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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: Be careful with your fires this year.
 
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Jaywalker
05/04/2021 02:47PM
  
I head up in a week and am a bit worried about it being dry up there. I don’t see much in the way of rain in Ely for the next 10 days. I was planning on doing more campfire cooking this trip, but may have pack some extra white gas just to be sure.


Given some of the foolish or naive actions we saw from the COVID crowd last year, I shudder to think of what could happen should we have dry conditions and a burning ban at some point.



 
tumblehome
05/04/2021 02:22PM
  
I live on 25 acres near duluth. I'm losing more than half my trees to the spruce bud worm.
I have 10,000 dying balsam and am going to enroll in a USDA forestry program and have them all logged off. I never wanted to cut any trees but this is pretty bad.


There is substantial tree loss in the BWCA too as I have been witnessing the past few years.
The spruce bud worm is a native Caterpillar and has been killing trees up here for as long as anyone knows. Its natures way of creating forest diversity.
Tom
 
tumblehome
05/04/2021 07:37PM
  
And to clarify, the budworm outbreak is spotty and they only go after balsam and spruce.
Look for trees with all or most of their needles gone. And look for patches of conifers all dead.
Gabbro has a bunch. You can see it on the Portage trail to the lake. I saw heavy budworm activity in the UP of Michigan last year too.


The adult moths can only fly a short distance so it's a slow but continuously moving train wreck.


Tom
 
LindenTree
05/04/2021 08:55PM
  
There is a large airstrip not far out of Isabella that was used as an aerial spraying port to combat Spruce Budworm in the mid 50s, it must be 3,000 feet long. When I worked out of the Isabella Work Center the locals told me about this strip. I drove on it a few times, it is still there but it is very overgrown now.


Here is a little info from the U of M extension service about Spruce Budworm.


Spruce Budworm
 
Soledad
05/03/2021 10:50AM
  
There are so many dead Balsams recently killed by Budworm. They are starting to rot at the base and fall when the wind blows adding a lot more fire fuel.

The north hasn't greened up yet, and it is dry. Not enough rain in the forecast to change that anytime soon.
 
billconner
05/03/2021 12:18PM
  
Interesting. Rained or snowed it seems every day for several weeks here in upstate NY and there is a burn ban. (Residential brush fires are permitted here.) Thanks for posting. Only wish the covid newbies would read it.