MPR: The Need for Speed in BWCA Tree Removal

The Need for Speed in BWCA Tree Removal
By Bob Kelleher
August 26, 1999

The U.S. Forest Service will be able to sidestep some regulations to remove dead timber near Northeastern Minnesota's Gunflint Trail. Officials are worried about the danger of fire from millions of trees downed in a Fourth of July Storm. The waiver allows the Forest Service to go ahead with salvage timber sales with an abbreviated environmental review process.

TREES ALONG THE GUNFLINT TRAIL are strewn like a mean game of pick-up sticks. Officials agree the dead and dying timber is a forest fire waiting to happen. As a result, through the end of this year the U.S. Forest Service will work quickly on a wide range of fuel suppression efforts, which might include logging, controlled fires, or crushing and chipping felled trees so they decompose more quickly.

Forest officials worry about the Gunflint Corridor because of its summer homes and resorts. It's a populated area that would be in the path of any fires coming from the most severely damaged areas in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Barb Soderburg, with the Superior National Forest Headquarters in Duluth, says public involvement and environmental analysis are still important - but will happen faster.

Soderburg: Normally, we would probably do an environmental impact statement for this kind of project, and realistically it would probably be eight months to a year before we could implement things on the ground, and that would already take us into next season. And, in this case in the Gunflint Corridor, we really felt it was enough of an emergency situation that we really needed to do something yet this fall and into the winter.

Soderburg says fire danger was a concern to officials even before the July 4th storm. A spruce budworm infestation has killed off highly flammable balsam fir trees across the region. The Gunflint Trail concerns fire officials because it's the only road through the forest for thousands of seasonal residents and resort operators.

Soderburg: The Gunflint Trail - so that's one way in, and one way out. So, there's certainly concern about getting fire crews in there. It's concern about the crews being as effective as they can in terms of having access. And, of course, there's concern about getting people out.

The Gunflint Volunteer Fire Department would be among the first on the scene of a wildfire. Fire Chief Dan Bowman says clearing creates buffer zones that can slow or isolate forest fires.

Bowman: It's gonna help create safety zones to other areas that will give this fire department the capability of doing initial attacks onto a fire.

However, the huge size of the blowdown may limit the effectiveness of the forest service's efforts. Bowman says residents - and firefighters - need to accept the daily risk of wildfires in the forest.

Bowman: If anything, you're going to reduce that capability of a fire to travel. But even in perfect conditions, even with no blowdowns, you have fires that can go anyway - that mankind can't stop.

Timber companies and loggers asked to recover trees before they lose value to weather and insects. Recovering downed trees is much more difficult - and dangerous - than cutting standing timber. And the tree's value is greatly reduced because of splitting and cracking. Howard Hedstrom, with Hedstrom Lumber Company in Grand Marais, says loggers are willing to salvage the timber to reduce fire risk and help renew the forest.

Hedstrom: Everyone that I know is committed to doing the best for the resource, and that is to get in there and clean it up. It will not only prevent a bad fire - it will still leave some fuel, but it's not a zero fire risk. It will save the soils; it will start the new forests off a lot quicker.

The Forest Service says some areas near lakes and streams or in research areas will be exempt from the expedited timber removal.

It's a decision supported even by people who are sometimes at odds with the forest service's management practices. Environmental groups toured the damaged area and met with an official from the Council on Environmental Quality, which is allowing the Forest Service the expidited process.. The Audubon Society's Betsy Daub says the environmental groups are convinced of the need.

Daub: Everybody recognizes that we want the Forest Service to take whatever steps they need to take to make sure that people and their property are protected from fire or other disasters as much as we are able to.

The Forest Service promises public updates as well as ample mailings and meetings. Betsy Daub says the environmental groups were assured the public would have opportunity to review and comment on each phase of the effort - although in a much tighter time frame than normal.

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