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National Forest Blow Down Areas Reopening In Langlade, Oconto Counties

Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across much of central, north central, and eastern Wisconsin during the evening hours of July 19, 2019. Hundreds of thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted, resulting in damage to private and public property. Nearly a year later, workers have reestablished most of the trails and campgrounds in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Oconto and Langlade counties.

Forest spokesperson Hilary Markin says they worked then to get as much open as possible, but it took until now to get most things open...

"We have restored access to all the motorized trails that have been reopened as well as of course this winter we had snowmobile trails open. We're still working on a few places that have areas closed...."

Markin says the remaining non-motorized trails are still closed, including 11 miles in the Jones Spring area and the 18-mile Popple Ridge horse trails. Those areas are not likely to open this year. Boot Lake Campground is the only developed recreation site still closed due to storm damage but Markin says they're still trying to get that site open.

She says it took the efforts of many to make progress toward reopening..

"Just like to say thank you to our trail partners and all the coordination that was done with Oconto county and Langlade county to make all of our restoration efforts to date successful. We continue to work towards getting our areas open and back accessible to the public. We appreciate the efforts that everybody has done to make that possible..."

Most undeveloped camping sites are open. Exceptions include Fanny, Jesse, Perch, Spruce, Wayne King and Wischer Lakes, plus Trickle Creek which should be open later this summer.

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