In today’s Bangor Daily News, OpEd writer Rollin Thurlow, president of the Allagash Alliance Group, says that he has a different explanation as to why the drop in usage of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is three times that of any of the other two big parks, Acadia and Baxter. And what is his alternate view?
In the last six years, the usage of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area has had only a decrease of less than 9 percent, to 127,000. The number of long-term hikers on the Appalachian Trail has remained steady. The rugged Northern Forest Canoe Trail has opened from New York through northern New England and into Canada, and the Maine Woods Forever organization has opened the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail. The public is still seeking wilderness and extended canoe trips. If these hardy wilderness-based activities are attracting the public, why are they not coming to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway?
Mr. Thurlow asks a great question and goes on to make argument as to why he feels the way he does. I’m not here to dispute Mr. Thurlow’s opinion, although I may not agree with all of it. What I would like to do is offer an explanation that I’m sure he has thought of and probably neither of us have the resources to prove.
In Thurslow’s piece, he shares with readers about expanded opportunities for outdoor and wilderness seekers as you can see from the above taken from the OpEd. I’m willing to wager that the “type” of user who would use the AWW also would use the Appalachian Trail, The Northern Forest Canoe Trail, etc. I’m also willing to wager, and this isn’t something I’m pulling out of my hat, the number of people who are using such areas isn’t on the increase. At best it is holding steady but more than likely on the decline. We should also point out that probably the typical user to Acadia isn’t a typical user to the Allagash.
The ski industry nationwide has been faced with a similar dilemma for some time. There are only so many skiers and the industry struggled to find a way to increase those users. Their only saving grace has been the evolution of snowboarding. The problem the industry faced is that all ski areas were competing for the same group of skiers. What would Maine look like if it added one more major ski resort? Might I suggest that not only are the three parks, Allagash, Acadia and Baxter, competing for the same shrinking group of users, they are now competing with other outdoor opportunities such as the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.
Granted that might not fully explain a threefold drop compared to the other parks but I don’t think Thurlow can completely blame the management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway as such. If we are going to do that, then we should be comparing apples with apples and oranges with oranges. An experience on the AWW is far from similar to one at Acadia or Baxter for that matter.
There’s also a certain amount of math realization that should be taken into consideration. First off, there are far more visitors each year to Acadia than to the Allagash. At one time, and I don’t know if this is still true, Acadia was the most visited national park in American. In 2005, Acadia National Park received 2,051,484 recreational visits. Baxter had some 58,000 visitors in 2006. I don’t have numbers for the Allagash but I can assure you it is far less than either of these two.
A 20% drop in numbers when we are talking over 2 million is a lot of people, some 400,000 plus. 20% of 58,000 is 11,600 and whatever AWW numbers look like. The point is, the smaller the number of visitors to a park, the easier it is to show sharper drops when dealing strictly in percentages. If Maine added another similar national park, would Acadia’s numbers drop drastically?
One would have to, in fairness, try to determine how many total user types there are for places like the AWW, Northern Forest, etc. Then look to see how those numbers compare to which places they went.
Mr. Thurlow probably has a strong argument about management of the Allagash but he can’t completely blame the drop on them no more than those park managers can blame ipods, MTV and computer games. Nationwide trends have to be considered as do all aspects, including what I have spoken about – the increase in user opportunities compared to the same or fewer people to use them. That in and of itself will create a significant drop when only comparing one park, like AWW.
Tom Remington
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