River Walk Goes Over Planned Prescribed Burn on Wisconsin Point

SUPERIOR, WIS. – The Lake Superior Reserve held a River Walk on Wisconsin Point today while presenting the Wisconsin Point Fire Restoration Project.

A group of representatives from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa partnered with the City of Superior to plan a prescribed burn or good fire as a way to restore Wisconsin Point. This method has been used from the mid-1700s through the mid-1800s by indigenous people to clear brush, helping to promote new growth.

“This particular river walk is actually focused not on water, but on fire, specifically, Ishkode, which is the Ojibwe term for good fire,” said Mayor Jim Paine, City of Superior. “Probably for millennia, people have lived here and have lit fires to manage their forests. When we removed people from these forests, the fires stopped lighting and the forest started dying.”

Mayor Jim Paine says they have cleared out some underbrush, putting them on track to start the prescribed burn mid-September.