According to fire officials, the long persistent dry summer has created dangerously high fire conditions and the National Weather Service predicts more dry conditions ahead.

Wood and charcoal fires are only allowed in developed campgrounds and group campgrounds that have established concrete or steel-grated fire pits or rings. Building and tending open campfires, including charcoal briquettes, cooking fires and warming fires are prohibited until further notice.

Allowable sources for cooking or heat include portable stoves or lanterns using gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel.

Smoking is allowed within enclosed vehicles, buildings and developed recreation sites.

Violators can be fined up to $5,000 and/ or imprisoned up to six months in jail.

Visitors to national forests will not pay fees on the following dates in 2012:

• Saturday-Monday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend
• June 9: Get Outdoors Day
• Sept. 29: National Public Lands Day
• Nov. 10-12: Veterans Day weekend

Despite the Forest Service’s fee waivers, the agency does not usually charge for visitors to national forests. In fact, the Forest Service does not charge for access on 98 percent of its land, said a news release. More than two-thirds of the Forest Service’s approximately 18,000 recreation sites nationwide can be used for free. They include picnic sites, campsites, beach and lake areas, trails, boat launches, and cabins.

Also not charging admission fees this weekend are the National Park Service, including parks like Mount Rainier and Olympic, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including locations like the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, and Washington State Parks.

The effort will focus on Greenwater and Wilkeson areas, similar to last year.

Volunteers should meet at 8 a.m. that day in the south parking lot to the Enumclaw Fairgrounds. The parking lot is at the intersection of Southeast 456th Street and 284th Avenue Southeast.

Organizers asked that people bring supplies such as gloves, plastic bags and rakes. Volunteers also should bring water and food to last throughout the day.

If you are interested in helping or have questions, contact law enforcement officer Ian Canaan at 206-510-6496 or ICanaan@fs.fed.us.

Almost 100 volunteers turned out Saturday to help pick up trash and remove debris on Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest lands along state Route 410.

Groups went to about a dozen locations on the state Route 410 corridor and in the Wilkeson-Carbonado area near state Route 165.

“We picked up approximately 62 yards of garbage, two 25 yard dumpsters and approximately another 10 pickup and trailer loads,” wrote Ian J. Canaan, a forest law enforcement officer in an e-mail.

“We removed a camper, engine block, household furniture, propane tanks, paint cans, car parts and almost anything you can think of,” he added.

When weighed at the landfill, the cleaned up items weighed three tons.

In addition to volunteers, the effort also had support from the Washington State Patrol, state Department of Natural Resources, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife as well as civilian staff of the Forest Service and a couple of other Forest Service law enforcement officers.

The volunteers are from environmental groups, National Rifle Association and Forest Service employees. The public is welcome to join the effort.

Volunteers should plan to meet at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the south parking lot for Enumclaw Fairgrounds, 45600 284th Ave. S.E., Enumclaw. The work will run from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

For more information, contact Snoqualmie District Ranger Jim Franzel at 425-922-1561.

Workers will close various locations from mile post 42, south of White Chuck Bench Overlook, to mile post 35, south of Bedal Creek Bridgem, said a Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest news release.

Closures next week on the north side of Mountain Loop Highway will block access from Darrington to forest road 49 and Sloan Creek Trailhead, which leads to Glacier Peak Wilderness. Hikers will need to come from Granite Falls to reach that trailhead.

The forest is making road upgrades, including replacing older, deteriorating culverts and increasing the size of other culverts to better accommodate the passage of fish and flood waters.

Call Darrington Ranger District for updates weekdays at 360-436-1155, or Verlot Public Service Center weekends at 360-691-7791. You also can click here for updated information about trails and roads, go to alerts and conditions.

The closure, starting at milepost 2.5, is needed for commercial timber thinning. The road will be closed 8 a.m. Mondays through noon Fridays through the end of April.

Mason Lake Road parallels the north side of Interstate 90 and is off Exit 45. The closure will block access to Ira Spring Trailhead during the week. Hikers can still reach the Talapus Trailhead.

Forest officials are thinning 350 acres of western hemlock, Douglas fir and western red cedar, cutting trees 60-75 years old to improve the growth and health of those remaining.

Call the Snoqualmie Ranger District for updates at 425-888-1421, or stop by the office at 902 S.E. North Bend Way, North Bend. Click here for updated information about trails and roads, go to alerts and conditions.

Last winter’s floods closed the road, blocking access to the Middle Fork and Snoqualmie Lake trailheads.

The Upper Middle Fork Road remains closed until next summer for repairs just beyond the Middle Fork Campground and Taylor River Bridge, from mile post 12.5 to its end at Dingford Creek Trailhead.