals and policy makers to guide policy making, it matters even more. Misinformed policy makers cannot produce informed policies. If they state as uncontested fact, numbers that are wildly distorted, don’t we have to wonder what else they don’t know?

Credibility matters. How do I believe you on anything when you can’t cite sources, when there is no objective data? Yet, sustainable tourism is always evidence based. In the absence of actual evidence, the conversation devolves into sharing of hunches, impression, anecdotes. I’ve heard town councilors use the phrase, “Look at Ledgelawn,” to support their alarm about rampant tourism. “Look at Ledgelawn” is not a metric. It is not evidence. It is an anecdote. It expresses a hunch in search of support, but it is not a metric.

What if similar reasoning is used in other important conversations? For example, Do we have the metrics to support the widespread impression that short term rentals are bad, resulting in higher property values and reduction of available housing? If you think you do, then you have information that the Town of Bar Harbor itself does not have. If you do have such actual information as opposed to impressions, instincts, and hunches, then you have information that our most gifted, competent and impressive town professionals don’t have themselves. Sustainable tourism is a slogan in search of data that is very difficult to find.

Peter J Miano

Bar Harbor