The weather is finally starting to warm up and we’re heading into everyone’s favorite season, summertime in Maine. If you’re anything like me and my family, you try to squeeze in as many fun trips and activities as you can. There never seems to be enough time to fit everything in.
If Maine’s parks and public lands haven’t made your summer to-do list yet, I hope you have time to visit parksandlands.com to see how you can work some of Maine’s 48 state parks and historic sites into your itinerary. If you’re looking for a great place to go camping, it’s hard to beat one of the 12 state parks that offer campsites, like Sebago Lake State Park, right in our backyard.
Of course, Maine is also home to Acadia National Park and the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The National Park Service provides information about visiting our national and international parks at nps.gov.
Part of getting outside to enjoy Maine’s summer is being prepared. By now, we all know that means more than a raincoat, sunblock and a cooler full of food and drinks. With the rate of Lyme disease, Powassen virus and other tick-borne diseases on the rise, we need to bring a good bug spray and the right clothing to repel ticks and a tick spoon or tweezers to make sure we can safely remove them quickly if they get past our defenses.
The UMaine Cooperative Extension offers lots of information on tick identification and management that can help you avoid tick-borne diseases at extension.umaine.edu/ipm/tickid/. Later this year, the Cooperative Extension will have a new lab that can test individual ticks to find out if they carry harmful diseases. This was the lab that voters authorized in 2014 with an $8 million bond. Soon, people in Maine will be able to find out if the tick that bit them carried Lyme disease without having to wait for symptoms to appear.
On the topic of insects, they can go undetected in firewood that gets transported to camping sites. Moving infested firewood can spread insects for hundreds of miles throughout Maine which could greatly damage our forests. If you’re planning a camping trip this summer, please be sure to purchase your firewood at or near your campsite. Untreated firewood from outside Maine has been banned. Even within Maine, the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry says not to transport firewood more than 50 miles. This can prevent the spread of invasive insect species and keep Maine’s woods beautiful and healthy.
If you prefer the water to the woods, Maine has nearly 6,000 lakes and ponds and almost 32,000 miles of rivers and streams. There’s something for everyone to enjoy, whether you’re looking for a good fishing stream or swimming hole. If you plan to take a boat out on the water this summer, please be sure you’re not bringing invasive species along for the ride. You can visit mainelakes.org to learn more about how to do your part to protect our inland waters.
If you’re interested in finding out more about staying safe and preserving our public lands and waters while enjoying the Maine outdoors this summer, feel free to contact me.
(207) 712-9735 | (800) 423-2900 | maureen.terry@legislature.maine.gov