Letter of the Day (Sept. 16): BWCA

September 16, 2011 at 12:59AM
Fire crews dig a fire line on the southern edge of the Pagami Creek Fire, north of Isabella and just south of the BWCA border Tuesday afternoon.
Fire crews dig a fire line on the southern edge of the Pagami Creek Fire, north of Isabella and just south of the BWCA border Tuesday afternoon. (Dml - Brian Peterson Star Tribu/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In 1999, when the big wind came through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and laid a million or so trees on the ground, I made a suggestion that was printed in the Minnesota Volunteer magazine.

I had read that the state forestry had decided to leave the million or so windblown red and white pines lay on the ground and decay naturally. That provided fuel for a potential forest fire that could make the Hinckley fire of 1894 look like a bonfire in comparison.

I suggested opening the area to loggers to take the trees free of charge. The following winter provided perfect conditions for hauling the logs on trucks across the lakes.

I'd seen trucks hauling gravel across Lake of the Woods with 20-ton loads. It takes about 35 inches of ice for this to be possible.

Now there is a fire in the Boundary Waters that has reached areas with this massive windfall of fuel, and under the right conditions it could be the fire of the century. Some people in government can't see the forest for the trees.

GENE MADSEN, BIGFORK, MINN.

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