Land and Garden Preserve Explains New Dog Policies – Bar Harbor Story

Leashes required at Little Long Pond from 10-4, May 1-September 30

Carrie Jones

Apr 10, 2025

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The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Swan Agency Real Estate.

MOUNT DESERT—The vision of the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve has a one-word explanation: serenity.

It’s hard to be serene when people are yelling at dogs, said Director of Natural Lands Tate Bushell.

That’s just one of the reason’s why the Preserve is creating rules about dogs on its properties. It’s a compromise to make sure all people have a good experience rather than just dog owners have the ultimate experience, Bushell said.

It’s also about protecting the landscape and wildlife on it, he said during the Preserve-hosted a webinar, April 9. The webinar explained the Preserve’s new dog policies and the reason for the changes. The webinar will also be posted on its website.

Director of Development and Communications Kathryn Strand, Board Chair Kate Macko, former board member David MacDonald, and board member Vassar Pierce all joined the conversation. Almost 100 people attended the webinar.

“It’s really had to do something about dogs that’s not yes or no,” David MacDonald said, but the Preserve wanted to go toward a more complicated approach that allowed protection from trampling paws, all users (with dogs and without) to enjoy the experience, and some free romping time for canines at Little Long Pond, one of three areas of the Preserve’s natural lands that are impacted by the changes.

The organization also encompasses the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, Asticou Azalea Garden, and Thuya Garden on its 1400 acres on Mount Desert Island.

“Acadia National Park is the only national park in the country that allows dogs at all,” Macko said. While Acadia may have wider access than some parks, dogs are permitted in many national parks, the Preserve said in a correction, Friday.

Macko likes being able to provide access to walkers and hikers with their dogs.

“The volume is a lot,” she said, however.

There is no formal policy about leash length, but Macko suggested to keep it within reason. The Preserve also hopes people will help with enforcement and encouraged people to be kind when doing so, similar to when bicyclists are spotted at Little Long Pond, which is not allowed. There will also be leashes on loan at the boat house on the pond and the Preserve is accepting leash donations.

The policies begin in May 2025. Dogs heading out to Little Long Pond from May 1 through September 30, must be leashed from 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Dogs must always be leashed at Hunters Cliffs and the trails around Thuya Garden. No dogs are permitted on the Harbor Brook Trail.

“We love the fact that we can have dogs off leash at Little Long Pond,” Bushell said. That still happens, but now there are guardrails as more people experience the park and the island. “Visitation over time has increased.”

Little Long Pond has had approximately 60,000 visitors and 18,000 dogs in the five months of its opening. At Harbor Brook there were 5,500 visitors with 900 dogs.

“As one who has been going to Little Long Pond for nearly 90 years, a big Thank You!!!!!!” said Ann Cook-Frantz in the webinar chat.

Dogs can get off the leash and swim in the water even during the restriction period regardless of the time of the day at Little Long Pond, Bushell said.

The rules are color coded and will be posted in the next couple of weeks in kiosks at the Preserve.

The mission is to conserve and share, Bushell said.

Pierce spoke as two golden retrievers wrestled under his feet. He said the data shows visitation as pretty light before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m at Little Long Pond. Visitation data showed very clearly that the majority of people coming to Little Long Pond particularly in July and August were visiting between 10 and 4. They will assess if there are any unintended consequences during the off-leash hours.

HUNTERS CLIFFS

At Hunters Cliffs dogs must always be leashed and that’s primarily to protect the land and ecosystem. That area is “tightly sandwiched by Acadia National Park,” Bushell said and it helps create a seamless policy with the park.

“If anyone has walked up Harbor Brook any time, they know it’s pretty special,” Bushell said. There’s a great deal of biological diversity in one of the Preserve’s least developed sites. That includes an American martin, brook trout, and multiple plants that are only there and nowhere else on the Preserve. One subspecies of grass is rare on a state level.

“If you really want to have a dog experience, just go down the road a little bit to Little Long Pond. Let’s leave Harbor Brook to be as wild as we can,” Bushell said.

The Hunters Cliffs trail is right next to the stream in multiple spaces and a dog would likely trample the riparian corridor right next to the stream.

“All of these measures—we fully acknowledge this—are conservative measures,” he said.

He said he primarily thinks about the future when managing the area.

“It’s the first time we’re doing this so we’re going to work through it together,” Pierce said and he thanked attendees for their kindness.

“One of the magical things about the Land and Garden Preserve is that we secretly feel like it’s ours. And I love that feeling. But the reality is that it’s shared collectively by all of us,” Macko said, and all are stewards together.

INCREASED VISITATION CAN LEAD TO INCREASED WORRIES

“There are pretty high numbers,” Bushell said of the annual 60,000 visits to just Little Long Pond.

Many of the visitors to the Preserve—40%—are first-time visitors. Many come because of internet sites that say the land is a dog park.

“We don’t love the fact that people think of us as a dog park. We are much more,” Bushell said.

When he came in 2018, Bushell said, it was obvious that there was impact from dogs and erosion. After his arrival, the Preserve became more firm in where dogs should go into water, which was in four places. He and workers hardened areas to try to stem erosion and put up a fence to try to deter dogs from accessing the pond in multiple spots.

The only reason they put up the fence was to try to keep the dog-caused erosion at the pond in check.

The growing feeling in the past seven years, Bushell said, was that they needed to give the dog situation more attention. This was true for both the staff and the Rockefeller family.

The Rockefeller family had owned the Little Long Property until approximately nine years ago. In 2018, the Preserve had multiple complaints about aggressive dogs off leash. Improperly disposed of dog waste and erosion were also concerns.

“People brought dogs and they never said no,” Bushell said of the Rockefellers.

It wasn’t originally an issue, but visitation grew. At the end of 2023, the Preserve started a dog use task force that had eight members who met eight times for eight months. MCHT stewardship staff, two staff members, two board members, a botanist, and two community members—all of them had dogs—comprised the committee.

“We weren’t there to necessarily put guardrails on the experience,” he said, but to make sure that dog use was in compliance with the Preserve’s mission.

The committee had 16 considerations when creating a dog policy, Bushell said, mentioning ten. Those included wildlife, Rockefeller intent, visitation metrics, other organizations’ policies, conservation easement, liability, different area uses and patterns, the concept of Little Long Pond as a dog park on the web, and incident records of negative experiences including dogs.

According to a post by Bushell last year, “The Preserve has spent years measuring the number of visitors and dogs we attract, and Little Long Pond gets over 65,000 visitors annually, approximately one-third of whom bring one or more dogs.”

Other expectations of dog owners that currently exist will remain. Off-leash dogs must be under voice control and in sight at all times. Dogs are only allowed in four designated water access areas. Waste must be picked up and put in the proper receptacles. If people do not want to interact with dogs, that should be accepted. Dogs should not go near horses and carriages drawn by horses. Only leashed service animals (as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act) are allowed in gardens.

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Update: This article has been clarified to clear up a statement by Macko about dogs in national parks throughout the country. We’ve previously included a link below about national parks and dogs. It is near the bottom of the link list.

These new policies are in addition to existing policies that will remain the same. All slides via Land & Garden’s presentation.

Refer to the Preserve website for a list of those policies.

Dog policies at the Preserve

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden

Asticou Azalea Garden

Thuya Garden

Little Long Pond & Natural Lands

https://www.gardenpreserve.org/dog-policies

Pets and national parks

Leashes Will Be Required Next Year at Land and Garden Preserve Lands

Carrie Jones

September 22, 2024

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