Chequamegon-Nicolet road and trail planning continues
U.S. Forest Service personnel are still busy determining which roads and trails should be open and closed to motorized users. In Wisconsin, the Travel Management Rule process mostly affects the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests.
There are 9,000 miles of roads in the 1.5 million-acre Chequamegon-Nicolet NF. The Chequamegon side already includes 284 miles of developed ATV trails. No such trails yet exist on the Nicolet side but, reportedly, there are “plans for construction on the drawing board.”
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported yesterday that the feds are taking public comment on the draft road and trail maps, but then left out how people can view and critique the plans. Also curious is the newspaper’s failure to include in its list of forest users one of the largest groups most dedicated to sustainable trail maintenance: Mountain bikers.
The Chequamegon Area Mountain Biking Association (CAMBA) is rightly concerned about ATV trails that cross or dead end at mountain bike trails, thereby inviting ATV abuse of carefully constructed singletrack.
As it turns out, a new round of public presentations is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4-15. Drafts of the road and trail maps for the forests (based on previous meeting input) will be on display and park service employees will answer questions. Exact times and places for the meetings won’t be nailed down until this Friday or Monday, according to a Chequamegon-Nicolet NF spokesman. As soon as that information is available, it will be posted here.