A small fire of 3 acres as of June 15 burns.Just monitoring it.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/201771/group/homepage/

updated Gaskin fire info

That is a busy/popular lake, I hope it remains small.

Thanks for the updates. Glad it's not dry up there right now!

not sure if the the size has increased beyond 6 acres, it's pretty windy here today.

cool picture, thanks Mocha!

Now I know where the smell of smoke came from when I was on Seagull this morning.

windy isn't good. hope any embers didn't jump over the lake to the northern shoreline. not good. hopefully it isn't a large enough or hot enough fire to send live embers that far, but I'm guessing here.

From the articles I read, the authority figures didn't seem too concerned about it and thought it would be contained to the penninsula. But you never know. Has anyone seen a report as to how the fire started? Lightning?

I hope it doesn't spread too far, we just came back from Alpine and that is not a pretty sight.

We stayed at the campsite just north of the fire on our trip last September.

Our family trip is planned for July on gaskin. I told the sis-in-law we should pack in pine saplings. Lol

Is there a site on the peninsula? I remember there being one.

Yeah the campsite is right on the point of the peninsula. Looks like that might be where the fire started, if not there then very close to it.

From Mocha's picture it looks like it would be simple to extinguish the fire. Although I understand the USFS policy on natural burns, enough of that area was denuded by the Ham Lake Fire in 2008.

sounds like they are letting the pennisula burn, but one of the articles said they doused a small flame up on the northern shore of the lake. Why do they not just douse it all and be done with it? wouldn't it be less expensive then all this monitoring and worrying?

We just came out of that area. We were camped on Gaskin about a a half a mile from the fire. We paddled over to see a couple big trees go up... then decided to move to west (ended up on Horseshoe lake) in case the winds changed (there was a lot of smoke) Looked to be a few acres on Sunday. We ran into a ranger on Monday who didn't seem overly concerned. He was just heading that way doing site checks. I took some pics from across the lake.

The general rule as I understand it is to let fires burn unless they look like they may be in line to cause property damage outside of the area or cross the border.
Also, they do want fires on occasion in forests to clean up the dead tinder that builds up over the years. Also as part the natural cycle it burns out scrub and allows some other trees to grow - some that even require fire to open their seeds.

quote serenityseeker: "sounds like they are letting the pennisula burn, but one of the articles said they doused a small flame up on the northern shore of the lake. Why do they not just douse it all and be done with it? wouldn't it be less expensive then all this monitoring and worrying? "

What Lonewolf said......

Uff da...ever since I saw the article in the Strib yesterday I've been feeling some serious NIMBYism. The fire management policy makes sense to me and I know that fire plays an important role to renew the forest but...I just wish it would renew itself somewhere else. Somewhere other than "my" neck of the woods. And somewhere other than the *only* decent fishing spot on Gaskin.

Whatever will be will be, but I'm praying for low winds and lots of rain...

I would like a bunch of small controlled fires like Gaskin than one big one like Cavity or more yet like the Arizona fires. Small fires help create openings and edge effect for wildlife and maybe a deterant to a larger fire. it is a shame when like three hundred year old white pine or cedar burn. I have no idea what species of trees burnt or down falls in that area.

quote oceansdad: "We just came out of that area. We were camped on Gaskin about a a half a mile from the fire. We paddled over to see a couple big trees go up... then decided to move to west (ended up on Horseshoe lake) in case the winds changed (there was a lot of smoke) Looked to be a few acres on Sunday. We ran into a ranger on Monday who didn't seem overly concerned. He was just heading that way doing site checks. I took some pics from across the lake. "

Thanks for the first hand account and photo oceansdad. It must have been interesting. I agree with you about moving on in case things change. Great photo.

quote Landstryker: "Uff da...ever since I saw the article in the Strib yesterday I've been feeling some serious NIMBYism. The fire management policy makes sense to me and I know that fire plays an important role to renew the forest but...I just wish it would renew itself somewhere else. Somewhere other than "my" neck of the woods. And somewhere other than the *only* decent fishing spot on Gaskin.


Whatever will be will be, but I'm praying for low winds and lots of rain...


"

There is a decent fishing spot on Gaskin? I love the lake but have never had much luck fishing on it. It has some great sites though.

We probably met that same ranger when he was on his way in. He checked our permit and mentioned the fire. This was Tuesday the 14th.