Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

CATHERINE WINTER: Fires continue to burn in Northern Minnesota as residents cope with another day of record temperatures today. One fire, which was started by lightning, has expanded to cover more than 2,600 acres in the Million Acre Boundary Waters Canoe area Wilderness in Northeastern Minnesota. Firefighters are letting that blaze burn because it was started by natural causes, but there are a number of smaller fires in the BWCA that crews are trying to put out.

Joining us on the line now is district ranger Jo Barnier, who's in the Grand Marais area. Hello, Jo.

JO BARNIER: Hi.

CATHERINE WINTER: Thanks for being with us. How big are most of the fires that you're dealing with?

JO BARNIER: Well, we have several fires that are between 10 and 25 acres in size. And then we have one larger one that's approximately 200 acres. That one is on the south side of Winchell Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

CATHERINE WINTER: Are most of these up in the Wilderness area, or are any actually in places where people live?

JO BARNIER: They're all in the wilderness area at this time.

CATHERINE WINTER: And these are trying to put out?

JO BARNIER: Yes, we are.

CATHERINE WINTER: Why is that?

JO BARNIER: Well, these were also lightning-caused fires, but one of the criteria that we look at in deciding whether to take action on them or allow them to burn as a prescribed natural fire is the resources that we have on the forest. And the fire over on the Kawishiwi District is at such a size that we felt we didn't have the resources to allow some of these other fires to be prescribed fires.

CATHERINE WINTER: Now, normally the policy in the BWCA would be more or less a let burn policy. Isn't that correct?

JO BARNIER: We have a set of criteria that we go through. It's a case-by-case decision every time.

CATHERINE WINTER: Oh, it is. OK.

JO BARNIER: But yes, every fire that's started by lightning, we would make an assessment whether to go that way or not.

CATHERINE WINTER: And the problem in this instance is just you've got too much fire going on at once.

JO BARNIER: That's right.

CATHERINE WINTER: When do you expect that you'll actually have them all under control? Can you predict that?

JO BARNIER: Well, no. I really don't have a prediction on that. We have already controlled 4 fires out of 10 that we had going a couple of days ago. And we've got crews working on these remaining four. And no, I really can't say.

CATHERINE WINTER: Are any of the fires close enough to the edge of the wilderness that they would if they got bigger actually threaten cabins or any houses up there?

JO BARNIER: The closest one is about 2 miles. And right now that one is only 10 acres in size. So we feel that one can be controlled before it gets to an area that has private property and cabins.

CATHERINE WINTER: I know that normally by this time of year, the fire season is pretty much over in that area. What are the conditions like? Is it really hot and dry?

JO BARNIER: Yes, it is. We've had record high temperatures. We've had very little rain. We have a lot of dead trees in the wilderness. We've got areas of-- from a couple of years ago, we had a blow-down storm and so we've got timber out there that's just ready to burn.

CATHERINE WINTER: Do you think the risk of forest fires is going to stay high until you get some rain?

JO BARNIER: Yes, it definitely will. Right now we don't have a campfire ban, but we're telling every group that goes out on the forest to be very, very careful with their campfires.

CATHERINE WINTER: There is a ban in your county, isn't there, on burning yard waste right now?

JO BARNIER: We are not issuing any burning permits. That's correct.

CATHERINE WINTER: And if things get worse, I suppose I guess Quetico has issued a ban on campfires now.

JO BARNIER: Yes, they have.

CATHERINE WINTER: And that would be something that you'd have to consider in the BWCA too.

JO BARNIER: Yeah, we would consider it. Generally, the percentage of the number of fires is fairly low that are started that way. And so we don't like to put that restriction on people. But we may have to.

CATHERINE WINTER: You recommend those little camp stoves anyway.

JO BARNIER: Yes, we do. It's just less impact upon the environment all around.

CATHERINE WINTER: Right. All right. Well, Jo Barnier, thanks a lot for joining us this morning. Appreciate the information. Joe Barnier is the district ranger for the Grand Marais area. That fire that's up in-- the large fire that's up in the BWCA is now covering more than 2,000 acres, some 2,600 acres. And that fire, the Forest Service is monitoring, but no one is trying to put that one out.

In fact, officials are delighted that the forest is on fire. That's because new fire policies look at fire not so much as an enemy, but as a creative force in the forest, a natural element that's necessary for the renewal of the ecosystem. Joining us this morning to talk about the big burn up there is district ranger Art Wirtz. Good morning, Art.

ART WIRTZ: Good morning, Catherine.

CATHERINE WINTER: So this one was started by lightning, is that correct?

ART WIRTZ: Yes, it was about 16 days ago.

CATHERINE WINTER: Now, I know that many of the Western fires tend to be started by lightning because they get those thunderstorms with no rain and it's so dry. But that's really unusual in the BWCA, isn't it?

ART WIRTZ: Well, yes, we look at a lot of campfires, but this one we picked up a lightning fire. And since that time, we have picked up some other lightning in the area that have started some fires.

CATHERINE WINTER: Why do you let it burn?

ART WIRTZ: Well, as Jo was mentioning earlier, we do evaluate each one. And this lightning fire, we discovered it probably the next day after the lightning came through. And it was just in an ideal location for prescribed natural fire. It had a lot of large lakes surrounding a large mass of a forested area there. And it was not in a real close proximity to cabins or anything else that would have a major impact on there. And everything looked good. It met all the criteria that we were talking about. And so we did decide to put it in the prescribed natural fire.

CATHERINE WINTER: What's the benefit, though, of letting a fire go? How does that help the forest?

ART WIRTZ: Well, the benefit is actually letting a natural force, which is definitely part of the ecological system, as you mentioned, to be reintroduced. There's been a lot of suppression activities. Our agency and other land management agencies have taken very aggressive prevent forest fires, suppress forest fires activity, along with the Smokey Bear program.

And we're not saying that's bad, but we're saying that there is a lot of these areas, particularly the very natural areas like our wilderness, which Boundary Waters is one of those, that it needs to be in there as part of the natural system. It is part of all of the natural system that's in those areas.

CATHERINE WINTER: What does it help to do? It cleans out the underbrush, and is it actually beneficial to the animals that live there?

ART WIRTZ: Oh, yeah. It's very surprising how much we've got. We've had monitoring crews monitoring the fire from the air and from the ground. And we've had people in just in the last few days to go in and see how much damage, there is some damage in there, but also how much beneficial, processes the fire has actually stimulated.

There are a lot of birds that have been coming back in. In fact, there's a couple of species of the woodpecker that as soon as they smell smoke, boy, they want to get in there because the bugs are very abundant and that's what they're after to feed their young birds. And also we've seen deer that are coming back in there, deer follow fires.

We've seen some moose tracks, and there's a lot of species that will benefit, particularly later in the summer when a lot of these brush species and other species that have burned down, when they start to sprout back and they'll have some very fresh buds that they can browse on as they go through the area.

CATHERINE WINTER: So Art Wirtz, if it needs to burn, why not set it on fire?

ART WIRTZ: Well, we could do that, but really historically, they have been fires that have been caused by lightning. And so to reintroduce it and maintain the natural system, we are working to use the natural lightning fires and evaluate them and reintroduce it that way. It's a more natural process. And the wilderness we manage, the wilderness is much a natural process as possible.

CATHERINE WINTER: How do you keep the fire from going too far?

ART WIRTZ: In this particular fire, we have identified a perimeter that's at 12,000 acres. And at 12,000 acres, we have a lot of lakes in there, we have some portages between these lakes that we'll be able to use as holding lines if the fire does approach that. But it is a logical area. The vegetation is such that we know what the fire intensity will be like as it approaches these lines or approaches these lakes.

And so we laid this out. Initially, we were looking at a smaller area in there, about 7,800 acres. But in future evaluation on that, we picked up that there are some other areas that were even better, so we moved it out to 12,000. And as we monitor, we think it's a very good perimeter. And if we do get a burn through there, all the way through the 12,000, it'll be a mosaic, a mosaic of different age classes and diversity in vegetation, which is just what was normally occurring in the Boundary Waters prior to man's coming into the area.

CATHERINE WINTER: All right. Art Wirtz, thank you very much for joining us this morning. I appreciate the information.