REGIONAL— Nearly two dozen forest roads within the Superior National Forest remained closed as of this week, and those closures could impact access to many parts of the forest as the fall hunting season gets underway.
The road closures remain in effect in the wake of the June 18 storm which brought torrential rains to the region, causing flooding and severe damage to many roads and trails in the region. While the forest service has made some progress in repairing access roads, the number of closed roads has actually increased since the closures were first announced on June 21.
“It can seem kind of mindboggling that we had 21 roads closed in June and 23 now,” acknowledged Superior National Forest spokesperson Tyce Velde. He said forest service staff recently completed a field audit of the road system to better assess the condition of the extensive forest road system on the three-million-acre national forest and said that effort helped to refine the extent of the damage. He said the new roads added to the list had effectively been closed due to their condition, but simply hadn’t been officially listed.
While a handful of roads have been reopened since the June storm, Velde said progress has been slowed by the overwhelming nature of the damage and the limited road staff available to work on repairs. The forest service road system is almost entirely gravel and often minimal maintenance, which makes it particularly vulnerable to the kind of overland flooding experienced during the June 18 storm.
The damage wasn’t just confined to roads. Velde said several bridges were also damaged or destroyed and replacement of those structures will take more time. He said some material shortages have also contributed to the delay on bridge repairs.
While the cost of repairing all the roads could be substantial, Velde said the forest service is not currently intending to abandon any roads at this point. “We don’t want to leave roads permanently closed,” he said. “None have been written off at this point.”
The national forest has been seeking outside assistance. “We have gotten some extra help from other forests,” said Velde. “But we didn’t budget for road maintenance at a level to cover all this additional stuff that was caused by the storm. It was an overwhelming amount of work for the staff we had aboard.” Velde said the Superior has applied for some emergency funding but it remains uncertain how much may ultimately be made available.
He said uncertainty around the presidential election and potential future funding for the agency is keeping the budget strings pretty tight, a situation he doesn’t expect to resolve itself until after the November election.
Velde said staff on the forest have been working hard to address the situation. “The one factor that is not contributing to the long timeline [for repairs] is the folks who work here on the forest. Engineers and trail crews have been doing a great job. Putting in extra hours, it’s been a tremendous effort.”
New road closures announced Aug. 29 on the Superior include:
• FR 199 (Hunting Shack Rd.), FR 487 (Gold Mine Rd.), and FR 487A (Gold Mine Impoundment Rd.), all on the LaCroix District.
• FR 528, FR 721 and 721A (Pine Lane), and FR 1822 (Trigstad Road), all on the Laurentian District.
• FR 388 (August Lake Road) on the Kawishiwi District.