Outfitters planning for long financial hit amid fires

Matt and Cassidy Ritter worked many summers at Voyageur Canoe Outfitters.

But as Cassidy stood on the banks of the Seagull River and looked up at the tall trees surrounding the property, she recounted the moment she and Matt knew they wanted to buy the business.

“We went on vacation somewhere, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to get home.’ And then I realized that this is the first place I’ve ever felt like I was home,” she said.

Located at the very end of the Gunflint Trail, Voyageur Canoe Outfitters faces a possible evacuation as the Little Knife fire burns around 8 miles away. The U.S. Forest Service estimates the fire is currently burning roughly 5,000 acres. But it’s much bigger across the Canadian border.

Matt Ritter said their inaugural summer as owners of Voyageur has been a crash course in running a small business during complicated times, after the Forest Service closed the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on July 14. It’s currently slated to be closed through at least July 24.

The closure comes during the most lucrative part of their summer for outfitters like Voyageur, said Ritter.

“There’s not a manual for this,” he said. “Everyone runs their business differently, but a lot of us pay most of our bills in July and August.”

Financial pivoting

The Ritters’ business helps people plan and gear up for a Boundary Waters adventure. And each day the closure continues, their company loses thousands of dollars.

The Ritters have cut staff hours in recent days, and they may have to cut more if the closure continues. At the same time, they’ve been hired to fireproof nearby homes.

“Now, all of a sudden, we’re in the sprinkler business. You know, fixing pumps and refilling propane tanks,” Matt Ritter said.

While the Ritters are worried about their own finances, they’re just as concerned about the local economy.

“Ely, Grand Marais, Tofte — these are tourism-based economies. The amount of people that we bring into these communities, buying gas and buying food at restaurants and buying groceries, it’s not minimal,” Matt Ritter said.

As a result, the Ritters are among outfitters advocating the Forest Service support a limited reopening for areas safe from fire.

Sawbill Canoe Outfitters owner Clare Shirley’s property is far south and east of the fires but has still had to halt business.

“I definitely think there are ways in which we could stem the economic blow happening here by allowing entry into the Boundary Waters in some limited fashion, in some limited areas, in a way that would be a really helpful thing,” she said.

Shirley said the longer the closure continues, the harder it is to keep staff.

“The reality of having seasonal staff is, if we were to let people go now, they’re going to leave and they’re not going to come back. If there was a reopening later, and I’ve let everybody go, well, I have no staff and I can’t reopen anyway,” she said.

The Forest Service is considering a partial reopening on the eastern side of the BWCA, said Tom Hall, who is the agency administrator for the fires burning in the Arrowhead.

But he added they’re concerned about new fires starting.

“We’re definitely looking at where can we open that up, whether that’s day trips or whether that’s a section [of the BWCA],” he said. “Any of that is going to take some level of signing within the Boundary Waters of what is closed and what is open, and so it’s going to take some work for us to get there.”

At Voyageur Canoe Outfitters, Cassidy and Matt Ritter said despite their rough financial start, they have no regrets about buying the business.

“I have not once thought about, ‘What were we thinking,’” Matt Ritter said. “Whatever we have to do to get through this, we’ll get through it.”

“This is our home. Yeah, this is where we belong. This is where our kids belong,” Cassidy Ritter added.