Maine’s wildfire threat is quietly heating up

Maine Firefighters Face Record Wildfire Season Amid Federal Reorganization

Bradford, Maine – In the summer of 2025, firefighters in Penobscot County and across Maine fought a series of 420 wildfires, roughly four times the 20‑year average for the August‑to‑October period. The blaze season, driven by a severe drought that followed a wet spring, left fires burning deeper into the ground, demanding more water, equipment and time to suppress.

“Last year we were seeing fires burning deeper into the ground, which makes them a lot more difficult to fully extinguish, so it was taking more time, more water, more equipment,” said Terri Teller, a forest fire prevention specialist with the Maine Forest Service. “The flash drought strained firefighting resources. On some of the busiest days, a couple extra wildfires in a single day might have surpassed the available manpower to respond. Luckily, we didn’t get to that point.”

Maine’s fire activity is part of a broader uptick in the Northeast. Connecticut’s fall season in 2024 was quintupled by drought, resulting in a fatality among firefighters and making it the state’s most active fall period in four decades. Massachusetts also experienced its most intense fall fire season in 40 years. Across the border, Nova Scotia endured its largest recorded wildfires in 2023 and Quebec burned more than 10 million acres in 2025, producing a smoky haze that drifted southward. Canadian fires again clouded the East Coast in July 2026.

The Northeast’s historical reputation for wet conditions has meant that most fires are small and human‑caused. “Where there are people is where we see the most fires,” Teller explained. “Even small fires can put property or lives at risk.”

Firefighting resources in the region are stretched by climate‑driven changes. Erin Lane, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Northeast Climate Hub, notes that temperatures in April and November have risen and become more erratic, drying out fuel. “The warmer the temperatures, the drier fuel sources become,” she said. “We’re trying to adapt to these changes and this unpredictability we’re seeing.”

Because the fire season is starting earlier and lasting longer, state crews must hire more seasonal and on‑call firefighters and pay higher equipment costs. “Any time you have a longer season, it just taxes fire resources,” said Steve Sherman, executive director of the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact.

The Compact—a cooperative of the six New England states, New York and five Canadian provinces—has responded to hundreds of thousands of acres of burned land in recent years. Crews cross state and national borders when local resources are insufficient. “We’re constantly sharing ideas for training, fire weather forecasting or forecasting fire danger, as well as different equipment needs and uses,” Sherman added. “We’re never the only agency that can handle a prolonged wildfire season.”

In addition to local efforts, Maine’s firefighters sometimes deploy to aid crews on major fires in the western United States. “Those are really great opportunities for us to learn how to manage or what goes on with some of the larger fires,” Teller said.

Federal restructuring has added uncertainty to the firefighting landscape. In 2025, the Trump administration announced the creation of a new Wildland Fire Service, consolidating several firefighting agencies. The service launched in early 2026, even though Congress denied its $6.5 billion budget request. The Forest Service, which supplies 70 % of federal wildfire resources, remains separate, though the administration has sought to merge the two. Congress has so far blocked that merger.

The Forest Service is also moving its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Utah and plans to close 57 of 77 research stations, including eight in New England. Mariko Yamasaki, former director of the Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, described the situation as “a mess,” pointing out that the Northeast’s limited public lands make it a “blind spot” for the agency’s decision‑making. The proposed closures would severely limit research that informs forest management, fuel treatment and fire risk assessment.

“Experimental forests are not sitting next to a university campus. They’re two, four, or eight hours away from the cooperators that use those locations,” Yamasaki said. “Bottom line: You’re hurting the cooperators and Forest Service people’s ability to do their job.”

The Forest Service’s budget for 2027 will see a 44 % cut in operations and the elimination of its $309 million Forest and Rangeland Research program. Staffing reductions have been ongoing for decades. In the 1990s,