BWCAW Wildfire Maps

Back in July I posted my Wildfires of Canoe Country wildfire maps. It showed the overall extent of the fires running from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to Wabakimi, but it failed to show the specifics of each fire. I got many requests to show which campsites and portages were impacted by the BWCAW wildfires. To help you visualize what is within the fire perimeters, I made several BWCAW wildfire maps.

Something to keep in mind while looking at these maps is that while they show what is within the perimeter of the fire, they can’t show the exact impact. For example, because paddlers collect lots of downed and dead wood around campsites for campfires, some campsites might survive the fire. Even with that limitation, the following BWCAW wildfire maps provide a good overview of the fire specifics. I’ve also included containment numbers, personnel assigned, size, and the estimated cost to fight the fire when that data was available. For fires burning in Quetico, the data provided doesn’t show everything the American data does.

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Keep in mind that these maps are a snapshot in time. They represent what each perimeter looked like on August 3, 2026.

Little Knife Fire and Ontario Forest Fire 013

This one is burning in Cook County and Quetico. It started in Quetico and crossed the border into the BWCAW. The majority of the fire perimeter sits on the Canadian side. The Canadian side started before the dry lightning storm that started most of the fires on the Minnesota side. The US containment numbers do not include containment on the Canadian side. There is very little containment on the Canadian side. The National Incident Management Organization team managing the fire is pulling their team out of the Boundary Waters and turning over the fire to the local team at the Superior National Forest. This is despite the majority of the fire burning out of control on the Canadian side. It feels like there is limited to no coordination with Canada over this fire. As summer turns to fall, I think this is the fire to watch.

The Camp Fire

This fire started during the July Lightning Incident and has burned areas both inside and outside the Boundary Waters. Many structures, cabins, houses, businesses occupy the land outside the BWCAW, so efforts to fight this fire concentrated on the areas outside the BWCAW first. They created fire breaks using the roads, and prepped structures. Some of this work was scheduled to be done in the past, but DOGE delayed the grant money that the USFS was going to use to hire private contractors to do the work. A significant number of projects like the one that was delayed happened within the last administration due to money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Had the work been completed before these fires, the firefighters currently assigned to these project would have been available to work on other areas of the fires. The cost would have been lower as well.

Bear Trap Incident and Ontario Forest Fire 037

This one started on the US side and burned into Canada. Because arms of it reached towards populated areas, the firefighting work started outside of the Boundary Waters to widen fire breaks along the Echo Trail and prep structures. What work that has been done in the Boundary Waters so far is to prevent it from escaping the BWCAW. The darker area along the border is where the two agency’s perimeters overlap. I just didn’t fix it visually. It doesn’t mean anything special.

The Thumb Fire and Ontario Fire 039

The Thumb Fire started in the US. It’s hard to tell if this crossed into Canada, because although there’s a Canadian designation the data doesn’t show a perimeter within Canada. This one was burning towards a remote Gakijiwanong Anishnaabe Nation in Canada, and most of the work inside the BWCA has been taken to protect that village. The firefighters have started to go after the southwestern side of the fire near Loon Lake.

Wolfpack and Sioux Fires

These two fires started in the US and stayed in the US. The Sioux burned out of the BWCA, across the Echo Trail, and into another section of the Boundary Waters. The firefighters worked to contained the southern section of the fire, which as of this writing still shows heat. Firefighting focused on widening the fire break on the Echo Trail and protecting structures. They have started to work along the edges of the fires, but there is little containment.

Other Fires and Following the Updates

Multiple other fires continue burning to the west of the Boundary Waters. You can following the updates on the fires at Inciweb. I’m not sure if I’m going to write an article about these fires like I did for the Pagami Creek fire, but I’m watching them to see what happens as we move out of summer and into our fall. Summer months are rarer for fire, even though they do happen as these did, but the fall can provide conditions for fire growth. I feel like there’s a story to be teased out of these fires, but it may take some investigating. Over 100 Minnesota US Forest Service employees were either fired or took retirement last year, and it certainly feels like that may have been an issue when combined with the delayed grant money, and the fact that they took money that was earmarked for forest management from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to pay for the Deferred Resignation Program. Seems like there might be a big story here, especially consider that they treated 23% fewer acres that had hazardous fuel vs. 2024. Reporters are digging into it already.