Wildfires 50 percent contained, Gov. Tim Walz weighs special session for economic aid
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As firefighters and line crews continue to make progress containing several wildfires in northeast Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz says he’s been talking with legislative leaders about holding a special session to help area residents and business.
Meanwhile, Sunday St. Louis and Lake counties downgraded several evacuation zones, which will allow some people who had been evacuated will soon be able to return to their homes.
The governor declared a peacetime emergency earlier this month to allocate some state resources to fighting the wildfires. State law requires lawmakers to be called back into session if the peacetime emergency extends beyond 30 days. The 30th day is Aug. 11, so Walz says the special session would likely take place on Aug. 12, so it doesn’t conflict with the Aug. 11 primary elections.
At a news briefing on the fires in Ely Monday morning, Walz said he doesn’t know yet if he will need to extend the emergency declaration beyond Aug. 11, but said the session would be used to address the economic impact of those wildfires in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and that his office and lawmakers have already started “setting the groundwork for what an economic recovery package would look like.
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“Coming up here is what people look forward to all year,” Walz said. “And the folks who are up here make a big chunk of their money during these summer months that are really important.”
But Walz said there needs to be an agreement in advance about what the special session would address.
“It’s really important for us to keep this narrowly focused to the fires and recovery in northern Minnesota and not try to add anything to that special session,” Walz told reporters. “I don’t think that would be appropriate but that's a negotiation that would have to happen.”
State Rep. Roger Skraba, R-Ely, who represents much of the area in which the fires continue to burn, said he believes a relief package for the region will be needed.
“We will work out an economic development package,” said Skraba. “We’re just trying to figure out how, where, and how much, and who’s going to be involved.”
Meanwhile, fire fighting officials with the Forest Service said Monday that their crews are continuing to make progress in their efforts to contain, dampen and put out the wildfires.
Shane Sturgill, operations lead for the incident command said of the rain that fell on the region over the weekend, “that is a welcomed help,” adding that when added up together, the more than 60,000 acres or a little more than 50 percent are contained.
“Currently, efforts continue on all fires with structural protection, line construction, mop up mop up efforts due to the heat remaining in duff layers up to 30 inches deep in some of these areas and around the footprint.” he said.
The duff layer is “the organic material that's down in the soil that is super super dry,” Sturgill said. “So when you don't see smoke for days, the fire's still there. It's still down in the ground.”
And Sturgill says if the conditions change, with warmer, drier and windier weather, the wildfires could flare up again and spread.
“The fuel conditions up here are really extremely dry and have been dry,” Sturgill said. “This moisture is helping, but it's going to take a lot of moisture to get down into that duff layer. So there's those heat sources that continue, that are down into that duff layer.”
“I want to stress that there's a lot of this fire perimeter,” Sturgill continued, pointing to a large map showing the size of the fires. “When you look at the map here, you see just a red footprint here … there’s some real intense patches where the fire made a lot of intense runs, a lot of intensity that came out.”
But firefighting crews now have greater containment on many of the fires, allowing evacuation orders to be lifted for some areas along the Fernberg Road and much of the Echo Trail near Ely. Home, cabin and business owners have been allowed to return to their properties Sunday night.
The wildfire evacuation orders were downgraded following a weekend of relatively quiet fire activity.
“There are suppression actions on all of these fires that are taking place, working towards containment,” said Superior National Forest supervisor Tom Hall.
Officials use a “ready, set, go” system for evacuation alerts. Areas along the Fernberg Road and Echo Trail were changed from “go” to “set.” Authorities say those property owners need to stay prepared to leave again, if fire activity increases.
And some parts of the Boundary Waters on the eastern end of the one million acre wilderness area reopened Monday to canoeists to paddle on day trips. Overnight paddling and camping permits may be allowed as soon as Thursday, according to Hall.
“We assess this on a daily basis,” Hall said. “If there are further opportunities for reductions in the closure area, both inside the wilderness and the associated fire areas outside the wilderness, where there are closures on national forest system lands."
