Campfires Even More Magical When Done Mindfully

Sitting around a campfire can be a soul-soothing experience. Cooking over a campfire makes good food spectacular, as HDT staffer Jim spelled out in this blog. In fact, according to an article in Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has found that the top reason Minnesotans now burn wood is for recreation. However, wood smoke is also a significant cause of air pollution. The same article reports 57 percent of the state’s fine particle emissions are from wood burning. 

I’d like to think I do not take clean air for granted. Even just one or two days of air quality alerts from wildfire smoke on a summer day reminds me how fortunate we are most of the time. Challenges to clean air come from many sources these days, but in the interest of focusing on what we can control, I’d like to explore opportunities to minimize our impact on air quality through clean burning, specifically in this case clean campfire hygiene.

What Makes a Clean Campfire?

In tips from both Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources, two factors are deemed significant for clean burning: 1) the type and/or quality of wood and 2) having a “right size” fire. In Minnesota, specific guidelines are available from the DNR for burning in State Parks or on State Land.

A campfire appropriately sized to state park fire rings were found to burn cleaner. Photo by HDT staff Anna S.

Although you don’t need to follow those guidelines at home, many of those same characteristics (e.g.. using seasoned wood) make for cleaner burning. When it comes to size, studies have shown that keeping a fire appropriate to the size of fire rings at State Parks significantly reduces the particles that result from burning. The standard size for a campfire in Minnesota is not more than 3 feet in diameter and also not more than 3 feet in height.

Is This an OK Time to Burn?

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wants everyone to be conscious of creating clean campfires and to help with that, they offer the Can I Burn tool. In Minnesota, the DNR has a webpage that links you to local resources about burning permits.

Just like the weather (and related to many weather factors like wind speed/direction and relative humidity), fire danger is local and can vary by county or even township. Wisconsin offers this Fire Danger link to help you find what applies in your area. And in Minnesota, this page is updated with local fire danger.

A little planning and attention to details can greatly reduce the amount of air pollution generated by campfires. Photo by HDT staff Delaney D.

No discussion about campfires would be complete without general safety reminders including how to know a fire is really out. The tried-and-true Drown and Stir method uses water, dirt and sand for drowning, followed by stirring and repeating those steps until you no longer feel heat when holding your hand over the fire spot. Not only can you prevent wildfires–with a little planning and consideration, you can significantly reduce the impact of campfire smoke, making clean air more available to everyone, while still enjoying the magic of a campfire.

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