The clear, blue skies over Snowbank Lake filled with billowing smoke on October 11, as the Forest Service set a prescribed fire in timber that was blown down in the July 1999 windstorm. A year ago a massive storm roared through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, damaging 350,000 acres of trees. A year ago, wilderness campers and vacationers in and around Northeast Minnesota's Superior National Forest were startled to see a looming black line of clouds darken the sky. It was a massive storm that over the next few hours flooded homes, blew out highways, and dropped millions of trees across the forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Sinking Lakes Ships are leaving Duluth with lighter loads than usual because of low water levels on the Great Lakes.
Ships have to float higher in the water to clear the bottom in shallow areas.
It's only a matter of time before a massive forest fire whips through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Some residents of Duluth, are hopping mad about rabbits. A pair of domesticated rabbits was released into an isolated neighborhood about three years ago. As rabbits do, they've multiplied. Scores of big, black and white bunnies and their bouncy offspring are running around Park Point.