Gunflint Burning
Fire in the Boundary Waters
by Cary J. Griffith,
University of Minnesota Press • ISBN: 978-1-5179-0341-1 • $25.95 Hardcover
It struck me while reading this book that all wilderness outfitters should consider sending it to their customers, either as a gift, or included in the price of their reservation.
They’ll learn how easy it is for even an experienced camper to accidentally start a crown fire that in two weeks consumed 75,000 acres of forest and 144 buildings, requiring 1,000 firefighters and $11 million to defeat. This was the Ham Lake Fire of May 2007 that blazed near the end of Gunflint Trail in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and on the southern edge of Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park.
What most impressed me in this book is discovering the elaborate campaign mounted by U.S. Forest Service, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and others to fight and outmaneuver the fire. There is nothing haphazard about their mobilization and strategy. The author describes the entire operation with the flair of a keen-eyed journalist.
Despite the perils of attacking a fast-moving fire driven by capricious winds, only one life was lost, that of Stephen Posniak, the veteran camper who struck the fateful match and tragically took his own life while facing indictment.
– Donn Larson
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
by Dan Egan,
W.W. Norton & Company • ISBN: 978-0-393-24643-8 • $27.95 Hardcover
This book has certainly grabbed attention, chosen for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” series and for a cameo on “The Daily Show.”
And it is true, when you reflect on all the times you’ve been disturbed about our neglect and abuse of the Great Lakes, even the short list is alarming: invasion by sea lamprey, zebra mussels, Asian carp, toxic algae, rivers aflame, wastewater pollution and more, all fostered by us, the enablers.
Dan Egan, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has taken a step beyond reciting our record of mistakes.
After painstakingly examining the cause and effect of each problem, he boldly defends radical solutions.
For example, to combat exotic species arriving in ballast water, he makes a case for decommissioning the St. Lambert lock at Montreal, removing salties from seaway commerce. After all, he claims, overseas freighters account for less than 5 percent of an average year’s tonnage of cargo moved on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. When you consider present and impending costs of remediation, his logic goes, it would be cheaper to move these loads by rail.
Some of Egan’s conclusions need a closer look, especially from a Lake Superior perspective.
Currently about 10 percent of Duluth’s traffic is oceangoing vessels that transit the entire seaway. Thunder Bay reports most of its cargo floats through all the locks (mostly in Canada) for export; about 25 to 30 percent is ocean, the remainder is trans-loaded from lakers in Quebec.
Duluth and Thunder Bay, although dominant, are not the only Great Lakes ports handling seaway payloads.
Also, some of Duluth’s oversized cargo would be impractical and more costly to move by rail. Further, not all dangerous pests arrive in ballast water – just two examples being the sea lamprey (came up by itself after the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened) and Asian carp (escaped aquaculture ponds in the South).
Still, with some critical reading, Egan’s meticulous evidence of injury to the Lakes’ ecosystem can be recommended to any Lake resident or Lake lover.
– Donn Larson
The books reviewed here, unless indicated, should be available through local booksellers by using the ISBN number. Find more regional reviews at www.LakeSuperior.com.