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Slideshow: Boundary Waters Blowdown: 10 years later

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John Pierce
U.S. Forest Service recreation planner John Pierce surveys regrowth on the shore of Moose Lake north of Ely.
MPR Photo/Nate Minor

Ten years after millions of trees blew down in Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the forest is in the midst of a comeback.

Read more about the area's regrowth a decade after the July 4, 1999, storm that flattened more than 400,000 acres of forests.

Gallery
12 of 12
Blowdown area
This area near Magnetic Lake was part of a prescribed burn in 2002.
MPR Photo/Matt Thueson
1 of 12
John Pierce
U.S. Forest Service recreation planner John Pierce surveys regrowth on the shore of Moose Lake north of Ely.
MPR Photo/Nate Minor
2 of 12
Blowdown
The blowdown storm on July 4, 1999, damaged timber on an estimated 400,000 acres of forest in the BWCA. Forest officials have been concerned about the possibility of fire in that area ever since.
Photo courtesy of the Superior National Forest