SerpApi.Org
Officials have canceled permits for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) through Friday as crews continue battling wildfires across northern Minnesota.
Officials will continue to cancel permits on a "rolling basis," but Tom Hall, the agency administrator with the U.S. Forest Service, said Wednesday that they're working on a plan to reduce the forest closures.
"At this point, we don't have that ... but we are coordinating with our partner agencies, specifically thinking about what are those other types of resources that are needed to make that a successful place to be open to the public."
In a statement, officials say the closure is "to protect public and firefighter health and safety." Hall explained that the forest closure was assigned an expiration date of Oct. 1, but said that can be reduced or ended at an earlier date.
"As we reduce that closure, those areas that are still underneath that closure would still have an expiration date of October 1," Hall said. "Any place that it is lifted, those places would then be open, and those permits associated where we lift that closure would then still be valid for what we have not already canceled."
Crews continue battling three major fires in the Boundary Waters, the largest being the Bear Trap Fire, which combined with Dark Fires. Officials said Wednesday that the Bear Trap Fire is 34% contained, but estimate 37,747 acres have already burned.
The Thumb Fire, which has a total of 17,088 acres, including 16,747 acres in the U.S., is 58% contained, according to fire officials. The Little Knife Fire , which originated in Ontario, has burned 4,598 acres.
"We're expecting another 50 to 60, maybe as much as 75 firefighters," said Jason Loomis, the incident commander with the National Incident Management Organization. "It's very technical ground that they'll be operating in, especially in the wilderness and in the Boundary Waters wilderness, so we need some very specialized resources."
