Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell to retire.

[TJ aka Teej]

Park Director Jensen Bissell to retire. From the Fall edition of the Friends of Baxter "Forever Wild" newsletter: "Jensen Bissell recently announced his retirement in December, after thirty years at Baxter State Park." Thank you Jensen, for taking such great care of the donor's generous gift to the people of Maine!

[colorado_rob]

Good friggin riddance.

[Traveler]

................

[D2maine]

Park Director Jensen Bissell to retire. From the Fall edition of the Friends of Baxter "Forever Wild" newsletter: "Jensen Bissell recently announced his retirement in December, after thirty years at Baxter State Park." Thank you Jensen, for taking such great care of the donor's generous gift to the people of Maine!

thank you Jensen

[D2maine]

Good friggin riddance.

ignorance is something best kept tp yourself

[egilbe]

He will feel missed. He did an outstanding job running the park.

[tawa]

[QUOTE=colorado_rob;2182266]Good friggin riddance.[/QUO

----you just gotta love it!! A guy gives thirty yrs of his life and he gets this. Wow

Your resentment to this gentleman is like you drinking poison and waiting for him to die!!

[peakbagger]

I have seen many improvements in the park under Jensen's management. Under Buzz Caverly his predecessor, the park was stuck in the sixties with respect to public access. Prior to Jensen, the reservation system was a series of written ledgers. Options to book a reservations were walk in, mail or by phone. The opening day reservation tradition was a tradition that had serious flaws and was a major impediment to getting reservations in the park unless someone was willing to drive up on the first business day in January. The locals had figured out how to game the system and they booked entire campgrounds on holiday weekends and weeks. The likelihood of getting a cabin at Daicey or Kidney Ponds were quite low as many were booked for weeks by the same group. There also was no day use parking reservation system in place. There were limits to parking at the 3 Katahdin trail heads so if someone wanted to day hike up Katahdin they had to get there quite early (4 AM), sleep in the car or miss their chance. Most weekends many folks would get turned away and would just get back in line the next day.

Once Jensen came in, the reservations slowly went on line, the day use parking permit system was put in place for dayhikers so that someone could plan a trip to the park and be assured a parking place and the opening day abuses were reigned back. Opening day still exists but limits on length of stay and limits on the percent of opening day reservations at a given campground have really made a big difference on accessibility for the general public. With the new systems in place, I and many others have routinely made trips to the park to popular campgrounds that I previously had no hope of getting.

Not heavily publicized is that the park doesnt operate in a vacuum. Early on in Jensen's term, the park had an external assessment by outside experts. The results of that study (there may have been more) were incorporated in long range planning.

I have also seen major upgrades in physical facilities and an attempt at getting the backlog of trail maintenance down. There even have been a few new trails built including completion of the Traveler Loop and reopening of the Northern Peaks trails. The relocated new group campsites at KSC and Roaring brook are a major improvement to the older sites that were an afterthought.

What has not changed is the Deeds of Trust and I expect that is where Jensen get vilified by some, especially those like Rob who apparently believes what he reads without checking reality. Fundamentally the park is at odds with society in that its pretty well restricted to be frozen in 1969 when Percival Baxter passed away. While the rest of the world has the flexibility to decide to degrade an experience in order to allow more people to have some degraded portion of that experience, the park manager doesn't have that choice. His only option is to resist external pressures to package the park as a commodity ripe for exploitation. All three of the infamous letters by Jensen address the external exploitation of the park. In the case of the record attempt, there was no issue with someone attempting a record, the issue was violating park policy that applies to all members of the public. With the case of thru hikers, the numbers and types of thru hikers which were accommodated as a courtesy have exploded and require a high level of staff resources. When ATC shifted from a Conference to Conservancy, they became far more of an advocacy operation with goal of substantially increasing their visibility and membership. Give their primary product is the AT, the way to grow is to promote the product and they have and will continue to do so. Thus there is a fundamental disconnect between BSPs operation and the ATC, Jensen's letter pointed that out and put it back in the ATCs and MATCs hands to manage that disconnect. With respect to the national monument letter, that didnt arise out of vacuum. There is a fundamental problem that the main attraction of the national monument is a view of mountains and terrain outside of the boundaries and inaccessible from the monument. There had been much external discussion that at some point the monument would be a gateway to BSP. During the monument discussion the park remained quite quiet as they werent directly asked to comment on their potential neighbor, since they werent asked they eventually did issue a proactive letter once the monument actually came into existence. Had they commented before, they would have been accused of trying to manipulate the process.

The only disappointment to me is the parks attempt at improving long range backpacking opportunities developed under Jensen has been sidetracked and possibly abandoned due to what appear to be a combination of issues. The plan was to build a few new trails to allow better loops in the interior in the park. One would run between the Turners connecting the deadend Katahdin Lake trail to the Russel Pond trail. The other trail would connect from Center Pond through the Annis Brook drainage to the Northwest Basin Trail. This would have opened up some nice loops, unfortunately the resources got shifted to the Abol trail rebuild and now the Dudley rebuild.

[Jeff]

Peakbagger...thanks for your insight and thoughtful post.

[Offshore]

Too bad Bissell is retiring when Katahdin is closed for the season. I'm sure Scott Jurek would love to offer Bissell a congratulatory champagne toast.

[Offshore]

I have seen many improvements in the park under Jensen's management. Under Buzz Caverly his predecessor, the park was stuck in the sixties with respect to public access. Prior to Jensen, the reservation system was a series of written ledgers. Options to book a reservations were walk in, mail or by phone. The opening day reservation tradition was a tradition that had serious flaws and was a major impediment to getting reservations in the park unless someone was willing to drive up on the first business day in January. The locals had figured out how to game the system and they booked entire campgrounds on holiday weekends and weeks. The likelihood of getting a cabin at Daicey or Kidney Ponds were quite low as many were booked for weeks by the same group. There also was no day use parking reservation system in place. There were limits to parking at the 3 Katahdin trail heads so if someone wanted to day hike up Katahdin they had to get there quite early (4 AM), sleep in the car or miss their chance. Most weekends many folks would get turned away and would just get back in line the next day.

Once Jensen came in, the reservations slowly went on line, the day use parking permit system was put in place for dayhikers so that someone could plan a trip to the park and be assured a parking place and the opening day abuses were reigned back. Opening day still exists but limits on length of stay and limits on the percent of opening day reservations at a given campground have really made a big difference on accessibility for the general public. With the new systems in place, I and many others have routinely made trips to the park to popular campgrounds that I previously had no hope of getting.

Not heavily publicized is that the park doesnt operate in a vacuum. Early on in Jensen's term, the park had an external assessment by outside experts. The results of that study (there may have been more) were incorporated in long range planning.

I have also seen major upgrades in physical facilities and an attempt at getting the backlog of trail maintenance down. There even have been a few new trails built including completion of the Traveler Loop and reopening of the Northern Peaks trails. The relocated new group campsites at KSC and Roaring brook are a major improvement to the older sites that were an afterthought.
I really don't see any of this as anything particular remarkable. He did nothing more than would have been expected of any competent park manager who came to work and did his job - no more, no less. It actually sounds like he had a pretty sweet deal for 30 years. Name a privy after him, but no canonization or trophy for showing up is warranted.

[DownEaster]

I really don't see any of this as anything particular remarkable. He did nothing more than would have been expected of any competent park manager who came to work and did his job - no more, no less.
I agree with your basic assessment of competence. But think of your average manager in the National Park Service, and perhaps competence becomes a more remarkable attribute by comparison.

[Emerson Bigills]

A couple years ago when Jensen had his public spat with the ATC on thru hikers, I thought his method of waging war through social media was combative and not in the spirit of trying to work with the ATC to find real solutions. I was probably not uncommon among the backpacker world outside of New England that looked at him as the biggest obstacle to fixing the problem.

I began to read more about spat and then watched the Scott Jurick fiasco. I began to read more about BSP, thanks largely to links I found from posts on this site, including one not long ago on an article about Jensen and his career in forestry and BSP.

After having the opportunity to spend two days in BSP this summer, hike the Hunt/Abol trails and get to Baxter Peak, I have a different outlook on the "spat". I found the rangers and staff at BSP to be very helpful, respectful and downright congratulatory to myself and the other NOBO's during my stay. Offering a special campsite and shelters for long distance hikers and providing us with daypacks for the summit trek indicates that BSP has gone out of their way to accommodate thru hikers and stories of their hate for thru hikers is simply BS. The rangers volunteered to move our full packs to another camping area while we summited, so we could descend on a different trail. I have changed my thoughts on Jensen and BSP, I think their mission is clear and not negotiable. I also think that Katahdin is the crown jewel of the Appalachian Trail and the ATC should be working closely with BSP to develop a plan that continues to allow the northern terminus to remain at BSP, but still supports the park's mission and regulations.

I am a big BSP supporter and wish Jensen Bissell much joy in his retirement.

[George]

whatever you think of bissel, remember the new guy could be less friendly

[Christoph]

I had a very welcoming and pleasant visit to the park this year. Once the ranger heard the 2 of us were thru hikers and today was going to be one of the most memorable days of our lives, he stood up, shook our hands, congradulated us, and signed us in. The whole park experience was nothing like the horror stories we heard on the forums. We got in, summited, and got right back out. The park was clean, friendly, and one of the most memorable spots on my journey. So, I have to agree with Emerson and I think him and his staff do a wonderful job. Thanks, congrats, and happy retirement!

[Starchild]

I love the comment someone made that one of achievements was computerizing the reservation system in the last 30 years, so somewhere from 1997-2017 he gets credit for switching it to a computer system. Even most old coots have made that switch kicking and screaming, because they really have to.

And that's what it seems like Jenson is, a old coot who was set in his ways and his(, not Baxter's) way of running the park, and a false belief that it was Baxter's way.

The park staff has been very helpful and welcoming to thru hikers, and I hope and pray that they are realized as part of Baxter's vision for the park by the upper management and welcomed and embraced.

[peakbagger]

A local businessman who grew up in town told me the background on the computer reservations. The prior park director, Buzz Caverly who was Baxter's hand picked choice had many "cronies" in the park staff. One of them was the office administrator who did the books and was in charge of the reservation system. He apparently was old school and did not trust computers. He was encouraged to retire soon after Buzz retired and that opened the door for computer reservations.

[Gambit McCrae]

I haven't gotten to BSP yet, but anyone who can go 30+ years in a government position without allegations or scandal charges I have to tip my hat to. I hope that his replacement continues to improve the park for both AT hikers as well as weekend travelers.

[TJ aka Teej]

"A couple years ago when Jensen had his public spat with the ATC on thru hikers, I thought his method of waging war through social media was combative and not in the spirit of trying to work with the ATC to find real solutions."
Glad you changed your mind!
One thing though, Jensen wrote a letter to ATC, there wasn't a social media back-and-forth.

[TJ aka Teej]

And that's what it seems like Jenson is, a old coot who was set in his ways and his(, not Baxter's) way of running the park, and a false belief that it was Baxter's way.
Please share, and cite your sources, an action of Jensen's that was contrary to the Park's mission and the Deeds of Trust.

[tawa]

Had a friend that was a park ranger at a particular state park. He once told me. "Im not doing my job unless I kick out a couple of campers each weekend."
Well he was there for nearly twenty yrs. and the majority of campers felt he was very fair in carrying out the duties of his job. However, those that had to be removed because of excessive drinking which lead to noise, loud music etc thought he was a horses ass and used his authority to harass them !
Fast forward --friend retires and new ranger hired. New guy was very hands off of day to day park operations and wanted to basically be an office manager. When there were problems and situations involving conflict he could never be found!!
Sooooo the campground is now out of control and the good responsible , respectful campers refuse to go there.
Now everyone is saying what the hell happened to our park and saying they wish my friend was back!
You get the picture!
Sooo---be careful in what you wish for!

[rocketsocks]

All to often a life of public service is nothing more than a career baby sitting job...congratulations on your retirement.

[BuckeyeBill]

I love the comment someone made that one of achievements was computerizing the reservation system in the last 30 years, so somewhere from 1997-2017 he gets credit for switching it to a computer system. Even most old coots have made that switch kicking and screaming, because they really have to.

And that's what it seems like Jenson is, a old coot who was set in his ways and his(, not Baxter's) way of running the park, and a false belief that it was Baxter's way.

The park staff has been very helpful and welcoming to thru hikers, and I hope and pray that they are realized as part of Baxter's vision for the park by the upper management and welcomed and embraced.

I think you need to recheck your math. 30 years ago would have been 1987 and yes there were several "Old Coots" and "Cronies" still around at the time. Computers were finally showing their capabilities and soon took off. Gone were the days of refrigerator size main frames, as they were replaced by the microchip and large storage disks replaced the big tape reels. Today they say that every home and business "should" have a computer to help organize and reduce the amount of paper used. Well they got one right, but if you ask me they have generated a lot more paper work.

[BuckeyeBill]

Oh and good luck to Mr. Jensen on your retirement.

[TX Aggie]

I really don't see any of this as anything particular remarkable. He did nothing more than would have been expected of any competent park manager who came to work and did his job - no more, no less. It actually sounds like he had a pretty sweet deal for 30 years. Name a privy after him, but no canonization or trophy for showing up is warranted.

Sometimes, staying the course and NOT doing more is the harder option to take.

[TNhiker]

I think you need to recheck your math.



to put it into perspective---great smoky mountains national park, which I would guess gets thousands more backcountry campers, just switched to computer based reservations 4 or 5 years ago...


the front country camping had computer based for a while (not sure date) but it took a while before backcountry got it...

[George]

Had a friend that was a park ranger at a particular state park. He once told me. "Im not doing my job unless I kick out a couple of campers each weekend."
Well he was there for nearly twenty yrs. and the majority of campers felt he was very fair in carrying out the duties of his job. However, those that had to be removed because of excessive drinking which lead to noise, loud music etc thought he was a horses ass and used his authority to harass them !
Fast forward --friend retires and new ranger hired. New guy was very hands off of day to day park operations and wanted to basically be an office manager. When there were problems and situations involving conflict he could never be found!!
Sooooo the campground is now out of control and the good responsible , respectful campers refuse to go there.
Now everyone is saying what the hell happened to our park and saying they wish my friend was back!
You get the picture!
Sooo---be careful in what you wish for!

as you would know, just like a school - someone has to be the heat or things will always get out of hand

[tawa]

as you would know, just like a school - someone has to be the heat or things will always get out of hand

Exactly---whenever I took a new position as high school principal--one of my favorite statements was "there is a new sheriff in town "" lol
It was quickly determined who was going to be in charge and how we were going to do business. Under no circumstances were the kids or parents going to run the school. lol
By the time I retired it was getting more and more difficult to run the school in the above manner---so had the opportunity to retire early and I took it!
So--Im very slow to criticize anyone in a position of authority that is doing their best to run a good organization. Basically only criticize lazy individuals that run out of control parks, schools etc.

[TJ aka Teej]

The Bangor Daily News covers Jensen's retirement announcement:
Baxter State Park Director announces retirement after 30 years (http://bangordailynews.com/2017/12/14/homestead/baxter-state-park-director-announces-retirement-after-30-years/)

[TJ aka Teej]

http://mainepublic.org/post/retiring-baxter-state-park-director-reflects-30-year-career#stream/0


"During his tenure, Bissell and the board approved a permit system for a growing number of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers seeking to complete their trek by scaling the summit of Mount Katahdin. The limit now stands at 3,150, but Bissell says requests for access will likely increase as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument attracts more visitors to the region.

Still, he says, the park can only accommodate so many people to ensure the type of experience that Gov. Baxter had in mind.

“We operate the park and have for several decades under a limited-use model,” Bissell says, “where on any given day, we’re only going to allow so many people to get to Baxter Peak. That creates a tension because generally there are more people who want to get to Baxter Peak than we will allow.”

The responsibility for balancing those demands will now fall to a new director. The Baxter State Authority will launch a national search in the new year."

[Mags]

Those denigrating upgrading a software system probably don't work in IT. :O Egads...I had a full head of black hair and no gray in my beard when I started my IT career. Just sayin'.... ;)