Minnesota Fires

Smokey Bear Wouldn't Be Happy

This year at our cabin, we are dealing with pretty intense smoke from fires near Ely, MN. There are two ways to get into the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Ely and Grand Marais. We live pretty close to Grand Marais.

We live on a “wilderness lake”. We have motors on our boats, but there is no recreational stuff like water skiing, jet skis, and things like that. Almost everyone has no more than a 9.9 hp motor on their fishing boats. If you have a pontoon, most are 25 hp or 40 hp. Our lake has a huge rockpile in it and a mostly mucky bottom. It’s not a swimming paradise. It’s rough country.

You can go up the Gunflint Trail from Grand Marais, and there are fires at the very top of it. There are fires in Canada too.

Fire is always in the back of your mind when you live in the woods. Earlier this summer, a neighbor down the way had a gas generator backfire and light the shed it was in on fire. I helped put it out. Fortunately, my grandfather was in the US Forest Service, and we have a lot of fire extinguishers around.

We were lucky. The ground was wettish from recent rain, and there was no breeze. This was later at night, around 10:30 PM.

I always asked my grandfather about fires. He said, “If one comes, there is basically nothing you can do to save anything.” That being said, we trim trees up at least 8 feet off the ground. We get rid of the brush. We cut down dead trees and nuisance trees. Currently, we have an outbreak of spruce budworm, and we will have literally about 40-50 balsam firs to drop in the next couple of years as they die.

I have never seen smoke like this up here before. I have been coming since I was 10 (I am 64). It’s thick like a pea soup fog, and you can smell the “burnt”. Ash is falling from the sky. We had some ash fall from the sky a few years ago, and the result of it was that a pond weed started growing in the lake that we all hate. Eventually, it will fade away. That’s the way things go with wilderness lakes.

Lightning strikes ignited these fires. Not global warming. Not a campfire.

The USFS shut down the entire Boundary Waters due to fire. That’s going to hurt a lot of businesspeople there who rely on summer tourism to make a profit. It was the right decision. You can’t use motors inside the Boundary Waters. It’s paddle and portage with campsites. Holiday Inn is camping for me, which is why I love our cabins.

The USFS also has a system, “Ready, Set, Go” to help people prepare when fires happen. Often, they get contained by lakes or some other firebreak when they are in the wilderness. If there isn’t any private property, resorts, or humans nearby, it’s best to let them burn. Burning is a natural process that removes material and paves the way for new growth. If you ever see a stand of Jack Pine, you can rest assured a fire was there.

Logging helps with fire prevention. Clearcuts provide natural breaks. Forests have to be managed. I understand the “live and let live” ideas of environmentalists, but the world just doesn’t work that way anymore.

Towns near us just got a “Ready” order today. Lutsen, Tofte, and Schroeder are a little too close for comfort.