Send all ice-out information to: Timothy.thurston@maine.gov. For the Maine Lake Ice Out Information Web site, go to: http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/boating/ice_out11.html.

For more information about the Boating Facilities Division, go to: http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/boating/index.html. Or contact George Powell, Boating Facilities Division director, at: (207) 287-4964 or email: george.powell@maine.gov.

AUGUSTA — Mainers who eagerly await that “ice-out” moment on lakes and ponds are being asked to share it with the rest of Maine.

An ice-out information list is being compiled on the Web page of the Boating Facilities Division of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, under the Maine Department of Conservation.

The Web page already contains information for ice-out dates on major lakes going back to 2003. Officials now want Mainers to send in ice-out dates for lakes or ponds near them to post on the site.

 “Spring ice-out is an important moment for lots of people in Maine, including water-access camp owners and recreationists,” Boating Facilities Division Director George Powell said in a statement released Thursday. “People want to know so they can get out and about, and anglers want to know so they can fish. We think this ice-out list will help people all over the state.”

While the exact definition of “ice-out” can be a favorite debate in Maine, the state defines it as “when you can navigate unimpeded from one end of the water body to the other. There may still be ice in coves or along the shoreline, but when a person can traverse the entire water body without being stopped by ice floes, we will consider the ice to be out.”

One of the earliest ice-outs was March 3 on Sebago Lake in 2010. Last year the “Big Bay” area of Sebago did not freeze solid all winter, according to the department. The latest ice-out recorded in the past eight years was on May 9 in 2008, Powell said.

He said recreational boaters should be “very careful this time of year.” The water in Maine’s lakes and ponds is extremely cold. Anyone who falls in can suffer hypothermia, and even death, very quickly, he said. Anyone on the water ought to wear a personal flotation device, he said.

The Boating Facilities Division and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife manage more than 400 coastal and inland boat access sites around the state. 

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