BEMIDJI — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar toured Bemidji on Thursday, April 2, to see how storm recovery is coming along and hear from the groups working together to assist the community with the years-long recovery effort.
Clearing the twisted timbers from the June 21, 2025, storm that toppled 9 million trees around Bemidji has been a top concern for Bemidji Fire Chief Justin Sherwood.
Despite several inches of snow falling in early April, the tree debris on public and private lands creates a glut of dry fuels, which is especially concerning during the spring wildfire season.
“While the trees have only been gone for months, it's extremely dry,” he said Thursday.
The Conservation Corps conducted a controlled burn outside the Northwest Juvenile Detention Facility, Wednesday through Friday.
Klobuchar met with Conservation Corps members at the site, a group that deployed twice in Bemidji: first in September 2025 for storm recovery work, and again in March through Monday for wildfire mitigation.
“We loved this opportunity to work with partners and be in contact with Serve Minnesota, United Way and [the] Bemidji fire chief, because this is perfect,” said Nalani McCutcheon, the executive director of Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa. “This is allowing our members to apply their skills and experiences to serve ... and connect with professionals.”
Nearly 100 Conservation Corps members have been involved in the Bemidji storm recovery effort so far.
“This snow really creates less risk,” Klobuchar said to the Corps members conducting the burns. “A major boon just made for us in the spring.”
Beyond Bemidji’s forested areas, businesses, homeowners and local officials continue to navigate the aftermath of the storm, nearly nine months later.
“There are a few [structures] that have been deemed uninhabitable. There are some other structures that are being taken down, but there are still houses with trees on them, and there are houses that are leaking,” Sherwood said. “Our city staff and county staff are still out there assessing. There's many we just don't know about.”
While Beltrami County qualified for state emergency disaster assistance, where 75% of non-insurable costs for public structure repair could be reimbursed, the county fell short of the threshold for federal assistance to individuals.
“As a city, pretty close to $9 million in damage. A lot of that covered by insurance, but certainly not all of it," Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince said. “That's before you get to the damage that was done to our private businesses and residents, and so many of those folks are still working on recovery.”
Members of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe qualified for individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. The western portion of the reservation was heavily impacted by the same storm.
Following the tour, Klobuchar presented the National Association of Broadcasters’ Crystal Award to the staff of KBHP-FM in Bemidji. The Hubbard Broadcasting-owned country radio station, KB101, was recognized for its public service work in the aftermath of the storm. The station has now received seven such awards in its 54-year history, an NAB record.
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