A Beautiful Day in the BWCA

Last night we had a lot of rain. Best of all, it came over several hours. Just the kind of rain you need to put out fires. The Mpls Star/Tribune published a story this morning of the “Devastation of the BWCA”. Kind of a fail if you ask me. See for yourself. If this is the worst of the worst, then I think we made out OK.

https://www.startribune.com/new-aerial-photos-expose-fires-devastation-of-the-boundary-waters/601874548?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=essential_minnesota&utm_term=Essential%20MN%20Updated

I see an awful lot of green in all the photos and the only complete burns were in carefully cropped close up shots. If they were trying to show how bad the fires were, they fell sadly short of the mark.

Most entry points are open again. We’re sending people out every day and boy are they excited to be able to do their trips. We’re pretty thrilled to have them back.

Fire is part of this ecosystem and fires rarely burn everything in their path. More often fires create a patchwork of black, brown and green based on soil types, ground cover and the forest type in the area.

Campsites rarely burn. How many people have been picking up every burnable stick within 200 feet of that campsite? For the last 50 years at least and maybe 500, or even 5000 years? Why do you think all those huge white pines are around the campsites?

This round of fires burned around 64,000 acres of the BWCAW. That seems like a lot. Till you remember that the BWCAW is over 1 million acres so that’s about 6%. Also remember that much of the BWCAW has burned over the last 50 years or so – some parts more than once. I challenge most visitors to the area to point out what parts of their favorite routes have burned or not. After a few years it’s pretty hard to tell. And there are still stands of pines that are older than our nation.

Some of my best experiences in the BW and Quetico have been paddling fresh burns. Seeing the almost immediate renewal of the forest floor. Trees sprouting new growth from blackened trunks. Liverwort creating little band-aids over newly exposed soils so they don’t wash away. Seeing all the places that for one reson or another are still green. And next year… Blueberries.

Appreciating nature takes a glass half full attitude. If this place were all that easy to love it wouldn’t be the special place it is.