Title: After the blowdown: a resource assessment of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, 1999-2003

Author: Moser, W. Keith; Hansen, Mark H.; Nelson, Mark D.; Crocker, Susan J.; Perry, Charles H.; Schulz, Bethany; Woodall, Christopher W.

Year: 2007

Publication: Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-7. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 54 p.

Abstract: The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) was struck by a major windstorm on July 4, 1999. Estimated volume in blowdown areas was up to 29 percent less than in non-blowdown areas. Mean down woody fuel loadings were twice as high in blowdown areas than in non-blowdown areas. Overstory species diversity declined in blowdown areas, but understory diversity, measured by species richness, increased. Windstorms, like wildfire, are part of the historic disturbance regime in the Boundary Waters-Quetico region.