CAMBRIDGE, MD - Despite recent rainfall, dark clouds still loom over Maryland as a statewide burn ban remains in effect, impacting environmental management across the peninsula.
The ban has put several parks, including Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, behind schedule on their controlled burn projects. John Ashcraft, the zone fire management officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Blackwater, explained that controlled burns are crucial for the marsh’s ecological health.
“With grass and other herbaceous vegetation, it evolved in the presence of fire, so sometimes it will get to the point where its growth will slow down, and it likes the fire to come through, clear everything off, and it will rejuvenate itself,” Ashcraft said.
The prolonged dry conditions have made it dangerous to conduct controlled burns, potentially transforming them into out-of-control blazes. According to Ashcraft, these conditions bring additional concerns.
“We have a lot of heavy equipment where we do mowing and stuff like that, and if there is a possibility of throwing a spark or an ember from hitting a piece of metal or something like that, that could be a possible ignition source,” he said. “Possibility of starting a fire ... that’s what we’re more concerned about right now than controlled burns. ... With this drought being as bad as it is, we could actually have some fire effects that we did not intend. We could see higher mortality in some of the overstory trees, things like that.”
Maryland’s statewide burn ban is expected to remain in place. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) emphasized that recent rainfalls were insufficient to relieve current dry conditions.
“Most of the state did receive some form of the rain; it’s just not enough to get us out of the conditions we’re in. We just need rain over a long duration ... something that’s not gonna come down fast and gonna runoff,” said Chris Robertson, the state fire supervisor with the Maryland Forest Service under the Maryland DNR.
The DNR also reported that areas on the Upper Shore, including Talbot, Caroline, Kent, and Queen Anne’s counties, are under a special weather statement due to heightened fire risks. Dorchester County is not part of that alert, though officials warn that wind conditions could increase the risk of fire ignition and spread.
