AUGUSTA — Maine residents who eagerly await that well-anticipated moment known as “ice out” on Maine’s lakes and ponds now can share it with their friends, neighbors and the rest of the state.

The Boating Facilities Division of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, under the Maine Department of Conservation, is compiling ice-out information on its website and is asking Mainers to help out.

The website contains historical information for ice-out dates on major lakes going back to 2003.

Anyone with ice-out information is asked to email the division when ice out occurs on a specific water body so it can be posted on the website. Photos also are welcome, and webcam information also is appreciated.

There are roughly 2,800 “great ponds” in Maine, defined as water bodies of 10 acres or more or dammed water bodies of 30 acres or more. There are smaller lakes and ponds, numbering 5,000 to 7,000, defined as private ponds.

While the exact definition of “ice out” can be a favorite debate in Maine, for the purpose of the web page it is defined 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 flows, we will consider the ice to be out,” the website states.

Send all ice-out information to: Timothy.thurston@maine.gov

For the Maine Lake Ice Out Information website, go to www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/boating/ice_out11.html

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