8/27/2021: SNR Closes Camping Outside of Developed Campgrounds

Superior National Forest to close camping outside of developed campgrounds 

Day use and most developed campgrounds open to visitors  

Duluth, Minn., August 27, 2021 — Effective August 27, camping on Superior National Forest lands outside of developed campgrounds will be closed. Day use is allowed on the forest and most developed campgrounds (fee and non-fee) remain open to public use. Please review the Forest Closure Order for a list of open campgrounds. 

Forest officials made the decision to enact this closure in the interest of public safety as the forest continues to experience severe to extreme drought, high fire risk and multiple active fires.  

Closing camping outside of developed campgrounds reduces the possibility of the following: 

• Search and rescue resources being diverted from firefighting operations. 
• The need for emergency evacuations should additional wildfires occur.  
• The chance of illegal campfires. Despite the current fire restrictions, there have been multiple reports of illegal campfires on the forest and several of those illegal campfires have caused small fires on the forest which divert resources away from priority fires.  

This closure will be in place until it is safe to lift, forest resources are freed up from firefighting, and likely until the Arrowhead receives a season-ending rain or snow event.  

The Superior National Forest is coordinating with the State of Minnesota, who will be implementing similar closures across the Arrowhead Region due to the challenging natural resource conditions. 

In addition to this camping closure order, the Forest has several other closures in place for the Greenwood and John Ek fires. Developed campgrounds in those closure areas include McDougal Lake, Little Isabella, Iron Lake and Trails End campgrounds. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is also closed at this time and permits have been refunded through September 3. 

Please visit the forest website for more information or call your local district office.

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