The Draft Environmental Impact Statement analyzes how to deal with the unacceptable risk of wildfire to the public due to extreme fuel loads in the Gunflint Corridor. The Draft EIS describes alternatives which provide different combinations of fuel reduction techniques and locations of fuel reduction. Proposed activities include hand treatment, prescribed burning, and mechanical treatment. The Draft EIS also addresses how to reforest blowdown areas. The Draft EIS will be available for public comment from March 10 to April 24.
Water quality is also a concern, given the loss of tree cover and log-choked streams.
These and other questions weave a fabric that researchers at the North Central Experiment Station are eager to unravel. For the forest, the adventure is just beginning. Zasada is part of a team of North Central researchers formulating a research and monitoring program at the bequest of the Superior National Forest. Before the snow flew, Zasada's crew measured six experimental plots in blowdown areas along the Gunflint Trail that were likely to see some salvage treatments. This summer, they'll expand their study to compare how forests in two distinct soil types respond to similar salvage treatments.