AUGUSTA - The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Maine Forest Service is requesting people be extremely careful with any outdoor fires. To date, there have been nearly 80 Maine wildfires that have burned a total of 120 acres and threatened several homes. Most of these fires are caused by people being careless while burning outdoors. Either the fire gets away from them, or they fail to fully extinguish the fire and it rekindles the next day.

Spring is here, so it's time to think about the outdoors and proper protection against ticks. Maine had 1,171 cases of Lyme disease reported in 2015. May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month and we want to remind you the importance of daily tick checks and encourage the 'tick watch' prevention strategy.

The year at the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW) started out with the winter campground at Chamberlain Bridge full with almost all 48 available sites sold for the entire ice fishing season. Poor ice conditions and lack of snow limited use for the first couple weeks of the season. Those who did venture out were rewarded with excellent catches of native brook trout, togue and whitefish.

As the winter progressed, the book trout fishing slowed, but the togue and whitefish hit well the entire season.