Acadia boundary bill headed to the president

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A package of more than 100 federal lands bills that the U.S. House of Representatives passed last week includes the Acadia National Park Boundary Clarification Act.

The Senate had passed the omnibus lands bill earlier last month. So, now all that is needed for it to become law is the president's signature.

The Acadia portion of the 260-page bill validates the National Park Service's 2015 expansion of the park's boundary to include 1,441 acres of donated land on the Schoodic Peninsula. A large portion of that land is now the Schoodic Woods Campground.

No one publicly expressed opposition to Acadia's annexation of the Schoodic property, but a number of area public officials and others have maintained that only Congress has the authority to approve such an expansion. The new bill restricts future expansion of the park's boundary.

Another provision of Acadia boundary act permits the continued harvesting of clams and worms within the park's intertidal zone. It states that the secretary of the Department of the Interior "shall allow for the traditional taking of marine species, marine worms and shellfish on land within the park between the mean high water mark and the mean low water mark in accordance with state law."

Loosening the restriction on future uses of the land on which Tremont Consolidated School was built is another part of the Acadia bill.

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