Duluth, Minn. June 4, 2026—Due to continued dry conditions and wildfire danger conditions, the Superior National Forest is issuing an Emergency Forest Order for campfire restrictions effective June 6, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). This Order restricts the ignition, building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire or campfire, including charcoal grills and barbeques, coal, and woodburning stoves to reduce the likelihood of a wildfire within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Campfire restriction information and Exhibit A-Closure Map will be posted to the forests Alerts page https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/alerts

BWCAW campfire restrictions go into effect beginning Saturday morning (12:01) a.m., June 6, 2026 until June 30 unless rescinded or extended:
• Gas or propane cook stoves are allowed throughout the BWCAW.
• Stoves or grills fueled by charcoal, or any type of wood are not allowed.

The potential for wildfire is high across all ownerships in northern Minnesota at this time. It is extremely important that people are careful with any sources of ignition such as smoking devices, dragging chains, and recreational vehicles. If you are in a location where you can have a campfire outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, consider if the conditions are right and if you need a fire. Be sure to keep your campfire small and put it out cold to the touch whenever you leave it. All permitted campfires must be attended all times.

For additional information regarding fire-related and/or forest closures and updates:
Superior National Forest website https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/alerts
Minnesota Incident Command System website at www.mnics.org
For statewide fire restriction information: https://mnics.org/wpress/counties-added-to-spring-burning-restrictions

Man........ I know it's dry but it's always a bummer when this happens right before your trip. Definitely gonna need extra bug spray now.

Heading in next Wednesday. Nooooooooooooo! I can only recall one other fire ban this early in the season over the last 35 years.

How long do you think this is going to last? I see some rain in the forecast for next week, maybe a half inch or more. I know an inch of rain a week is the rule of thumb, but would the .5-.75" of rain next be enough to remove a fire ban?

Looks like my solo will fall within the fire ban timeframe, but I don't mind. I never build a fire on a solo trip anyway.

with these firebans, do they ever stray and say no alcohol stoves? i thought somewhere last year said it had to be a valved shut off stove, fully contained fuel source. so white gas or iso variant?

If it gets really extremely dry, they will say "no open flame what so ever" but that not the case in the last few years of fire bans

That’s odd! They got rain this morning and predicted rain in a few days!

My guess is that a couple days ago little to no rain was in the forecast. The USFS is a bureaucracy so the process of getting the paperwork done and approved takes a few days so it probably was started when forecast was different. Again only a guess.

bresnahan2828: "That’s odd! They got rain this morning and predicted rain in a few days! "

Does seem a little premature with thunderstorm activity picking up now in the W half that was not forecasted just 6 hours ago., These trends look to continue into tonight.
My .02 -- it seems over done for an entire BWCAW fire ban. But what do I know.
My thinking it gets cancelled rather soon.

Also Dewpoints will be on the rise the next several days with a dramatic rise in absolute water in the air ( dewpoint) and Relative humidity -- which really will put a damper on the fire situation in the big term.
For every 20 degree rise in the dewpoint that most people experience- the amount of water vapor DOUBLES in the atmosphere. You will see that soon.

Great point!

has anyone ever seen a ban that included an end date? I don't think I've ever seen that before - seems interesting. Also kind of odd I cannot find any official USFS notice or press release on this. Also seems weird that every article that shares a link to the fire ban, when you follow the link there is actually no article or press release. It all seems like one big circular reference not tying back to any actual USFS announcement.

WhiteWolf: "

bresnahan2828: "That’s odd! They got rain this morning and predicted rain in a few days! "

Does seem a little premature with thunderstorm activity picking up now in the W half that was not forecasted just 6 hours ago., These trends look to continue into tonight.
My .02 -- it seems over done for an entire BWCAW fire ban. But what do I know.
My thinking it gets cancelled rather soon.

Also Dewpoints will be on the rise the next several days with a dramatic rise in absolute water in the air ( dewpoint) and Relative humidity -- which really will put a damper on the fire situation in the big term.
For every 20 degree rise in the dewpoint that most people experience- the amount of water vapor DOUBLES in the atmosphere. You will see that soon.
"

I takes a good bit of time to get these restrictions in place, with all the legalities, coordination and signage at every EP. Looking at the weather I doubt it will be removed for 10 days to two weeks at the earliest. The SNF used to implement fire restrictions such as no fires between 8 am and 8pm, I haven't seen them do that in years, now they go right to a fire ban.

In my memory they seem to have put this fire ban on earlier than I have seen them do it in the past. Despite all the fires in MN the Wildfire Indices do not seem as high as when other bans were started, but I always thought they waited too long in the past.
CFFDRS, Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System. One of the Indices the SNF uses in their fire management plan. DC is not that high because it get reset to 0 every spring, click on the DMC Duff Moisture Code and it is in very high fire danger.

It came in email with the text above from usfs.

They did it a couple years ago. It probably simplifies the process so they don't have to do another bunch of paperwork.

BWCA: "It came in email with the text above from usfs. "

you got the email? how do you get on that distribution list?

https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/keep-in-touch?utm_source=MarketingCloud&utm_medium=email

I went in on May 18 for 5 days EP32. The portage was lined with dead and downed trees, wind or ice damage I thought but all around my campsite were dead Spruce trees both standing and downed and so tangled there was no way to walk around outside of camp. Was this from the Spruce bark beetle? I thought at the time that with so much dry fuel about a bad fire was inevitable without a lot of rain and would be impossible to put out if it got a foothold.
I skipped a camp fire on the 18th and 19th because of the wind but did have a fire for cooking and baking 20 and 21 after rigging a wind break with my tarp.

merlyn: " I went in on May 18 for 5 days EP32. The portage was lined with dead and downed trees, wind or ice damage I thought but all around my campsite were dead Spruce trees both standing and downed and so tangled there was no way to walk around outside of camp. Was this from the Spruce bark beetle? I thought at the time that with so much dry fuel about a bad fire was inevitable without a lot of rain and would be impossible to put out.

The dead trees are from the Spruce Budworm, but they seem to like Fir trees better. This will eventually effect all of the Superior NF. The USFS has this all mapped out. I've seen those maps on the wall of the Tofte RD basement.
Yes, they are a huge fire hazard now.

I believe another factor in declaring a fire ban is resource availability, especially aircraft. I can hardly remember a fire ban in June.

When we left Hungry Jack on the 29th things were very crispy and dry. The outfitter was running their sprinkler systems to keep everything wet on their property and were concerned. It was going to take quite a lot of rain to really moisten things due to the unseasonably high temps we had that whole week.

BdubyaCA: "Also seems weird that every article that shares a link to the fire ban, when you follow the link there is actually no article or press release. It all seems like one big circular reference not tying back to any actual USFS announcement. "

Here's the actual USFS press release on it, the text of which is in the OP.

As for the actual published order, I don't think that's online yet.

marsonite: "I can hardly remember a fire ban in June. "

there was a fire ban in June in 2023

LindenTree: "

merlyn: " I went in on May 18 for 5 days EP32. The portage was lined with dead and downed trees, wind or ice damage I thought but all around my campsite were dead Spruce trees both standing and downed and so tangled there was no way to walk around outside of camp. Was this from the Spruce bark beetle? I thought at the time that with so much dry fuel about a bad fire was inevitable without a lot of rain and would be impossible to put out.

The dead trees are from the Spruce Budworm, but they seem to like Fir trees better. This will eventually effect all of the Superior NF. The USFS has this all mapped out. I've seen those maps on the wall of the Tofte RD basement.
Yes, they are a huge fire hazard now."

Yep Balsam Fir. I'm getting help to clear a bit farther from all buildings later this summer.

BdubyaCA: "

marsonite: "I can hardly remember a fire ban in June. "

there was a fire ban in June in 2023"

My conspiracy theory on the timing of this fire ban is because the fire investigation for the wildfire by Ely was likely caused by a USFS crew using a chainsaw while clearing a fire break for a future prescribed fire.

We just came out of Baker Lake this morning. Mildly surprised about the fire ban. Things are a bit dry but not that bad after the rain on Thursday night.

With rain in the forecast what are the chances that the fire ban is lifted sooner rather than later?

citipati: "With rain in the forecast what are the chances that the fire ban is lifted sooner rather than later?"

Normally I would have an idea but this one caught me off guard in the first place. If it starts to get rainy in the BW they are going to get a lot of pressure from the outfitters to remove it. I just don't know, but if I were to guess, it will be around for at least another week.

Given that fires have popped up on Loon Lake and Lac La Croix makes me think the fire ban is warranted.

Unfortunately, the fire is at one of the campsite locations on loon lake. We were in the area in 2023 and the site has a large sandy beach. Boats from canada with higher horsepower use this lake to fish and do not stay on the Canadian side. This campsite had large amounts of fish scraps as well as marks from large boats stopping there for a fish fry. Deep grooves in the sand and holes from them sliding into the beach and then using their engine to pull themselves out. I'm not saying this fire is from that but we had at least 3 encounters with boats fishing on the MN side and no cares about the boarder and where they could and couldn't fish.

bigmillski47: "Unfortunately, the fire is at one of the campsite locations on loon lake. We were in the area in 2023 and the site has a large sandy beach. Boats from canada with higher horsepower use this lake to fish and do not stay on the Canadian side. This campsite had large amounts of fish scraps as well as marks from large boats stopping there for a fish fry. Deep grooves in the sand and holes from them sliding into the beach and then using their engine to pull themselves out. I'm not saying this fire is from that but we had at least 3 encounters with boats fishing on the MN side and no cares about the boarder and where they could and couldn't fish. "

They are saying all three of the new fires were caused by lightning. Little loon lake, adjacent to the fire, is a no-motor lake in the BWCA so I am sure if they keep doing it they are going to get caught. The max fine is 5K and 6 months in jail.

BWCA: "

bigmillski47: " "

They are saying all three of the new fires were caused by lightning. Little loon lake, adjacent to the fire, is a no-motor lake in the BWCA so I am sure if they keep doing it they are going to get caught. The max fine is 5K and 6 months in jail."

We were staying on Nina Moose 6/4 when the storms came through. Lots of air to ground lightning all around us. The rain was heavy but brief.

Kinda sucks that I'm going into the boundary waters this weekend when it is likely to be wet and cool, in a location where the DNR says the fire risk is only moderate, and there is a fire ban.

If it wasn't my daughter's first trip, I'd likely be canceling this one.

I'm in the same boat with my son. We're going for it and hopefully the fishing is good or we are coming out early.

Our group is hitting the water on Sunday. A fire ban changes the trip, but it doesn't come anywhere close to ruining it. We still wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

That being said, it looked like it was raining pretty heavily there earlier today. Then there's over a 50% chance of rain every day between Tuesday and Saturday. If that holds, I can't imagine the fire ban will still be in place by next weekend. Am I off base there?

niem0128: "Our group is hitting the water on Sunday. A fire ban changes the trip, but it doesn't come anywhere close to ruining it. We still wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

That being said, it looked like it was raining pretty heavily there earlier today. Then there's over a 50% chance of rain every day between Tuesday and Saturday. If that holds, I can't imagine the fire ban will still be in place by next weekend. Am I off base there?"

I don't think that they can move that quickly to remove the ban. The government doesn't do anything quickly. Combine that with the current fires and I doubt they will rescind the ban this week.

If this was a guys trip and we were focusing on fishing and traveling, then the fire ban wouldn't be much of an issue. My issue is that this is a kids trip and sitting around the campfire is one of the iconic experiences I want them to have. I'd reschedule but they are so excited to go.

A1t2o: "Kinda sucks that I'm going into the boundary waters this weekend when it is likely to be wet and cool, in a location where the DNR says the fire risk is only moderate, and there is a fire ban.


If it wasn't my daughter's first trip, I'd likely be canceling this one."

new moon is right around the corner. Star gazing should be great.

A1t2o: "

niem0128: "Our group is hitting the water on Sunday. A fire ban changes the trip, but it doesn't come anywhere close to ruining it. We still wouldn't trade the experience for anything.


That being said, it looked like it was raining pretty heavily there earlier today. Then there's over a 50% chance of rain every day between Tuesday and Saturday. If that holds, I can't imagine the fire ban will still be in place by next weekend. Am I off base there?"

I don't think that they can move that quickly to remove the ban. The government doesn't do anything quickly. Combine that with the current fires and I doubt they will rescind the ban this week.


If this was a guys trip and we were focusing on fishing and traveling, then the fire ban wouldn't be much of an issue. My issue is that this is a kids trip and sitting around the campfire is one of the iconic experiences I want them to have. I'd reschedule but they are so excited to go."

It's hard when there is a fire ban but you don't smell like smoke at the end of the trip.

Just got out today. For what it’s worth, Lotsa rain & damp wood a few days. A trip mate was having trouble getting a flame for a camp fire a night or two. All day long drizzle on the long paddle across Seagull Lake in 2-3’ rollers, then the long paddle to Seagull Oufitters. Oh boy that was fun in my Prism.

I am hearing the fire ban is lifted on Friday. Waiting on confirmation.

BWCA: "I am hearing the fire ban is lifted on Friday. Waiting on confirmation."

Crossing my fingers! We go in Sunday.

BWCA: "I am hearing the fire ban is lifted on Friday. Waiting on confirmation."

Big if true....

BWCA: "I am hearing the fire ban is lifted on Friday. Waiting on confirmation."

That would be great. We head in tomorrow. Just always nice to sit by a camp fire in the evening and coffee by one in the morning.

The fire ban is lifted as of 12:01 AM on Friday June 12th. If you enter prior to Friday, you cannot have a fire until Friday.

Please make sure all fires are reasonable and extinguished to the touch prior to leaving camp or hitting the hay.