A truck became stuck on a Colvill back road and caused a fire recently, but it wasn’t someone out on a joyride through the brush—it was US Forest Service-contract employees conducting a sensitive plant survey who accidentally took a wrong turn. Cook County Law Enforcement received a “scratchy cell phone call” at 12:06 p.m. on Tuesday, July 13 from Dylan Lueth, 27, of St. Louis Park, MN, asking for assistance because he and his friend were stuck near the Kadunce River. Lueth told the dispatcher that in his attempt to free his rented Ford Escape four-wheel drive, he had spun his tires so much a fire started underneath the vehicle.
Lueth told dispatch he wasn’t sure where he was but had started on Kelly’s Hill. Law Enforcement attempted to contact the MN Department of Natural Resources to inform them of a potential fire. Law Enforcement also used the cell phone coordinates to locate the vehicle and found that the men had traveled down an unnamed path off of Kelly’s Hill, heading west.
At 12:22 p.m. another cell phone call came from Lueth telling law enforcement that the fire was out. However, the vehicle was still stuck. Butch Schulte of Wally’s Towing was contacted and it was determined that his wrecker would be unable to make it down the small path. He stopped by the law enforcement center and got Lueth’s coordinates and made the trek in with a smaller four-wheel drive pickup. Accompanying Schulte was David Beckwith of Grand Marais, who was familiar with the area.
Lueth, working for Midwest Natural Resources of the Twin Cities, was contacted by e-mail a few days after the incident. He confirmed that he was the person who made the call. He said he was stuck on the “power line maintenance trail.” Lueth said, “The tow truck driver knew exactly where we were and drove right to us.”
Listening to the description given to law enforcement, Beckwith had recognized the area. He deer hunts near there and was able to direct Schulte to the proper little path. It took only the slightest pull to get the car out of its predicament and the men were able to continue their work, which was reviewing the area and collecting data for the Forest Service.
Jack Greenlee, plant ecologist for Superior National Forest, confirmed that Lueth was contracted to survey rare plants. He said another crew is working at this time in Cook and Isabella. He added that there are no immediate plans for timber harvest or any other activities at this time in the Colvill area.
“We will use the data collected to determine how we’ll manage that particular stand,” said Greenlee. “We don’t have enough data for the big picture. After we have a year’s worth of data, we may decide to harvest the timber—or we may realize we don’t have a lot of birch regeneration or something like that. Then we’ll work at that. But before we get to any of these proposals, there would obviously be an opportunity for public comment.”
Midwest Natural Resources continues to work in Cook County. Lueth said, “We do plant surveys all across Minnesota and Wisconsin and just happened to push the rental car past its limits this time.”
It was determined that the fire was actually caused by the Ford’s catalytic converter coming in contact with tall grass.
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