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Greetings from Downeast, where merciful drops of rain late this week weren’t enough to ward off flash droughts. Yes, you read correctly — “flash droughts.” Apparently, it’s a thing. Although the term might sound silly, the consequences aren’t. 

A wildfire in Baileyville grew to 30 acres earlier this week before fire departments got it mostly contained. An earlier Castine wildfire also was subdued. The heroic success of firefighters is great news in a region with countless natural resources, including Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and popular Acadia National Park, where visits are at a record high. 

These fires aren’t one-offs either. Maine has seen 525 wildfires this year, according to Maine Forest Service. The agency has temporarily suspended issuing any new burn permits. 

Social media was ablaze too with comments from some angry City of Eastport residents about everything from the city’s historic management instability to outrage over approvals for cruise ship company liquor licenses.  

On a less serious note, heat of a different kind brought more than 100 Eastporters, literally, together. Check out the heartwarming story below about how neighbors “mustared” a human chain to move 33,000 jars of iconic Raye’s mustard. And don’t forget to check out this weekend’s Machias Wild Blueberry Festival. Tickets for the musical are selling like hotcakes (sorry, I couldn’t resist the puns!)

Finally, The Maine Monitor is in the middle of our summer fundraising drive and we need to raise $50,000 to power our nonprofit, in-depth reporting. 

The support of our readers is what makes this newsletter and all of our free-to-read reporting possible.

Surge of rare tick-borne disease linked to warming climate

New England is warming faster than the rest of the world, which has correlated with a marked uptick in cases of tick-borne diseases, including Lyme, Anaplasmosis and babesiosis in Maine and throughout the Northeast.

Read this story by Chris D'Angelo of The Maine Monitor

While The Maine Monitor does not place its content behind paywalls, some newsrooms we link to in this newsletter may. 

A Down East wildfire is now mostly contained, according to the Maine Forest Service. Firefighters have been battling the 30-acre blaze near the U.S.-Canada border in Baileyville since Sunday evening. | Portland Press Herald

Dry conditions are fueling "very high" fire danger in central and coastal Maine. Dozens of fires have been reported in the last two weeks alone. | Maine Public

Parts of Maine have developed a flash drought due to ongoing dry conditions, according to the National Weather Service. The fire danger across the state remains high, according to the Maine Forest Service. | Bangor Daily News

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit on Aug. 11 partially upheld and partially sent back to a lower court Bar Harbor’s legal dispute with some local associations and others over cruise ship disembarkation limits. | Bar Harbor Story

Acadia National Park sets all-time record for monthly visits. | Bangor Daily News

Canadian border crossings into Maine continued to drop last month. | Maine Public

The man who was armed and wearing body armor pled guilty to not stopping at a Maine border crossing. | Bangor Daily News

A spike in visits to a remote offshore section of Acadia National Park hasn’t sparked the same concerns about crowding and overtourism that have divided neighbors of the much more famous Mount Desert Island section of the park. | Bangor Daily News

When ground-level ozone readings at the monitors on McFarland Hill and Cadillac reached unhealthy levels for sensitive people this week, the park issued an advisory for at-risk individuals. | Ellsworth American

ICYMI from The Monitor: With little guidance from the federal government, MaineCare recipients wonder if they’ll lose their insurance. | The Maine Monitor

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services is urging federal food assistance recipients in Maine to change the PINs on their EBT cards and check for fraudulent activity. | Maine Public

ICYMI from The Monitor: While the Southern Baptist Convention has faced declining membership nationally, its popularity in Maine has surged in recent years, along with other evangelical congregations. | The Maine Monitor

The Ellsworth Planning Board approved an initial review of a two-story plaza development on Bangor Road. | The Ellsworth American

Raye’s Mustard needed to move 33,000 jars of mustard to make way for repairs to their mill, and the town of Eastport showed up to lend a hand, forming a human chain. | News Center Maine

Maine Game Wardens recovered the bodies of two anglers on Grand Falls Flowage in Baileyville. | Bangor Daily News

Have feedback, a correction or know of something we should look into? Send it to our newsroom. If you have feedback or a tip that you want to send to Joyce Kryszak directly, email her at: joyce@themainemonitor.org. 

The Maine Monitor is a publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism. We believe news is a public good and keep our news free to access. We have no paywall and do not charge for our newsletters. If you value the reporting we do for Maine, please consider making a donation! We cannot do this reporting without your support.

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