The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness remains closed through at least Friday as wildfires continue to burn.

That date is poised to be extended in some fashion, given the size and severity of the 15 wildfires still burning in the area.

Officials suggested Wednesday that the Forest Service, which oversees the Boundary Waters, could extend the closure for only parts of the 1.1 million-acre backcountry, while allowing other parts to reopen.

“We are working on a plan at the forest level to reduce that closure,” agency administrator Tom Hall said at a news briefing. “At this point, we don’t have it so that we can release, but we are coordinating with our partner agencies.”

Hall said officials are discussing how reopening portions of the wilderness might affect resources needed elsewhere as hundreds of firefighters battle blazes across the Superior National Forest.

For example, Hall said, reopening parts of the dry wilderness to visitors might stress local search-and-rescue forces. Such forces were deployed earlier this month when the BWCAW and Quetico Provincial Park, its Canadian counterpart, were closed and campers were evacuated, with some needing rescue.

Search and rescue crews also need to be on standby as firefighters increasingly head into the backcountry to battle the blazes.

“Staff is considering where are those places where people can experience (the wilderness) without interfering with any of those operations,” Hall said.

Hall didn’t specify which areas could reopen first.

Since the fires erupted around Ely, resort owners and business groups in the eastern portions of the wilderness have noted that most of the area off the Gunflint Trail near Grand Marais are well away from any flames.

One blaze, the Little Knife Fire, is within 10 miles of the west end of the Gunflint Trail. Otherwise, vast portions of the federally designated wilderness, including the isolated Vento Unit east of the Gunflint Trail, have remained essentially unaffected by the fires, except for when they’re downwind of the smoke.

When the Forest Service closed the Boundary Waters beginning July 14, the agency did so under the authorization of a larger regulatory order that carries an Oct. 1 expiration date, meaning the Forest Service could keep extending the wildfire closure until Oct. 1. While that Oct. 1 date isn’t new, it surfaced in a Forest Service news advisory Wednesday, leading to confusion among the media, including the Star Tribune, which briefly reported it as a new development.

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