07/02/2025
The air smelled of smoky wood, but birds were singing in the northern remains of the Jenkins Creek Fire.
A blanket of green was sprouting around charred and blackened trunks and stumps last month, in clear view of blue skies without a tree canopy overhead.
The occasional pickup truck passed through the trees on the rocky forest roads driven by private contractors and foresters with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on their way to survey the aftermath of the wildfire.
After burning more acres than the size of Cass Lake, the Jenkins Creek Fire has been completely contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s live monitoring website. The fire is the sixth-most destructive fire since 1992, according to MinnPost.
The fire, one of two in the Brimson Complex, began 14 miles southeast of Hoyt Lakes on May 12. The Camp House Fire ignited just a day before, burning upwards of 12,000 acres before reaching complete containment as of June 13, according to the Fire, Weather & Avalanche Center. The Brimson Complex fires destroyed roughly 150 structures in the first week of burning.
Minnesota has had 1,143 wildfires so far this year as of May 14, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The state had 1,380 wildfires total last year. It reached a peak of 2,222 wildfires in 2021.
Foresters have begun taking stock of the conditions the forests are in, said Megan Eiting, a forester for the DNR in Eveleth. Once foresters have evaluated what techniques and tools to use, they will begin helping the forest recover, harvesting timber and replanting in the areas that need the most diversity.
Read and listen to the full story about the forest coming back to life at the 🔗 in the comments.
📝🎙️📸 Dani Fraher
