Evers views north woods devastation

All sides agree there’s much work left to be done
By: 
Warren Bluhm
Oconto County Times Herald Editor

RIVERVIEW — A team of volunteers cleared more than 12½ miles of roads and trails during their first three days of a 10-day project in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, putting a bit of a dent into the daunting task still ahead as the forest recovers from a devastating July storm.

Hundreds of miles of roadway and trails were blocked, and campgrounds had to be closed for weeks, after a macroburst leveled huge swaths of forest in the north woods, part of a storm system that led to a federal disaster proclamation affecting 18 counties and two tribes.

More than 125 members of Team Rubicon — a coalition of military veterans, first responders and others who send volunteers into disaster areas to help with cleanup — arrived in the area Sept. 28 and were planning to work non-stop through Saturday to join the effort being coordinated by the U.S. Forest Service and the Oconto and Langlade County Forestry Departments.

When Gov. Tony Evers dropped by the Riverview Fire Department for a briefing Tuesday afternoon, Team Rubicon incident commander Maggi Thomas was able to report that by noon Tuesday, they had cleared 12.65 miles of roadway and removed 10,465 cubic yards of debris.

“That’s an extremely large amount to date, and it’ll only continue from here, we still have four days to work,” incident commander Maggi Thomas told Evers. “Our main goal is to at least get the main arteries open … If we can get all of the trails that are technically ‘closed’ open, that’s a successful operation for us.”

A team of Americorps volunteers has also descended on the area and was working in collaboration with Team Rubicon.

“Americorps’ mission is to serve community needs and by working in a partnership, Team Rubicon does all the operations work and provides equipment, and we can work on our strength which is people,” Jeanne Duffy of Americorps told the governor.

“It’s really empowering both of our organizations to make our volunteer hours that much more effective,” said Adam Lemons of Team Rubicon.

Evers said “the really cool part” was seeing the cooperation and collaboration of the various groups.

“It just shows you how important volunteerism is to the state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Lemons said his organizations met with snowmobile clubs to determine their priorities before sending their crews to the north woods.

“We had about 150 hours of planning work before we had anyone here to make sure it was the most effective use of resources when we were here,” Lemons said. “It’s a donor-driven organization, so we wanted to be sure those donor dollars were being spent wisely.”

Gary Wagner, president of the Red Arrow Snowmobile and ATV Club, told Evers that the area lost five weeks of ATV season. State, county and utility crews worked with the clubs to get the ATV trails cleared of debris, but it still was the end of August before they could reopen.

Even so, the Forest Service is warning visitors that hazards remain on much of the forest including trees laying on the ground in a multitude of directions, leaning trees, hanging branches and broken off trees and stumps.

“We kept hearing from our Facebook page and phone calls, ‘Gee whiz, why don’t you have it open yet, it’s been a couple weeks, etc.,’” Wagner said. “But now these same people are commenting after they get an opportunity to get up here and go for a ride in the back country and the woods and they’re saying ‘Oh my God, I guess I do understand now. You have to get out in the woods to see the devastation.”

All of the speakers agreed that more than two months after the storm, there’s still plenty of work left.

“Nature won’t let us make any promises, but I don’t think that we’re done here,” Lemons said. “With the amount of devastation, this is unprecedented, and we’re already in the early phases of planning for some ongoing programs here in the area.”