Having visited Acadia National Park over the last 45 years, Kyle Vietze of Newton, Massachusetts and his family are well acquainted with the area.
"My sister and her two kids are here to check out the wild gardens and Jesup path," Vietze said. "They're not like adventurous hikers, so, you know, something that's pretty user friendly is what we wanted to do today."
Vietze said while this summers' stay at the park's Seawall Campground is going well, he’s noticed small changes that he attributes to the Trump Administration’s cuts to the National Park Service.
Normally there’d be two or three rangers at the campground when he checks in, but this year he said there was only one.
"No one else would notice that if it was their first time there," Vietze said. "But I said, yeah, that has to be due to the cuts."
And he said although services appear to be intact, he's concerned about what it's like for staffers at the park.
"The people that are there must be working twice as hard," Vietze said. "That would be my guess. They're doing a good job."
Others close to the park are more direct in assessing the current staffing situation.
"We need to have the hiring freeze lifted, we need for seasonal hiring to occur as usual, because too much is at stake," said Eric Stiles, with the nonprofit Friends of Acadia.
He said while it's not clear about the staffing reductions here, he cites estimates that say since January, the National Park Service as a whole has lost about a quarter of its permanent workforce. And seasonal staffing for the summer is down by about 40% as well.
"So when you take a look at the carriage roads, for example, if there was a big hurricane that hit down east Maine, we're not going to have the staff that's needed to really just get in there and restore it," Stiles said.
Across the U.S., advocates for the national parks said understaffing will slow responses to medical calls, reduce hours at visitor's centers and delay maintenance.
But park officials aren't saying much about the cuts or their effects on services.
"It's been a very busy summer at Acadia National Park, which is to be expected," said Acadia spokesperson Amanda Pollock.
When asked about the staffing situation at the park, Pollock said the focus has been on ensuring visitors have a great experience.
"It's great to have visitors out and about and watching them make connections with such an important landscape and an important park," she said.
But that connection to the park is just as important for Bar Harbor businesses, who are watching with concern.
"We tend to say, 'Well, what happens in Bar Harbor affects the national park and what happens in the national park affects Bar Harbor,'" said Everal Eaton, executive director for the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber's members are confronting a number of uncertainties this summer.
Historically, Canadian tourists have made up 4% of visitors to the area, but they're staying away this summer in the wake of tariffs, and comments made by President Trump about annexing their country.
And Eaton said cruise ship activity is also down, as town limits on cruise ship visitors take effect.
"I think where I'm most concerned and looking towards cruise ships, historically have helped us booster our shoulder seasons after Labor Day," he said. "So I think kind of going into the fall, that's an area that we have a little bit concern on."
But with so many changes evolving, Eaton said it's still hard to say how it will affect the season as a whole, or how businesses will have to adapt next year.
Acadia visitor Kyle Vietze, meanwhile, is hoping that the staffing issue doesn't take too big a toll.
"Is it sustainable? I don't know," he said. "But you asked if I was concerned — super concerned. It's one of the things that I look forward to really enjoy life."
