Fire continues to burn in Pine County’s Chengwatana State Forest; part of forest remains closed

A fire in the Chengwatana State Forest north of the Twin Cities continues to burn after expanding to about 167 acres over the weekend and prompting the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to close a portion of the forest, a DNR spokeswoman said.

The Evergreen fire, discovered late Thursday afternoon, was about 10% contained Monday morning, the Minnesota Incident Command Center said in an update.

“Firefighting resources are beginning to mop up the fire, working on the fire’s perimeter to remove and extinguish burning vegetative material within 5 to 10 feet off the fire’s edge,” the update said. “Leaf drop continues to occur, adding more fine vegetative fuel to the fire.”

The blaze was confined to a remote area of marshes and heavy timber, said Leanne Langeberg of the department’s Forestry Division. No structures had been threatened as of Friday night.

About 4,500 acres of the forest remained closed Monday, according to a posting on the forest’s website. Activities such as camping, recreational trail riding and hiking were prohibited in the area until further notice, the DNR said. The Snake River campground south of the Snake River remained open.

The fire broke out about 12 miles east of Pine City along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border as gusty southerly winds and low humidity created “elevated fire weather conditions,” said the National Weather Service in Duluth.

The closed area runs from the Chengwatana State Forest Road on the north to the Snake River on the south and from the forest’s western boundary east to the St. Croix River.

No open burning or campfires were allowed in Pine County because of ongoing dry and windy conditions, according to the DNR’s fire danger map on Friday.

Fire danger in the forest on Monday was listed as high on the DNR’s five-level danger scale, authorities said.

According to the DNR, fire danger across Minnesota ranges from low to moderate across the northern part of the state and high and very high across western and southern Minnesota.

After September’s near-record high temperatures and very little precipitation over the past 53 days, much of the state is under abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. Severe drought has emerged in parts of the north and southwest, according to the monitor’s latest update Thursday.

The Chengwatana State Forest covers about 29,000 acres of forested upland islands surrounded by marsh and brush. Three rivers — the Kettle, Snake and St. Croix — flow through the forest, according to the DNR.