As firefighters continue to make progress in containing several wildfires near the Ely area, portions of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness could soon reopen.
That was the word Wednesday from Forest Service officials during a press briefing about the fires.
Tom Hall, deputy forest supervisor, said: “We are working on a plan at the forest level to reduce that closure at this point.”
The entire BWCAW has been closed since July 14, and permits remain canceled through Friday, but Hall said “We have staff that are starting to engage where are those places that are best to open up (and) where are those corridors within the Boundary Waters where people will still be able to experience that and not be in the way of fire operations.”
The Forest Service is evaluating the situation on a daily basis, and Hall gave no hints as to when some of the wilderness may be reopened to visitors.
Wednesday’s developments came amid significant progress as nearly 800 personnel battle the series of fires.
According to the latest data, the fires encompass 63,594 acres in the United States and another 8,412 in Canada.
The Bear Trap Fire is the largest at 37,747 acres, but the Forest Service reports that fire is now 34 percent contained.
Other information in Wednesday’s update included:
• Thumb Fire, 17,088 acres, 58 percent contained;
• Sioux Fire, 12,354 acres, 17 percent contained;
• Camp Fire, 4,402 acres, 23 percent contained.
Shane Sturgill, operations section chief with the Southern Area Complex Incident Management, outlined the progress at Wednesday’s briefing as well as the night before during an address to Ely City Council members.
Sturgill described containment efforts to keep the fires north of the Echo Trail as well as work to assess and protect structures along the Fernberg Road corridor, which has been evacuated.
For several days, there has been no change in evacuation status and the “Ready, Set, Go” system utilized by local counties.
The city of Ely has not fallen under any of the categories since the fires began.
Progress in fighting the fires has coincided with the arrival of hundreds of personnel from around the country, the set-up of massive incident command posts at the Ely schools as well as the Vermilion campus of Minnesota North College, and improving weather conditions.
Cooler temperatures, some rainfall and friendly winds have made for much improved air quality and the removal of air quality alerts.
“We’re finally back to good air quality across the area, which is great,” said Josh Hall, an air resource advisor who spoke at Wednesday’s briefing.
But Hall also cautioned that hotter, drier conditions in the coming days would lead to smokier air.
“We are expecting smoke to come back at some point or another,” Hall said. “The message is good air quality now, but we’ll keep an eye on the fires and would expect more smoke later in the summer.”
The USFS also clarified some confusion, as well as erroneous media reports that it extended the BWCAW closure date to Oct. 1.
Tom Hall indicated those reports were not accurate and said: “All forest orders have an expiration date, and that expiration date is Oct. 1, but underneath that we have been canceling wilderness permits on a rolling basis, knowing that there may be an opportunity to reduce or end that closure at an earlier date.”
Sturgill, meanwhile, said there may be “a slight uptick” in the number of personnel working on the fires, but that number is reaching a point where it will plateau.
