 Note to readers: Our apologies if this message has reached you more than once.
June 2025
Mount Battie access improvements at Camden Hills State Park.
As the summer of 2025 begins in earnest, Maine State Parks will once again welcome millions of visitors seeking sunshine, open space, family time, and physical activity. This year, our visitors will encounter activities that are more commonly see on highways and in construction zones- contractors wearing hard hats, heavy machinery, and lots of signs and flagging tape. This work is part of our multi-year plan to upgrade critical state park facilities, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act through the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan.
Sebago Lake State Park day use entrance station improvements.
Left to right: Camden Hills State Park water system improvement. Swan Lake State Park bathroom replacement.
Projects cover two dozen state parks, including new bathroom facilities, repaired water and septic systems, repaved roadways, more efficient park entrance stations, accessible trails, and many more improvements and renovations. We encourage park users to be patient with staff and contractors, knowing that the long-term benefits will more than outweigh the short-term inconvenience. In particular, campers should note that Cobscook Bay and Aroostook State Parks are temporarily closed for major bathroom and plumbing projects. We look forward to seeing these terrific projects completed!
~ Andy Cutko, Director, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands
Top of page
All Maine residents receive free day-use admission to Maine State Parks and Historic Sites* from 9:00 a.m. to closing on Maine Resident Day, June 15, 2025.
*Please Note:
-
No rain date available; day-use only.
-
Free admission does not apply to: Acadia National Park, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, Baxter State Park, Peacock Beach, the Maine Wildlife Park, Scarborough Beach State Park, Swan Island, the Penobscot River Corridor, or the Penobscot Narrows Observatory in Prospect, though admission to Fort Knox Historic Site will be free that day.
Where will your adventure begin? These resources will help you plan your visit:
Top of page
This Extraordinary Place, A Guide to Allagash Ecology, is your go-to guide for understanding the ecological importance of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. The guide's information is based on Janet McMahon's vital ecological assessment of the Waterway and is depicted through engaging storylines accompanied by firsthand accounts by Waterway visitors. A map, photos by numerous photographers, and drawings by Alison Carver bring the guide to life.
I hope you will purchase this guide to learn more about the Waterway and help support the Foundation's work, which brings students to paddle the Allagash and supports the mission of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
~ Mark Deroche, Superintendent of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway
Top of page
|
Camden Hills State Park in Camden
Holbrook Island Sanctuary State Park in Brooksville
Range Pond State Park in Poland
Reid State Park in Georgetown
Top of page
This June, don't just hike the trails—help keep them thriving! Love Maine Trails Month (LMTM) returns for its fourth annual celebration from June 1st to June 30th, 2025. This statewide event brings together trail lovers, organizations, and communities to give back to the trails that make Maine so special.
Love Maine Trails Month (LMTM) is a month of statewide events bringing people and organizations together to care for Maine’s trails. LMTM brings visibility to the substantial resources and effort required to maintain Maine’s beloved trails. Continue reading at LMTM.
Participate in Two Ways:
Top of page
Piping Plover adult and chick on the nest. Photo by Amanda Reed and used by permission of Maine Audubon.
State Park beaches provide homes for many shore birds, including the protected Piping Plover, which depends on the beach dune habitat for survival. The piping plover is endangered in Maine and threatened nationally.
Be a good beach buddy. View the plovers from a distance using binoculars so that you can stay well back from the fencing and piping plover habitat signs. And remember, dogs and other pets are not allowed on State Park beaches between April 1 and September 30.
Learn about Piping Plovers at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's page about Piping Plover and Least Tern nesting sites.
Thank you!
~ The Piping Plovers
Top of page
|
Please help protect your neighborhood trees and Maine's forests by leaving your firewood at home. When you transport firewood, you can unknowingly move invasive insects to a new location. Use only local and certified heat treated firewood.
Emerald ash borer adult (photo by Ryan Armbrust, Bugwood.org), emerald ash borer larval tunneling under bark of firewood surrendered to Maine Foerst Rangers (photo by MFS, MDACF), tree tag to alert public of emerald ash borer and the value of ash trees (photo by MDACF).
The Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive forest insect that has been spreading through Maine. Nearly half a billion ash trees add to the wooded canopy over the state’s great outdoors and picturesque communities. Sadly, the emerald ash borer, first seen in Maine in 2018, is starting to topple Maine’s ash trees.
First found in the U.S. in 2002, this tiny, destructive wood-boring insect from Asia spread quickly and quietly across the country, killing hundreds of millions of ash trees as it spread. Firewood movement has helped speed this expansion. Sticks of firewood from infested ash trees carried from home to campgrounds and camps have also carried hidden emerald ash borers. Maine and other states have regulated firewood movement and worked together to spread the word—firewood carries deadly forest pests. However, new infestations of emerald ash borer and other destructive pests and pathogens continue to be caused by firewood transport.
There is Hope
Introduced parasitoids, trees tolerant to damage by EAB, efforts to prevent a genetic bottleneck through insecticide treatments and preservation of ash seeds, and a community of people engaged in keeping ash all provide hope for the future of ash.
You can be part of the solution:
Ten Things to Know About Emerald Ash Borer in Maine.
-
The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is not letting up. Now firmly established in southern and northern Maine, EAB will never go away. But it only moves a few miles per year on its own. Moving wood from an infested area to an uninfested area will spread the beetle faster. Human-assisted movement is likely the cause of the scattered pattern of EAB establishment in Maine. Most recently, EAB was found in Belfast (Waldo County) and Bar Harbor (Hancock County), reported by professional arborists. Updated detection map
-
EAB is an invisible danger. Not only is the adult beetle tiny and hard to detect, but it also spends most of its life cycle as a larva under the bark of ash trees. Visible signs of its presence are not obvious. Once populations in a tree build up, you may notice outward signs of woodpecker feeding, called “blonding”. The tree is infested by this time and should not be cut up and moved to a new area.
-
Every ash tree in Maine is at risk. EAB will attack all true ash species (in the Fraxinus genus) in the state. Ash species found in Maine forests are white, green, and brown, and others, such as European ash, were planted in cities and towns. EAB will attack all these species. Mountain ash (Sorbus spp.) is not susceptible.
-
Cold winters won’t save your trees. Because EAB overwinters as larvae under the bark of trees, they are protected from most weather elements Mother Nature throws at a Maine winter. Extremely cold “polar vortexes” (which are rare) may kill some of the larvae, but they will not reduce EAB populations to the point of saving trees.
-
Biocontrol efforts are trying to slow EAB. State officials and land managers are keeping up with the latest research to slow the spread of emerald ash borer and protect ash trees. Parasitoids that attack EAB larvae and eggs are being released in hopes of establishing a balance that will reduce EAB populations.
-
Treatment saves trees. As EAB approaches an area, healthy ash trees can be treated with a systemic insecticide to keep street and yard trees alive and help them recover from early infestations and to keep seed bearing ash in our forests. Treating healthy trees is more cost-efficient than removing them. A licensed pesticide applicator can help.
-
Planting new ash trees is not recommended. Until the EAB population has subsided, planting new ash trees in landscape and ornamental settings is not recommended.
-
EAB is a public and private issue. Infested ash trees decline and become brittle quickly. Be aware that an infested ash tree on your property could cause injury or damage if its branches or the tree itself falls.
-
Early detection saves lives. The earlier EAB is found, the more options there are to manage it. Help look for EAB through visual surveys, participation in a trap tree network, biosurveillance and spreading the word about this pest.
-
Slow the spread. Be part of the solution: keep tabs on where EAB infestations have been found. Use local firewood, or travel with certified heat-treated firewood, and encourage others to do the same. Reminder: seasoned and kiln-dried do not count as certified heat-treated. Storm related brush could include ash that is infested with EAB. Any ash tree debris is best disposed on site.
~ Courtesy posting for the Maine Forest Service.
Top of page
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is hosting a free, two-day virtual workshop on invasive jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) and their impacts to soil nutrients, ecosystems and forests, and the methods being tested by researchers and citizen scientists to answer the questions on everyone's minds: what do we know about jumping worms and what can we do to effectively manage them?
Engage and connect with speakers in dedicated Q&A sessions and interact with speakers and attendees from different states and all knowledge backgrounds.
When: June 17, 2025 1-4PM AND June 18, 2025 1-4PM
Where: Online via Teams
All are welcome. Attendees are eligible for up to 6 continuing forestry education (CFE) credits. Registration is required.
For more information on jumping worms, visit the Maine DACF website
~ Courtesy posting for the Maine Division of Plant and Animal Heath.
Top of page
Send article suggestions or newsletter comments to Jocelyn Hubbell, Interpretive Specialist, webmaster, and newsletter editor for the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.
Read back issues of the newsletter.
|
