Chequamegon-Nicolet aspen fir

Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

The agency files it as “West Zone Aspen Fir Regeneration”

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on September 28. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

The sentence we think is wrong

“One treatment stand is within 0.12 mile of the river, but is across a major road, Forest Road (FR) 144”

The agency wrote that in its own document, under Recreation Use Areas and Water Bodies. Nobody has been out to check it. A dated photograph either backs it up or ends it.

How you settle it

Drive Forest Road 144 where it runs along the South Fork of the Flambeau River on the Medford-Park Falls district. Photograph the road and the strip of woods between it and the river. A photo from the road showing whether it truly runs between the cutting area and the river, and how wide and solid that road is.

The decision

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is proposing to treat aspen and balsam fir on the west zone to meet forest plan goals for regeneration, age class, and early successional habitat. A Draft Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact have been released and are available on the agency's website. The project is now in a pre-decisional objection period under 36 CFR 218.

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

01Find where the road is supposed to start. Photograph it from the junction, with anything that identifies the spot (a sign, a gate, a milepost).
02Walk it. Photograph the surface every few hundred meters and at anything that would stop a vehicle: a washout, a slide, a fallen tree, a stream with no crossing, trees growing in the road.
03Photograph the far end the same way.
04Let your phone record a GPS track if it can (any tracking app). A screenshot of the track is fine.
05Write down whether a pickup could drive it today, and why or why not.

What would count

Start, middle and end, with the track. A single photo of brush isn’t a road that doesn’t exist.
The reason a vehicle could not pass, in a photo.
The date. Roads change with a season.

All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide

Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go

Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.