Flood Damage Closes Some Areas Of State Parks, National Forest In Northern Wisconsin

Some areas of state and federal properties are closed to the public as officials assess damage from recent flooding in northern Wisconsin.

Several state parks have experienced damage to trails, bridges and beaches. Amnicon Falls State Park and Pattison State Park were among areas hardest hit by flooding. All trails are closed at Pattison State Park and some are still underwater.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is working with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to address significant damage to a dam on Interfalls Lake within the park, said Missy Vanlanduyt, section chief for recreation partnership with the DNR.

“We need to repair that by putting in sheet piling, and, in order to do that, we need to draw down the lake,” she said. “We’re going to be drawing it down to do repairs on the dam and repairs to the Highway 35 bridge.”

Vanlanduyt said preliminary estimates project repairs may take four to eight weeks. Crews have also constructed a temporary bridge to provide visitors access to Big Manitou Falls.

At Amnicon Falls State Park, the historic Horton Bridge is open but only accessible on foot while the Civilian Conservation Corps Bridge is closed long-term for reconstruction. Trails and campgrounds at several northern state parks are open except for a campground at Merrick State Park that has been closed due to high water on the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers.

In the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, more than 50 miles of road and trail have been damaged by flooding. Areas of Bayfield County that saw up to 15 inches of rain near Drummond experienced some of the most significant damage and washouts, said Linda Parker, public information officer with the forest’s incident management team.

“We’re also working on a reroute of the North Country Trail because that’s a popular trail and Rainbow Lake Wilderness Area is a popular place for people to recreate and we want to make sure there’s a reroute option for them in that area,” said Parker.

The North Country Trail runs through 200 miles of northern Wisconsin and spans seven states from New York to North Dakota. Parker said all campgrounds in the national forest are open. It’s unclear how long repairs may take on roads and trails there.

“We still have a couple roads closed from the 2016 flood event. Some things may take more time than others,” she said. “But, we did open two new roads today.”

Parker said the U.S. Forest Service is working closely with towns to repair roads.