State of Maine Suspending Issuing Online Burn Permits Temporarily

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Maine Forest Service sent a press release on Tuesday stating a temporary stop to Mainer's acquiring open burn permits online.

This suspension is due to dry conditions throughout the State of Maine as well as low staffing and more frequent fire occurrences.

These permits are obtained online and issued to allow citizens to burn brush and wood debris.

DroughtMonitor.org shows that New England and parts of Upstate New York are experiencing abnormally dry conditions:

Only a few bands of moderate rainfall were noted in central parts of the Northeast Region, but a few tenths of an inch at most fell elsewhere as abnormal dryness expanded into southern New England and central Maine.

This trend of dry conditions is being seen throughout the United States according to their weekly report.

With these dry conditions, the State of Maine has been seeing wildfires pop up.   experiencing an abnormally high number of wildfires. The Maine Forest Service is stating that "to date, Forest Rangers have responded to 712 fires, representing 871 acres. This is the second-highest fire count in 10 years, and it's only June. So far, there has been a 170% increase in wildfires caused by campfires compared to 2019."

The Maine Forest Service will continue to have this suspension into effect until there is enough precipitation and adequate conditions to allow for safer burning.

Still available to acquire at this time are campfire permits.

Check out up-to-date fire conditions where you are at by visiting MaineFireWeather.org