5/29/2007 by Richard Thomas

After last year’s Cavity Lake fire, a state-sponsored sustainable development Tourism Resource Team studied how the fire affected the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness region and how local businesses could adapt.

The team intended to present its findings to area residents on May 8. But the meeting was cancelled because an even larger fire that started on May 5 at Ham Lake was raging out of control.

The Ham Lake fire was brought under control May 20 on the U.S. side and the meeting will be rescheduled — but not for a while. “They’re not in the mood to come to a hall and listen to a report,” said Okey Ukaga, executive director of the Northeast Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership, which sponsors the team.

In light of climate change, increasingly unreliable weather, and the sheer wear and tear of people tramping through, tourist destinations are picking up the idea of sustainable tourism— keeping the area attractive and preserving it for generations to come.

Though sustainable tourism is not new — arguably dating to the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1871 — global warming and weather-related events like the fires are fueling a sense of urgency.

Sustainable tourism

“Sustainable tourism is exploding worldwide and is big in Minnesota,” said Bill Hansen, co-owner of Sawbill Canoe Outfitters near Tofte.

The term carries many implications and has never been succinctly defined. “For some reason it doesn’t seem to be a sticky phrase that works,” said Bruce Kerfoot, chairman and third generation in the family ownership of Gunflint Lodge. “So we quietly employ it.”

Sustainable tourism success is measured not by sheer numbers of visitors so much as quality of experience, length of stay, visitor return rate, and the dollars generated, according to the Global Development Research Center.

According to a 2006 survey by the Travel Industry Association, 61 percent of the public would pay more to patronize companies that protect and preserve the environment, but only 5-10 percent more. Still, 38 percent would pay more than 10 percent.

Fifty-one percent of U.S. respondents felt the United States is not environmentally friendly.

Ecotourism, in which flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions, is the fastest growing market in the tourism industry. It is growing annually at five percent worldwide and represents six percent of the world gross domestic product, according to the World Tourism Organization.

Many in the hospitality industry don’t realize the extent of the market demand, said Ingrid Schneider, director of the University of Minnesota Tourism Center.

The center began sponsoring annual conferences on Sustainable Tourism in April 2006. This past April the center surveyed 436 Minnesota hospitality industry officials about the state of sustainable tourism. The results can be summarized as “there’s some progress and a lot of room to grow,” Schneider said.

Those survey participants agreed overwhelmingly that sustainable tourism practices attract more clientele, improve customer perceptions and save money. Most already engage in basic practices such as using energy efficient devices, disposing of chemicals safely, recycling, hiring locally, and selecting environmentally responsible vendors. But fewer use such advanced methods as energy audits, renewable energy, efficient pumps and reclaimed water systems, and building by certified green standards.

Most noted the challenges: initial financial costs, time and energy, and lack of information and support. “Sustainable tourism sounds like an unreachable goal,” said one respondent. Efforts such as the Tourism Center and Tourism Resource Team aim to make such goals more attainable.

Advertising green practices

The Wisconsin Department of Tourism launched Travel Green Wisconsin in January 2007, after pilot programs in Bayfield, Rhinelander, Madison, and Door County in 2006. The program reviews and awards certification to tourism businesses that successfully pass voluntary evaluation of their environmental performance.

So far, 80 businesses have signed up for the program and 66 have been certified, including bed and breakfasts, resorts, motels, restaurants, retail shops, state parks, performing arts centers, and a cab company. Businesses may use the certification to attract and maintain customers, said Will Christianson, the Tourism Department’s outreach coordinator.

The evaluation assesses efforts for waste reduction, energy efficiency, water conservation and wastewater management, transportation, purchasing, chemical use and local community benefit.

In the just-concluded 2007 Minnesota legislative session, a bill passed directing the state Office of Tourism to develop a similar program.

Sustaining after the fire

“We’re feeling very fortunate,” Hansen said about the Ham Lake fire not reaching his lodge. Even though two-thirds of the entry points his business uses in the Boundary Waters were closed by the fire during the May 12-13 fishing opener weekend, “I’ll take a closed business any day over fire,” he said.

As of May 24, the Ham Lake fire was 75 percent contained on the Canadian side. In total it had blackened 76,000 acres, racked up more than $10 million in fire fighting costs and caused $3.7 million in lost buildings. The full economic impact has not been calculated.

“The biggest impact is the perception that all of Cook County is crisped up and not worth a toot,” Kerfoot said. His Gunflint Lodge has received numerous cancellations through June from “nervous Nellies,” as Kerfoot describes them, noting the area “is the same unless they want to go looking. Only two percent of the wilderness burned.”

Public perception of the Gunflint has been a problem ever since the July 4, 1999 windstorm seriously damaged 600 square miles of Boundary Waters forest, providing wildfire fuel.

The 1999 blowdown storm brought media attention of the wrong kind, according to the Gunflint Trail Association. “The assumption for the traveling public was one of danger and devastation. With discretionary spending being curtailed anyway, our area became one to avoid for the traveling public. The fires of the past few years, especially this summer, just reinforced the same danger and devastation,” states its mission statement.

The 2007 fire follows what Hansen calls a “near catastrophic” winter season. With the lack of snow, tourism fell 35 percent during January-March 2007 from the year-earlier period.

In its report, the Tourism Resource Team reports found “the accumulation of negative events can sap not only the physical energies of the residents of the Trail, but have a profound impact on their psyche. As several local people expressed it, many folks are not looking to grow their business, they are looking for an exit strategy.”

Accentuating the positive

Diane Brostrom, director of the Grand Marais Area Tourism Association, said the first quarter 2007 results reflect relatively light months for tourism compared with summer, and the percentage decline does not translate into huge dollar losses.

“We can easily make it up over the summer,” she said.

For the Grand Marais area hospitality industry, the fire’s silver lining is that firefighters and reporters swarming to the area, as well as evacuees, filled rooms and restaurants. Even with the discount rates, hotels came out ahead, Brostrum said.

Kerfoot sees the plus side of the fire in what will sprout afterwards— raspberries, blueberries, and a potentially “fantastic” harvest of morel mushrooms.

There’s also the opportunity to turn the fire zone into an attraction in itself, as was done with Yellowstone Park after the 1988 fire. “It’s an opportunity to see a forest in succession,” Kerfoot said.

The Tourism Resource Team report similarly notes: “Rather than a deterrent for the majority of visitors, research indicates that significant events serve as an attractant” and suggests that the Gunflint Trail Association promote the positive aspect of the fire.

The team’s recommendations to the association include developing a long range shared vision of Gunflint Trail tourism, a comprehensive media/advertising plan, and support for two proposed attractions, the Chik-Wauk Museum and Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway.

Overall the report states the association’s “prospective visitors are continually and increasingly being targeted with messages and promotions from competitive travel destinations. It is imperative that the (association) promote a clear, consistent message that cuts through the clutter and conveys the value and/or experience of a Gunflint Trail vacation.”

Tax solution?

Kerfoot doesn’t share Brostrom’s optimism that the fire’s damage to tourism can be made up so quickly. He said a percentage of the base canceling this summer will not come back in following years. “We’ll have to do marketing to play catch-up,” he said.

He wryly notes Cook County competes with the Wisconsin Dells, which lures thousands of visitors with indoor activities— a “guaranteed rec opportunity, sort of what like Disney started.”

To bolster tourism and create weatherproof events, a group of business owners called the Cook County Economic Analysis Council proposed a “one two three” tax to fund an events and visitors bureau. The bureau would work on attracting conventions and creating cultural, music and film festivals.

The tax proposal included a one percent tax on lodging, two percent on bars and restaurants, and three percent on recreation businesses such as outfitters and Lutsen Mountain. The county board unanimously approved two of the taxes in February. The restaurant and bar tax was dropped due to opposition.

The taxes require state approval and became part of the omnibus tax bill in 2007. As of May 25, Gov. Tim Pawlenty indicated he likely would veto the entire bill, effectively scuttling the proposals at least until next year.

Area businesses supported the lodging and recreation taxes overwhelmingly, said Scott Harrison, co-owner of Lutsen Resort. But Michael O’Phelan, owner of Solbakken Resort and Cascade Lodge, was a voice of dissent.

O’Phelan notes the visitors bureau would be governed by a board made up of members of groups that compete for tourist dollars— Gunflint Trail Association, Lutsen-Tofte Tourism Association, and Grand Marais Area Tourism Association. “They’re expecting them to magically get along once they have money,” O’Phelan said.

He said the new taxes would add to existing financial burdens for travelers, that cultural events mostly benefit the large resorts, and the area doesn’t need promotional gimmicks.

“Right now I’m looking at the most beautiful sight of all time, the lake, the blue sky, the green grass. This place sells itself once people get here. I would never come up for a dragonboat festival,” he said.

Also proposed, and likely to be lost in the veto, was property tax relief for businesses damaged by the Ham Lake fire and $1 million in firefighting aid to Cook County and Grand Marais.

Governor Pawlenty warned the Legislature he would veto the bill because it automatically factors inflation into budget projections.

Getting there

The inherent contradiction in ecotourism is that any motorized travel results in greenhouse gases. “We need to get a handle on statewide transit and cleaner cars,” Hansen said.

The only mass transit servicing the North Shore is bus service three days weekly through Happy Times Tours of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Plans are in the works to revive train service from the Twin Cities to Duluth/Superior.

U.S. Rep. James Oberstar has floated the idea of an extension to Schroeder, using the old rights-of-way for transporting timber by rail, but it would be many years down the road.

Kerfoot said a more realistic possibility is to expand the Cook County/Grand Marais airport to accommodate commuter airlines. But air travel is the most polluting form of mass transit, accounting for two to three percent of global carbon emissions, according to the Global Development Research Center.

Gunflint Trail businesses were prepared for fire

“If you’re doing business in the heart of a fire-based ecosystem you better be ready,” Hansen said.

The family enterprise has been in business for 50 years, started by Hansen’s parents. They’ve been bracing for fire since the 1999 Boundary Waters blowdown.

That storm provided a lot of dead timber for fire, and both residents and government officials have prepared for “the big one” ever since.

“That no one was killed or injured is a testament” to that preparation, Hansen said.

By contrast 453 died in the Cloquet fire in 1918 and as many as 800 people died in the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894.

Besides firefighters, the saviors in the Ham Lake fire were sprinkler systems installed on many cabins. Post-fire aerial views show islands of green surrounded by black scorched earth. While 140 structures burned, 897 survived.

Still, Sue Prom, co-owner of Voyageur Canoe Outfitters, noted in her blog that hooking up sprinklers was difficult because the lake levels were two feet lower than normal.

The Ham Lake fire not only was predictable but necessary, said Doug Shinneman, a forest ecologist for the Nature Conservancy in Grand Rapids. Jack pine cones don’t release their seeds without heat, so a fire is required to re-seed the forest.

He also notes the fire is “big by modern standards, but not by historic standards.” Forest ecologists have documented larger fires in the 1700s and 1800s.

Loggers harvested some of the blowdown area in 1999. But Tim O’Hara, vice-president of forest policy for Minnesota Forest Industries, said bureaucracy in the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the Boundary Waters and surrounding Superior National Forest, prevented swifter harvesting that could have made the fire much less severe.

Superior National Forest spokeswoman Chris Reichenbach disputes O’Hara’s assertion, given that eight years have passed since the blowdown. She said field treatment of the blowdown area outside the Boundary Waters, including prescribed burns and salvage harvest, was completed years ago. Inside the wilderness area, 76,000 acres were planned for prescribed burns with 40,000 acres completed.

“Timber management minimizes natural disturbances,” O’Hara said. “Forests shouldn’t be allowed to get too mature, where insects and disease gets them. There was a large area of over-mature woods up there.”

Shinneman agrees letting forests grow unnaturally old is counterproductive, but said logging is no guarantee against fires, since forests can burn even when young. “If you want a portion of the land to have wilderness values, you have to sacrifice those to log.”

Given the natural history of fire and forests, Shinneman won’t blame global warming. Excessive dry weather and the 1999 windstorm may be the connection, but “the jury is still out,” he said.

“Fire is normal, but we have a drought going on,” Hansen said. “Springs are earlier and getting warmer. Ice is coming in late and going out early. Climate change is helping us extend the season, but also aiding catastrophic fires. Politicians denying it are going to be viewed like tobacco executives — they knew, they lied.”

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