Printable Version

Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Sunday, July 20, 2008

Many roads in Chequamegon-Nicolet could be closed

MILWAUKEE (AP) — National forest planners may close more than half of the roads in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest to cars and other motorized vehicles.

The plan to close 55 percent of the roads is intended to protect northern Wisconsin’s sprawling forest, but outdoorsmen say it also will cut off their access to many remote areas.

“I don’t know if hunters or fishermen realize the impact that this will have on their form of recreation,” said John Schnorr, executive director of the Wisconsin Off-Highway Vehicle Association.

People would be able to walk or ski on the restricted roads to get into remote areas. But they wouldn’t be able to drive vehicles on them.

That means only “super fit” hunters will be able to get into those spots, said Ed Harvey Jr., chairman of the Conservation Congress, which advises the state Department of Natural Resources.

“This is going to have a huge effect on deer hunters,” Harvey said. “People complain about deer numbers — that we need to reduce the deer population — and this is not to going to help.”

The plan would reduce the roads open to vehicles from nearly 4,700 miles to about 2,100 beginning in January.

Many of the roads to be closed get relatively little use and have not been maintained. They have vegetation poking through them and require four-wheel drive.

The U.S. Forest Service had five public meetings on the plan in October in northern Wisconsin. It has received 175 comments on the plan and will continue to accept comment for another month.

Most people involved say the public seems to know little about the plan.

“I don’t know if it’s apathy or general lack of information,” Schnorr said.

Tony Erba, deputy forest supervisor for the Chequamegon-Nicolet, said the agency hasn’t received any comments so far from environmental groups, perhaps because environmentalists like the plan.

But “the sportsmen have not been fully engaging” either, he said. “It might be because they don’t come into the forest until fall for hunting, and they live in some other part of the state.”

Most of the roads to be closed in the 1.5 million-acre forest are near wetlands and waterways. The forest service will work to educate people the first year, but eventually people who drive on the roads will be ticketed, Erba said.

“If you put a wheeled vehicle in there, you can create ruts where water can channel and cause erosion,” he said.

Most mountain bikers, hikers and cross-country skiers seem to like the plan.

Ron Bergin, executive director of the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association, said most bike trails are in other parts of the forest and would not be affected by the change.