ELY — Visitors heading into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness this month will need to leave their campfire grates cold. The Superior National Forest has issued an emergency order banning campfires within the BWCAW effective June 6 through at least June 30, citing extreme drought conditions and elevated wildfire danger across northern Minnesota.
The order prohibits igniting, building, maintaining, attending, or using any open fire within the wilderness, including charcoal grills, barbecues, coal fires, and wood-burning stoves. Gas and propane cook stoves remain permitted. The restriction will remain in effect until June 30 unless rescinded or extended earlier.
The ban comes as northern Minnesota sits near the 97th percentile for dryness on long-term averages, according to Adam Cochran, district ranger for the Superior National Forest.
“The potential for wildfire is high across all ownerships in northern Minnesota at this time,” forest officials said in announcing the order. Visitors outside the BWCAW who hold a legal campfire permit are urged to evaluate conditions before lighting a fire, keep any fire small, and extinguish it until it is cold to the touch before leaving.

Birch Bay Fire 100 percent contained
The campfire ban follows a fire northwest of Ely earlier this month. The Birch Bay Fire, which ignited June 1 approximately eight miles northwest of Ely near Burntside Lake’s North Arm, has been fully contained, officials confirmed. The fire ultimately burned an estimated 35 acres before crews brought it under control.
State and federal investigators have since determined the likely cause as chainsaw operations conducted by U.S. Forest Service personnel working on fuel reduction and prescribed fire preparation in the Geraldine prescribed fire project area.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ state fire investigator made the determination following an on-scene investigation.

Convergence
of resources
The fire’s rapid containment was aided in part by favorable timing. Water-scooping aircraft and helicopters that had been staging nearby for a large prescribed burn operation were still on site when the Birch Bay Fire ignited, allowing crews to deploy air resources almost immediately.
“They hadn’t left yet,” Cochran said. “That was very fortuitous.”
The blaze spread roughly 25 acres on its first night, advancing primarily north and northeast toward the BWCAW boundary. Aircraft scanning identified more than 100 spot fires. A Type 3 incident management team from the Minnesota Incident Command System was brought in to provide additional logistical support as crews worked to knock down remaining heat.
St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay ordered precautionary evacuations of the southernmost portion of North Arm Road and Lindskog Road on the afternoon the fire was reported. Forest Service officials also maintained contact with two YMCA camps along the North Arm Road throughout the incident. Neither camp had campers on site at the time.