Acadia National Park is looking for three hikers who recently violated a closure order meant to protect nesting peregrine falcons.
Two men and a woman hiked the Precipice Trail on July 24 while it was closed to protect vulnerable peregrine falcons raising their young, according to Amanda Pollock, a spokesperson for Acadia National Park.
Acadia National Park officials are working to identify three hikers who violated a closure order for the Precipice Trail to allow peregrine falcons to nest there. Credit: Courtesy of Acadia National Park
The Precipice Trail is closed for several months each year while the falcons nest there. The Jordan Cliffs Trail and Valley Cove Trail also are closed to protect nesting peregrine falcons from human disturbance.
The closure is widely publicized each year and the trailhead has extensive signage announcing its closure.
Those suspects face charges of violating a superintendent’s compendium closure, according to Pollock.
Pollock said that research shows that human activity near a nesting area can lead peregrine falcons to temporarily or permanently abandon a nesting area, leaving their chicks vulnerable to hypothermia, starvation or predation.
“This year the adult peregrine falcons were particularly agitated, especially around mid-June, likely due to human disturbances from people violating the trail closure,” Pollock said in an email to the Bangor Daily News.
That prompted the park to close the Precipice Trailhead parking lot.
Afterward, Pollock said that the peregrine falcons’ behavior “went back to normal,” adding that suggests that “more people were breaking the trail closure than in years past.”