Northeastern Minnesota wildfires: What comes next
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How common are wildfires? | What comes next | Reminders
Three combined wildfires burned nearly 20,000 acres in northeastern Minnesota over the past few weeks. As of Monday, the Jenkins Creek fire near Hoyt Lakes was 78 percent contained. The Camp House fire near Brimson, remained at 90 percent containment.
As the wildfires become increasingly contained, the process to recovery is set.
The fires destroyed dozens of structures and left some displaced.
Tom Hall is the forest supervisor at the Superior National Forest. He says that based on predictive data from the federal government and other sources, the rest of the year is not predicted to be above average for fire risk.
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“But that doesn't mean that fire couldn't occur,” Hall said. “Fire is a natural part of the environment, and so it could definitely occur as we go later into the fall.”
Northeast Minnesota is partially boreal forest, which is a mix of coniferous trees, think pines and firs, that transition into deciduous trees like birch and aspen.
The boreal is one of the most flammable types of vegetation on the planet, said Lee Frelich, director of the Center for Forest Ecology at the University of Minnesota. He researches all sorts of forest disturbances including wind, fire and invasive species, as well as aspects of climate change.
Dry weather, heat and strong winds combined with trees like balsam fir, spruce and pines created ideal conditions for fire.
What comes next
Hall says the Forest Service will move from fire suppression to assessing and addressing what the fire has done to watersheds, ground cover and roads.
They’ll also work to curtail large, damaging fires in the future.
This includes protecting against invasive species, facilitating reforestation efforts and evaluating fire risk in the future at the burned area. They plan to reduce flammable vegetation.
“These forests have experienced fires for thousands of years, and they're good at recovering after fires, and they will recover on their own,” Frelich said.
For anyone venturing into burned areas, he warns to beware of dead trees, the most unstable of which will fall within two to three years, while others could fall in the coming decades.
While every species of tree takes a different amount of time to germinate and grow, the first stage lasts about 10 to 15 years. Once the trees have created a closed canopy, they become what is called a “young forest,” which lasts for several decades.
Throughout this process, a range of animal species will visit and make the forest home. Deer, moose and certain species of birds thrive off recently disturbed forests. Other birds and smaller mammals will return for older and more grown forests.
How common are fires?
Big fires have been common in Minnesota for thousands of years.
The state sees two “fire seasons” in the spring and late summer.
During late spring in northeastern Minnesota, coniferous trees and needles are more susceptible to drying out. During warmer and longer sunny days more water is lost through the needles of pine, spruce and fir trees. The trees work to replenish what is lost by using stored water or what was kept in the soil moisture through its roots, but the soil may still be frozen, and the water uptake can be slower than the rate that it’s being lost.
Come late summer, the vegetation is often less dry and has been heating up all summer on the forest floor. Wildfire risk is lower.
Frelich said researchers do not know for sure whether these fires are “just a return to normal” or a step on the way to something “with a much more severe fire regime because of the warming climate.”
He says more time is needed for observations, but Canada’s forests offer evidence that warming has had an effect.
“It looks pretty likely that increasing frequency of fire, increasing intensity of fire and increasing interaction of fire with other disturbances, like windstorms that blow down trees, it looks like that is related to the warming climate,” Frelich said.
Reminders and advice for fire risk
Fire risk is constantly changing due to precipitation and temperatures.
To protect against wildfires, people in the woods should fully extinguish cigarettes and campfires. If you see smoke, they are not extinguished enough. Campfire coals should be cold to the touch.
Frelich recommends considering fireproof materials for rebuilding, keeping firewood away from the house, consider taking out or not positioning structures near flammable trees and install a sprinkler system if possible.
Aspen and birch tree lines are good replanting options since they are less flammable. Contact organizations and departments that oversee reforesting initiatives for advice.
To keep an eye on fire risk, updates are made to the incident information system which can be viewed publicly and is available for mobile access also through their app.
