From the Duluth News Tribune, by John Meyers
Four years into a seven-year plan to burn wind-toppled trees in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the U.S. Forest Service has fallen well behind its plan to remove dead wood that could fuel catastrophic fires.
The Forest Service so far has managed to torch fewer than 14,000 acres of the 70,000 acres targeted for intentional fires within the BWCAW.
Fire officials want to light a series of small fires to eliminate dead and drying trees in areas hard-hit by the July 4, 1999, windstorm. That would help stop any future wildfires from growing out of control.
But at the current pace of 3,500 acres per year, and if the trend of fickle fall burning weather continues, it would take 20 years to complete the original seven-year plan.
And with 56,000 acres remaining on the to-do list, forest officials are concerned they may not be moving fast enough to reduce the dead wood that experts say could fuel major wildfires.
"We've learned enough from burning blowdown over the past few years that we think we can do it and do it right," said Ellen Bogardus-Szymaniak, prescribed-fire and fuels specialist for the Chippewa and Superior National forests.
Lighting small, intentional fires in the spring isn't unusual in this region. But fire experts had been concerned that large intentional fires in the blowdown would burn too hot and that, if the usual June rain storms didn't come, fires could keep smoldering and spreading through a dry summer.
Moreover, the same dry period when intentional fires will burn each spring also happens to be the state's busiest wildfire season, with burning bans in effect and firefighting crews often scrambling to keep up on each sunny, breezy day.
That's why the Forest Service lights most of its larger, intentional fires in the fall, so if one burns or even smolders beyond expectations, it's usually snuffed by cold or snowy weather.
But damp summers and wet fall weather have hampered fall efforts to burn big blocks of blowdown, said Kris Reichenbach, Superior National Forest spokeswoman. There just aren't enough good days each fall to get all their burning completed.
"Each burn plan has a window, and we don't burn outside those windows," she said. "We've run into a string of bad luck.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials say they fully trust the Forest Service's burning procedures and aren't worried about spring burning plans.
"They aren't going to do anything that would be risky or that we don't feel comfortable with," said Ron Stoffel, who heads the DNR's efforts at the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center in Grand Rapids.
BLOWDOWN BURNS WET
Officials have learned that blowdown trees -- many still standing and now six years dry -- make for great fires. Even when the rest of the forest is too wet to burn, fires started in blowdown take off and run.
"That's great news because we know we can burn blowdown when it's too wet for anything else to burn" and still keep fires within the selected boundaries, Bogardus-Szymaniak said.
Early efforts at removing downed trees near lodges, homes and cabins near the BWCAW went well, through logging and prescribed fires. Slowly, the Forest Service has been working away from developed areas -- considered the most critical to rid of downed trees -- and into the heart of the BWCAW.
But the pace has been painfully slow. Last fall, plans called for more than 10,000 acres to be burned, but only 5,000 acres were completed, and that was the best year so far.
"We know now we can do several thousand acres in a good day if everything goes well," Bogardus-Szymaniak said. "Unfortunately, we haven't had many good days."
At least 10,000 acres and as many as 25,000 acres are planned to be burned this year, including about 10,000 acres in the western BWCAW that crews will try to burn this spring. That includes a large area near Trout Lake that holds about 5,000 acres of wind-downed trees.
FIRE RISK REMAINS
Forest Service officials say the increased fire danger from millions of downed trees will remain at least until 2008, until the dead trees rot. They'll keep plugging away until they finish the 70,000 acres or until it's clear the remaining wood won't burn "even if it takes longer than seven years," Reichenbach said.
"It's still out there, still dry and still ready to burn. Just because it hasn't doesn't mean it won't," said Henry Goehle, fire-management officer for the Superior and Chippewa national forests.
The same damp weather that's foiled burning plans also has kept wildfires to an unusually low number during the past six years, with no property damage.
"We've had an amazing string of summers that never got too dry," Bogardus-Szymaniak said. "Between the weather and our campers being so responsible, we haven't had any big fire yet. But we know it can still happen."
Given their luck so far -- with no major fires despite tons of dry fuel -- fire officials say they'll take wet over dry.
"As a scientist, to be honest, I'd like to see what would happen now if the blowdown really does burn inside the wilderness, now that we're pretty confident we can keep it there," Bogardus-Szymaniak said. "But it's better when we do it rather than it going on its own."
