As camping grew in popularity, Wisconsin's Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest lost 7 campgrounds
Chelsey LewisA few years ago, a friend and I were in the middle of a backpacking trip on the North Country Trail when we walked into the Lake Three campground in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest west of Mellen hoping to fill our water bottles.
It was the middle of the week in early September, so the fact that the campground was empty was interesting, but not completely out-of-the-ordinary.
We got to the water pump near the campground’s boat launch, discovered it didn’t work and realized the campground was empty for a reason: it was closed.
After I got home I learned the closure was one of nearly a dozen across the forest, part of a cost-saving effort that closed or reduced services in 11% of the forest’s recreation areas in 2015.
At the time, the U.S. Forest Service said the closures were temporary, so I didn’t think too much of it. Closures and reduced services are, unfortunately, not uncommon for chronically underfunded public outdoor services, and the pandemic exacerbated issues, with a crush of visitors leading to garbage and vandalism problems in local and national parks. All of Wisconsin’s state parks were closed for a period in 2020 partially due to those issues.
But in 2019, the USFS published a five-year Recreation Facility Strategy that made seven of the closures permanent, the loss of 78 campsites in northern Wisconsin.
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Less than a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and made camping — and other outdoor activities — more popular than ever.
Wisconsin state parks saw campground occupancy increase 5.5% from January through October in 2020 over the previous year, and for the first time ever had 100% occupancy every weekend from Labor Day through Halloween.
U.S. forests across the country also saw a surge in visitors, jumping from about 150 million on average over the previous five years to more than 168 million in 2020.
But the increase in visitation came too late for the campgrounds in the CNNF. Mark Beuning, a technical services staff officer for the forest, said they don’t plan to revisit the 2019 plan and have already begun implementing it. That includes removing infrastructure like picnic tables, fire rings, water pumps and vault toilets from the campgrounds, and putting up barricades at entrances to prevent people from driving through while the sites revegetate.
But that hasn’t stopped La Crosse’s Greg Krueger from trying to save the campgrounds — or at least prevent more from closing.
Krueger, who used to live in Eagle River, regularly camps in the forest, and was disappointed to learn that one of his favorite campgrounds, Mineral Lake, was among those closed.
“It’s a gorgeous setting. The lake is great for swimming, kayaking," he said, noting that the campground is near the popular Copper Falls State Park, which is often hard to get a camping reservation for on a summer weekend. “(Mineral Lake) is really your ticket to stay in that area for the weekend and enjoy everything it has to offer.”
He said all the closed campgrounds offer amenities for every outdoor interest.
“The strength of the system is the variety of different sites,” he said, noting that some are good for fishing or kayaking, others for hiking — including some like Three Mile that are scattered along the North Country Trail and offer spots for not only day hikers but also backpackers to spend the night. “To start chopping away at the number of sites offered is unfortunate for forest visitors and for these different regions of the state.”
Since he learned about the closures, he's written editorials, contacted media and talked to forest service employees and local communities about the possibility of saving them.
That possibility became even slimmer after the 2019 plan was released. Krueger recognizes the closed campgrounds are probably closed for good, but he hopes more Wisconsinites will be aware of the larger problem facing the forest.
“I think a lot people in Wisconsin aren’t aware of what’s going on here,” Krueger said. “The forest doesn’t receive the funding it needs.”
Funding decline led to closures
One of national forests’ two sources of funding, Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness (NFRW) funds, dropped from a peak of $500 million (in 2019 dollars) in 2002 to half that in 2019; that represented a loss of an average of $2 million per forest across the country, according to the 2019 RFS.
As funding went down, costs went up, and closures were unavoidable.
“The changes this year are necessary to balance our budget given our increasing operational costs and decreasing number of visitors during the last few years,” Forest Supervisor Paul Strong said in a news release at the time of the closures. “The forest has continued to maintain service at normal levels despite financial challenges during the last several years, but this practice is no longer sustainable and we regret this change.”
The closures were based on several factors, including proximity to other recreation sites (including state and local ones), cost of maintenance and upkeep, and anticipated future user demand.
With the temporary closures in place, the USFS conducted a comprehensive review of the forest’s 193 recreation sites and gathered public feedback and user data to develop a long-term plan.
In May 2019 the CNNF released the RFS, whose overall goal was “to guide future management decisions of developed recreation sites toward economic and environmental sustainability.”
The plan called for changes to 118 sites — from new bathrooms and more campsites with hook-ups to higher recreation fees — and the closure and return to general forest of 23 sites, including seven developed campgrounds, nine trailheads and four boating, swimming or fishing areas.
The following campgrounds were closed: Brule River, Kathryn Lake, Lake Three, Mineral Lake, North Twin Lake, Sevenmile Lake and Windsor Dam. The Rat River Bridge dispersed campsite was closed as well.
After implementation, the plan was projected to save the CNNF $300,000 annually, or about 25% of its operations and maintenance budget.
“The reality is we cannot be ‘everything for everyone,’ “ the report stated, noting what the forest could do was fill a niche within the outdoors landscape that other local and state entities did not fill.
Part of that niche, the report stated, was “to provide unmatched opportunities for year round motorized trail riding, water and land-based silent sports and the solitude of rustic, quiet campgrounds.”
The 1.5-million-acre forest still has more than 40 developed campgrounds, and many of the closed ones were near others. The eight-site Windsor Dam Campground in Forest County, for example, is near a few other CNNF campgrounds, including the Luna-White Deer Lake Campground.
Once the closed campgrounds revegetate, the land will be open again as general forest, for everything from fishing and hunting to hiking and dispersed camping, but without any developed facilities.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they’re still public land," Krueger said. "But I think you’re closing out a lot of the public who would be comfortable going out camping at a basic campground. … When that gets torn out, that’s a smaller fraction of the population that’s going to be using and enjoying and appreciating these areas of the forest.”
And Krueger isn't just disappointed because he and others have fewer camping options.
“There’s a lot of history there,” he said.
Green Lake beach south of Mountain, for example, is among the closed areas. The beach has a picnic shelter that was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Beuning with the forest service said they haven't decided yet if the structure will be removed, but they will comply with the Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of their actions on historic properties and provide an opportunity to comment on those actions.
Local economies dependent on tourists could be hit hard
Krueger is also concerned about how the closures could affect local economies.
“The economy up there is really dependent on tourists,” he said, noting he saw it firsthand when he lived in Eagle River. “These campgrounds bring in people for multiple-day stays, which really helps benefit the economy.”
According to the 2019 RFS, 55.1% of visitors stayed at least one night on their trip to the CNNF. All visitors spent about $80 million annually, and that spending supported 1,120 full- and part-time jobs in the area.
Twenty-two northern Wisconsin counties are classified as recreation economies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Five of the closed campgrounds are in those counties.
Three Lakes recognized how important Laurel Lake Campground was to their community, and rallied to save it after the USFS closed it in 2015. They were so successful that the forest service has taken back management of the site.
Nearby Sevenmile Lake and its 27 campsites suffered a different fate, however, and remains closed.
Krueger was at Laurel Lake in August and said it was packed with people.
“You would never know the place was about to be closed, or was closed for a short time,” he said.
He thinks many of the closed campgrounds had the potential for new partnerships and innovation like that.
And he points to the popularity of state campgrounds in the Northwoods, like Crystal Lake in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest near Boulder Junction, as evidence of the demand for campgrounds in the area, even if they are more rustic and far from population centers.
“I think that’s a testament that you don’t really need lavish amenities ... to attract people. Many of them are packed full every summer weekend,” he said. “I think as you look around, it’s just a sad contrast to see what’s going on here.”
He hopes these closures will open the eyes of Wisconsinites, especially as more than ever are getting into camping and other outdoor activities.
“It’s interesting to see that (popularity) as the backdrop for the campgrounds about to have their infrastructure demolished,” he said. “If I could wish anything, it would be that the national forest gets the funding that it needs to maintain their recreation system and not need to scale it back in this way."
For more on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, see fs.usda.gov/cnnf.
Contact Chelsey Lewis at clewis@journalsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at @chelseylew and @TravelMJS and Facebook at Journal Sentinel Travel.