According to Dr. Lee Frelich, Director of the University of Minnesota Center for Hardwood Ecology, a few simple characteristics reveal a lot about a forest’s history. For example, a recently burned area is dominated by sun loving plants and small seedlings that create a bright green landscape. Depending on the intensity of the fire, this green might be interspersed with the pink of exposed granite bedrock.

Older, medium-aged forests take on a darker hue as trees mature. Moss grows 4 – 6” thick and covers 80 – 90% of the forest floor. The tree makeup is limited to a small number of species, and trees tend to be similar in age and size. This creates an even, uniform texture when viewed from across a lake. In contrast, an old forest appears rough because more tree species of varying color and size have grown in over time. In these forests moss can grow up to a foot in depth and covers the entire forest floor.

Route: Seagull Lake – Alpine Lake – Red Rock Lake – Saganaga Lake – Seagull River – Gull Lake

Seagull Lake
Witness to multiple fires over the last decade, Seagull Lake affords paddlers views of several young forests:

	A 2002 prescribed burn on Three Mile Island cleared the way for the birch now growing in by consuming the jack pine felled by the 1999 blow down
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	The 2007 Ham Lake fire burned the southeastern shore of Seagull Lake, directly across from Three Mile Island
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	The Cavity Lake Fire burned the southwestern shore of the lake in 2006. This fire burned hotter and with more intensity than the Ham Lake fire. Look for more exposed bedrock and possibly slower regeneration
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	The northwestern shore of Seagull burned in 2005 during the Alpine Lake Fire, which burned the strip of land between Seagull, Alpine and Red Rock Lakes

Saganaga Lake
In contrast to the recently disturbed Seagull Lake, Saganaga is home to medium-aged and old forests.

	As you first enter Saganaga, look to Bear Island for a 100-year old, even aged forest of red pine and black spruce
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	The Roy Lake Fire of 1976 burned the eastern shore of Red Rock Bay. It’s now home to a young forest of birch and alder. A nameless island that also burned is dense with jack pine, black spruce, aspen and birch, and moss is just beginning to grow in
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Visit American Point to see a forest that has not burned since 1801
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Munker Island has remained undisturbed since the 1700s. You’ll find a 300-year-old red pine forest that is 90 feet tall. The under story features 40-foot white cedar, foot-deep moss and tons of coarse wood debris that has accumulated in the absence of fire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	As you head toward the Sag Corridor, look for a nameless island 100 feet high that looks like a big lump of pink granite. It burned during the 1995 Sag Corridor/Romance Lake fire of 1995. Young jack pine and black spruce are just starting to take hold

Sag Corridor/Seagull River

Watch for a patch of forest that burned in the Sag Corridor Fire of 1995, but most of this stretch remains undisturbed since 1801

Download the Canoeing.com Route Map to explore the effects of fire in the wilderness. Read More about The Aftermath of Fire: Regeneration after the Cavity Lake and Ham Lake Fires >