Near Two Harbors, 34 structures burned and Highway 61 closed; in Crow Wing County, a 1,600-acre fire sparked evacuations

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Crews have successfully smothered much of the Flanders Fire in Crow Wing County and completely contained the Stewart Trail Fire near Two Harbors. 

Man-made firebreaks, like dozer lines created by heavy machinery and hand lines dug by firefighters, help stop flames from spreading — but so do natural barriers like beaver ponds. 

assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota

, says while there’s a good number of beavers in Minnesota, they’re not evenly distributed and are less common nearer to the Twin Cities compared to their abundance in the Boundary Waters. 

Beaver ponds help stop wildfires because they both slow down and spread out water, giving it time to sink into the soil. 

“We get a lot of precipitation here in Minnesota, but more and more it's coming in these big, flashy events, a storm, and then that water rushes through and it's gone,” Fairfax said. “So, instead of just having this quick-moving blast of water, you get this great big sponge that is the earth filling up with water and staying too wet to burn.” 

Man-made firebreaks are created to be as wide and connected as possible. 

“And that's actually the beaver's No. 1 goal, is to make a great big wide connected wetland that maybe spans for kilometers and kilometers and kilometers. They're basically building firebreaks out of every single stream they work on,” Fairfax continued. 

keep track of real-time wildfire updates

University of Minnesota expert helped make animated beavers true to life

Listen to the full conversation and learn about ways to conserve beaver habitats by clicking the player button above.

Environmental News

Climate

Shows

Morning Edition

NewsPartners

Homepage

Animals

Disasters

Minnesota Wildfires

On Air

Emily Bright

Host

Gracie  Stockton

Author

Man-made firebreaks, like dozer lines created by heavy machinery and hand lines dug by firefighters, help stop flames from spreading — but so do natural barriers like beaver ponds. 


How beavers help contain wildfires

Courtesy of Emily Fairfax

A view of a large body of water in a forest.

Leave it to beavers! How these rodents damn wildfires

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox