Dozens of homes, outbuildings burned in Minnesota wildfire

ISABELLA, Minn. (AP) — Dozens of homes, cabins and outbuildings have been destroyed or damaged in northeastern Minnesota as the state's largest wildfire continues burning uncontained, according to Superior National Forest officials.

Authorities say 12 homes or cabins and 57 outbuildings have been lost in the Greenwood Lake fire that has consumed 34 square miles of forest land. An additional three homes or cabins were damaged in the fire, Minnesota Public Radio News reported Wednesday.

Thousands of the torched acres belong to a North Carolina family that is now questioning whether it did enough to mitigate fire risks, as the drought-stricken forest had been already weakened by an outbreak of spruce budworm, which decimated the area’s balsam fir trees and created a tinderbox.

Robert C. Hayes Jr., of Charlotte, North Carolina, whose extended family owns about 12,350 acres, or 20 square miles, at the Greenwood Lake fire site told the Star Tribune: “I’m afraid to go up there because the pictures I’ve seen. It’s just scorched.” A Star Tribune analysis of property records shows more than half of the Hayes' forest land appears to be inside the fire perimeter.

Duluth photographer and writer Michael Furtman likened the situation to throwing a match on acres of dried-out Christmas trees. Furtman, who owns a cabin on Middle McDougal Lake, adjacent to the Hayes property, said he and his wife spent an estimated $2,000 to hire workers to cut down dead trees and remove potential tinder, hauling out “dozens of loads” of brush.

“The individual small landowners are doing everything they can, and can afford,” Furtman said. “Has the wealthy landowner done everything he can and can afford?”

Hayes called those questions “reasonable.”

“We are actively asking that of ourselves,” he said.

Hayes' family has owned the land for 30 years and wanted it to be “a canvas for the moose and the wolf and the environment." The land is technically held by Lake County Land & Timber LLC, which is owned by a trust for the benefit of Hayes' father, Robert Cannon “Robin” Hayes, a former congressman and North Carolina Republican Party chairman who pleaded guilty in 2019 to lying to the FBI in relation to a bribery scheme. Former President Donald Trump pardoned him in January.

Robert C. Hayes Jr., a trustee and head of the family office, said professional foresters help manage the trust's forest holdings, including one in South Carolina. He said the trust put “enormous amount of effort” into fire management at the South Carolina forest, but not in Minnesota.

“We have let that property go natural, even forgoing harvest of the timber, because we wanted it to reach absolute maturity,” he said. While the family was aware of problems with the spruce budworm, reducing the fire risk was not brought up.

“It was never discussed that it was fuel building up for forest fires,” he said. “I guarantee you it will be moving forward.”

Forest officials announced this week that they will keep the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness closed until Sept. 3, dealing a blow to tourists who spent months planning their trips there and to the outfitters and other businesses serving the 1 million-acre wilderness.

Several fires caused by lightning have burned in the wilderness during this summer’s drought conditions, while the much bigger Greenwood Lake fire just to the south has forced the evacuation of about 280 homes and cabins since it was spotted Aug. 15 about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of the town of Isabella.

Forest officials had been watching fires burning just across the Canadian border, in Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park, which led them to close some parts of the Boundary Waters north of Ely earlier this summer. But when the John Ek fire took off late last week, forest officials decided to close the entire wilderness area as a precaution. They said that fire and the Greenwood Lake fire had stretched their resources too thin to ensure the safety of paddlers and campers.

More than 400 crew members are fighting the forest fires.