Rains Keep Boundary Waters Fire-Free

Weeks of unending, miserable, soaking rain may not sound like good news for campers.

But weather like that during June and July in northeastern Minnesota raised the spirits of those visiting this summer.

That’s because the immediate threat of a forest fire - a huge, Los Alamos-sized, out-of-control blaze - vanished along with the sunshine.

“With the wet spring we’ve had, I don’t think you could start a forest fire if you tried,” said John Schiefelbein, a resort owner and canoe outfitter in Ely, Minn.

Though forest fires are not uncommon in the Boundary Waters, fear of a major fire grew this year after a freak storm ravaged the park last summer.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a federally protected park along the Canadian border, includes about 1 million acres of trees.

The park, home to wolves, bears, moose and bald eagles, is laced with thousands of clear lakes. It is a canoeing mecca, drawing more than 200,000 visitors a year, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.

But last July 4, a 90-mph storm smashed through the pine and birch forests. The straight-line winds flattened trees in an area about 30 miles long and up to 10 miles wide.

Many of the downed trees were piled up like sticks - tinder waiting for a spark.

Because the storm occurred in a federally protected wilderness area, regulations limit what kind and how much cleanup can be done in the natural area.

The work consisted mainly of clearing campsites and portage trails between lakes.

Most of the millions of downed trees will be left alone. But that increased the fire risk, which then required special precautions.

Officials feared a huge blaze like the one that swept Yellowstone National Park a dozen years ago. So they began cleaning up downed trees in the national forest area just outside the wilderness.

Firefighting precautions were beefed up and campfires were restricted, forcing canoeists to cook over portable stoves instead.

Some outfitters said their business is down 15 percent this year and requests have declined for the limited permits available to enter the wilderness.

Eventually, however, a big blaze is almost a sure thing.