Minnesota Wildfires: Crews Hold Brimson Complex Fires Perimeter, Fight Against Wildfires Continue

Trees killed by caterpillar outbreak helped to fuel Minnesota wildfires

As wildfires spread in northeastern Minnesota earlier this month, updates from fire officials on the largest two — Jenkins Creek and Camp House fires — often included a line noting the fire was burning through “a landscape heavily impacted by the spruce budworm.” A large outbreak of the eastern spruce budworm — a caterpillar native to the region that feeds off balsam fir and white spruce trees — is defoliating the trees and stressing or killing …

Wrong, New York Times, Climate Change Didn’t Cause Minnesota’s Wildfires

By Linnea Lueken The New York Times (NYT) published a long piece describing recent destructive wildfires in Minnesota, claiming that they were “fueled by climate change” and more likely to happen a…

Minnesota wildfires: Crews hold Brimson Complex fires perimeter, fight against wildfires continue

Firefighters say they made “steady progress" in containing the Jenkins Creek fire, while a “full suppression strategy" against the Camp House fire remains in place.

Trees killed by caterpillar outbreak helped fuel recent wildfires

BRIMSON — As wildfires spread north of Duluth earlier this month, updates from fire officials on the largest two — Jenkins Creek and Camp House fires — often included a line noting the fire was burning through “a landscape heavily impacted by the spruce budworm.” A large outbreak of the eastern spruce budworm — a caterpillar native to the region that feeds off balsam fir and white spruce trees — is defoliating the trees and stressing or killing …

How a caterpillar native to Minnesota made its forests fuel for wildfires

A native insect called the spruce budworm has killed trees across more than 2,000 square miles of northern Minnesota forests, creating dry tinder fuel in the areas burned by the Camp House and Jenkins Creek wildfires.