Ham Lake Fire – Good News on the Banadad

It was known that last spring’s Ham Lake Fire had burned over a portion of the Banadad Ski Trail but it was not known how much of the forest surrounding the trail was burned. From the fire maps it appeared the fire had burned through the red pine plantation located approximately eight miles west of the eastern trail head near Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B. This plantation was planted sometime in the 1960’s following the completion of the Moon Lake Timber Sale.

When the season’s first trail crew reached the burned over area the other day they found that the fire had passed over a half mile of the trail. And sure enough the fire had burned through that red pine plantation but the good new was that about three-quarters of the red pines survived and the forest floor had been cleared of competing vegetation. Now if, and only if, the surviving red pines should just happen to produce and release seed cones in the next few year the forest floor should be clear enough to regenerate a new red pine forest.