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The remnants of last week’s ice storm reminded me of the 1999 blowdown storm that swept across the border country. Trees snapped off, stripped of their branches, as if hit with a tornado. When at least two inches of ice builds up on the forest canopy and boulevard trees, with high winds whistling, well, goodbye trees, shrubs, pine plantations.

The brunt of the storm seemed to be worst in the Lake Superior highlands stretching northeast of Two Harbors, through Beaver Bay and Silver Bay, back to Lax Lake and Finland and north toward Isabella. Damage has been reported all the way up into Cook County.

I noticed a Forest Service plane flying overhead last weekend when I was out in the woods, perhaps on a wildlife survey, perhaps on a timber survey to see what might have been lost across the Superior National Forest. Other planes were criss-crossing the woods and I assumed that at least a few of them were out for assessments of storm damage.

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Tags: forrest johnson, from the side, opinion