Firefighters gain ground in BWCA fire

08/12/2005

Larry Oakes,
Star Tribune
August 12, 2005

Thanks in part to calm, cool and humid weather, the Alpine Lake fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness stayed put Thursday, allowing firefighters to make more progress toward containing it.

While the fire spent a passive day, about a dozen Seagull Lake property owners did not. They crossed the lake in boats and were prepared to place themselves along a shoreline to prevent firefighters from setting a “burn-out” fire, designed to reduce fuel and prevent the wildfire from racing through the area later.

But a Cook County sheriff’s deputy intercepted them and persuaded them to instead meet with fire officials and air their concerns, said Gil Knight, a U.S. Forest Service fire information officer.

“It turned out there was a miscommunication, a misunderstanding about where we intended to do this burn,” Knight said.

The property owners thought the burn-out was going to alter a piece of shoreline known as the “palisades,” on the lake’s northwest shore.

“It’s very picturesque, on a peninsula,” said Leanne Adams, president of the Seagull-Sag Area Property Owners Association.

“Since the [1999] blowdown and subsequent prescribed burns, people have seen the shoreline change so much that they become concerned when they hear that anything more might happen to the shoreline,” Adams said.

Fire officials explained to protesters that they planned to burn near, but not on, a different portion of shoreline.

Knight took responsibility for the misunderstanding, saying he didn’t adequately describe the plan or understand the local terms for uncharted landmarks such as the palisades.

“Some residents are understandably upset about further destruction of the shoreline, while we’re doing our best to prevent a potential disaster to their properties,” Knight said.

Said Adams: “People are torn. They know back-burning needs to be done, but then it’s hard to think about having to live with that blackened landscape. But most of us trust that the Forest Service in general has our best interests at heart.”

Knight said fire officials now plan to meet each morning with interested property owners, to nip any misunderstandings in the bud and to hear their concerns. Officials also will assign another information officer to the fire, in an effort to be more responsive to questions, he said.

Late Thursday afternoon, the burn-out was 75 percent complete and “things are looking real good at the moment,” Knight said. “This way, the fuel is out of there if we get somewhat gusty winds as predicted for Friday. It minimizes the fire’s potential for spotting”—which means hopscotching ahead on wind-driven embers.

The Alpine Lake fire is the largest in the BWCA in 10 years and has threatened 70 homes, cabins and businesses on the end of the Gunflint Trail, just a few miles to the east.

So far, more than 1½ square miles of forest have burned in the fire, which started with a July 30 lightning strike between Alpine and Seagull lakes.

Meanwhile, new restrictions on campfires in the blowdown area of the BWCA went into effect this morning.