…Campfires and open burns were two of the primary causes of wildfires this August, when Maine saw more wildfires than in any other August over the last 20 years, according to the Maine Forest Service. What made the landscape more susceptible to wildfires might seem counterintuitive: a wet spring. Plenty of rain in May sprouted the growth of fine fuels such as grasses and shrubs. Then three months of severe drought dried them out, turning the Maine landscape into a tinderbox. …“This is a pattern that’s being seen all over the place,” said Andrew Barton, wildfire ecologist and biology professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. “That kind of whipsaw from moist conditions to dry conditions really sets up places to burn.” …Lightning-induced fire is still a rarity in Maine, and human causes will continue to dwarf any projected increases.