When community citizen science is essential: A story about understanding and managing Acadia’s intertidal

In Acadia National Park, new legislation and circumstances have required harvesters, educators, tour operators, and federal and state resource managers—groups that have not historically had the best working relationships—to work together to earn their livings from and protect resources in the park’s intertidal zone. Citizen science and other types of collaborative work have allowed the groups to build relationships, understand each other’s perspectives and goals, study the status of and threats to the health of the intertidal zone, and develop strategies to protect it.