MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Some areas of state and federal properties in northern Wisconsin have been closed to the public as officials assess damage from recent flooding.
Several state parks’ trails, bridges and beaches have been damaged, the Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Amnicon Falls State Park and Pattison State Park were among the areas severely hit by flooding. All of the trails at Pattison State Park are closed and some are underwater.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to address significant damage to a dam on Interfalls Lake within the park, according to 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 repairs may take four to eight weeks.
More than 50 miles (80 kilometers) of road and trail at the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest have also been damaged, but all of the park’s campgrounds are open, said Linda Parker, public information officer with the forest’s incident management team.
Areas of Bayfield County near Drummond saw up to 15 inches (381 millimeters) of rain and had the most significant damage and washouts, Parker said.
“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 (322 kilometers) of northern Wisconsin and spans from New York to North Dakota.
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Information from: Wisconsin Public Radio, http://www.wpr.org
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