The August Lake Fire started on August 7th by lightning. The fire was approx 15 miles SE of Ely. The fire is 100% contained by August 11th. The fire was in the Superior National Forest but outside the BWCA.






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A few of my co-workers were on this fire.

Why is the USFS back to extinguishing fires again? I don’t understand.
Tom

tumblehome: "Why is the USFS back to extinguishing fires again? I don’t understand.
Tom"

Agreed, this fire looked like it was having positive effects for the resources.
As to why they are back to extinguishing fires? Guessing they are still gun shy from the Pagami fire.

tumblehome: "Why is the USFS back to extinguishing fires again? I don’t understand.
Tom"

This isn't in the BWCA. To my knowledge they have always suppressed fires which are not in the wilderness.

Correct the August lake fire is outside and will get full suppression. Then the forest service will deem it a fire hazard and spend a million dollars on a prescription burn to reduce fuels. From what I saw personally during 21 years in wildland fire. And they are the only "wilderness" in the country that I know of that suppresses fires in the wilderness. The rest of the country goes by , natural cause, let it burn .

It's a difficult position to be in.