Boundary Waters Blowdown
DB: This is Earth and Sky, with a look at how a forest recovers from a catastrophe.
JB: Two years ago – on July 4, 1999 – a storm struck the Boundary Waters wilderness area in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest. Winds reached 90 to 100 miles per hour ? white pines and spruces toppled. Some 500,000 acres of forest were mowed flat. Researchers call it a “blowdown.”
DB: Boundary Waters is a designated wilderness area, so loggers won’t be going in to salvage the timber. Instead, this forest is recovering mostly on its own – and researchers are expecting a variety of changes. For example, water quality . . . with no trees to suck up moisture, more rain will run off into lakes and ponds. The rain will also wash sediments and nutrients into the water. That could spur the growth of algae and water weeds, and that could mean changes in populations of fish, aquatic insects, and zooplankton.
JB: Meanwhile, threatened species such as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon have lost their forest homes. Scientists will be watching for impacts on these species, and they hope to measure how quickly the forest regenerates. Already, in some areas, aspen trees stand shoulder high. But the specter of an unprecedented, follow-up forest fire is always on the horizon for the blowdown area. Today’s show was made possible in part by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
Thanks to:
Dr. William Mattson
Chief Insect Ecologist
U.S. Forest Service
North Central Research Station
Forestry Sciences Laboratory
Rhinelander, WI
Dr. Lee Frelich
Department of Forest Resources
School of Forestry
University of Minnesota
The following articles were used in preparing this script:
“Boundary Waters: Wind as a reminder of wilderness” Minneapolis: Star Tribune, July 8, 1999, pg. 18A
Meersman, Tom. “BWCA officials prepare for possible fire fueled by July 4 blowdown.” Minneapolis: Star Tribune, January 19, 2000, page 12 A.
Meersman, Tom. “Forest Service proposes controlled burns in BWCA.” Minneapolis: Star Tribune, January 3, 2001, page 1B.
Author’s notes:
Dr. Bill Mattson, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service North Central Research Station, heads the team that has developed a “Research Needs Assessment” for the Boundary Waters blowdown. “Studying the consequences of a blowdown has probably never before been done at this scale,” he notes. “We’re really eager to use this natural laboratory to fully document what has happened. “We have so few remaining areas in the world where humans haven’t taken over and dominated the ecosystem,” Mattson continues. “So when we have a place like the Boundary Waters, where we can study fundamental ecosystem processes in the original, intact system?I think we NEED that data!” Mattson says careful study is particularly important because of the evidence for global climate change. With global warming, experts predict, storms like the one that caused the blowndown may become more frequent AND more severe. “Forest managers need to have these events on their radar screens,” he says. “They are no longer one-in-a-thousand or one-in-a-hundred years events; they are starting to happen more frequently, so we have to factor them into our management plans for wilderness areas.” The “Research Needs Assessment” document for the Boundary Waters blowdown is an 80-page document that details extensive plans for study. Asked when full-scale research efforts would begin, Dr. Mattson said, “There’s a very discouraging downside to this story. We’ve been proposing to get research underway, but we have not yet found any funding to DO the research. Because of other national emergencies, there has been no money put aside for any research on this issue.”
Additional Teacher Resources
Superior National Forest : Lowdown on Blowdown, 2005 Update
A major windstorm, with wind speeds up to 100 miles/hour, swept across northern Minnesota on July 4, 1999, impacting approximately 477,000 acres within the Superior National Forest boundary. Over the past 5 years the Superior National Forest has worked with other members of the Minnesota Incident Command System to address the risk of wildfire in the heavy fuels created by the blowdown through a comprehensive interagency response plan with four areas of focus: fuel reduction, fire prevention, fire suppression, and emergency response preparedness. This site provides yearly updates since 1999 explaining the progress in the forest recovery efforts of Superior National Forest. The site also has a variety of links with information, press releases and photo images of the damage.
Earth Observation Magazine: Orthophotos Key to Planning Storm Recovery in Superior National Forest
Although a bit “heady” at times, this article is very informative about the role Global Information Systems (GIS) are playing in the recovery of Superior National Forest. This article is most likely more suitable for secondary students.
