WHEN  THE  BOUGH  BREAKS

Originaly published in our Fall 1999 edition

Thirty-Two Million Trees ... that’s a lot of wood! But what can anyone do with it. Can’t sell it. There is no practical way to get it out of the Boundary Waters. Besides, there’s too much wood on the market already. In salvaging down trees outside of the BWCA, where there are roads, the Forest Service has only been able to sell 50% of the wood it has offered for sale. Guess it’ll just have to lay there and dry out. Oh, sure, it’ll rot . . . in 10 to 15 years.

Remember all of those public service reminders around The Holidays about how flammable a Christmas tree can get? Well, there’s 187,000 acres of Christmas trees just waiting to burn. According to the Forest Service it’s not “Will there be a fire?”, it’s “When?”

What does all this mean to those of us who love this precious wilderness? Are your regular canoe trips just going to become a memory? Absolutely not; there is no reason to abandon the area. But a new awareness must take place: for the Forest Service, outfitters, and visitors, alike.

In the first place, official Forest Service studies show only about 23% of the BWCA was severely impacted. That means that 77% wasn’t. In fact, over half of the US-side of the wilderness was actually affected very little. On the Canadian side the damage was even less, limited to about 5% of Quetico park. For those who do not want to be exposed to damaged areas, the primary starting locations to avoid are: all entries on the northern half of the Gunflint Trail on the east side, and Wood Lake, Moose Lake, and Snowbank Lake in the Ely area. Some other entry points can lead to damaged areas, but don’t have to.

In light of the confined nature of the damage, is the real probability of fire lessened? “YES” and “NO”. Forest fires behave by their own set of rules. The areas outside of the storm zone have no more or less probability of having a fire start than in any other year. In any given two week period without rain, the Forest Service expects there to be some sort of fire incident within the BWCA. In most cases, the burn will be less than an acre.

On the other hand, the ecology of the damaged areas has changed. Without trees to shade the ground, soil temperatures rise. This dries the soil at a much faster rate. Without trees to break the wind, plants loose moisture at a faster rate. The result is the two week time factor will probably be reduced to three days in the effected areas. To this, add dead dry pine needles (called one hour tinder because they can go from wet to burning within an hour). It all makes for a very fire sensitive area.

Can fire be avoided through good user education? Avoided … NO. Significantly reduced … a strong YES! About half of the fires in the BWCA are started by lightning; these can’t be prevented. But the other half is almost always carelessness. No, it isn’t the smoker’s match tossed into dry leaves. It is the campfire that is allowed to “burn itself out.”

According to Forest Service District Fire Boss Jim Hines, here’s how it works. The evening campfire has burned itself down. If there are any flames at all, they are small. The party gets into their tents and goes to sleep. The next morning, it looks like there’s only white ash on the blackened wood remaining under the fire grate; not a wisp of smoke can be seen. Maybe the party cleans up the site and throws a few scraps of paper into the fire pit. They leave. Under that layer of ash, there are still some glowing embers … a gust of wind and there is a flame. A “pop” from the wood, and a spark arcs its way onto some pine needles. Forest fire!

How do they know this? The burn scars usually stem from close to the fire grate area. Reports from other campers are “the people who camped there got an early start this morning.”

The best way to put out an evening campfire is to drown it out in the dark: no flashlights! It is absolutely amazing how much water can be dumped on a campfire and still have a glowing ember somewhere on that wood. Now, after the glowing spots have disappeared, and the steam is gone, stir the wet ash with your finger. If it is still hot to the touch, it’s not out!

Will the Forest Service impose universal open-fire bans on the entire BWCA? Jim Hines’ best guess on this is “NO.” In all probability there will be fire bans, but only in the heavily damaged areas. That’s the good news. The bad news is that because of the “three day cycle” mentioned earlier, the bans will not be lifted very quickly.

What is North Country doing about the probable limited fire ban situation? Our position is twofold.

First, NCCO will be strongly encouraging prospective customers to avoid the blowdown area. If for no other reason, there are better places to go. Moose Lake, the entry point closest to the impacted area carries the highest of the daily quotas. 3,209 parties started there in the last reporting season (that’s approximately 13,500 people).

NCCO has supplied white gas camping stoves as part of our regular complete outfitting packages for a number of years. In 1998 we started including all of the fuel to encourage there regular use. For the 2000 season, this plan is being expanded to our discounted Non-Profit Youth Group Packages as well. To do this, NCCO made a major purchase of additional stoves, and increased our white gas order by several hundred gallons. This is being done at no increase in outfitting rates. We feel the most prudent position to take is to supply all of these parties with stoves regardless of where they are camping. It just helps to reduce the risk.

When camping in a blow-down area, how can food packs be protected from animals if they can’t be hung in a tree? They can’t. The answer is to use a pack that can’t be damaged. In 1999 we experimented with an industrial gauge plastic food barrel. They were never hung during the summer, and were never bothered by any animal. Since they are air tight, there are no food smells to attract animals. We have more barrels and harnesses on order for next season. If you want to try one out, let us know when reserving your trip.