CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla., (Oct. 25, 2018) —
What’s open and what’s closed? The general forest area in the Wakulla Ranger District of the Apalachicola National Forest, the area of the Forest east of the Ochlockonee River, is open although developed recreation sites and trails in that area are closed. Pine Creek and Buckhorn hunt camps, undeveloped camping areas, have been certified as safe and are now open to the public. The Apalachicola Ranger District west of the river remains closed. All roads with fallen trees across them are closed.
Recovery Team Progress
Roads: Roads across the Forest were affected by the hurricane, with the most severe damage in the Apalachicola Ranger District where roads are being cleared to access current timber sales. Workers continue to make good progress clearing some main roads on both ranger districts with bulldozers, loaders, tractor plows, excavators, masticastors and feller bunchers. A total of 99 miles of road has been cleared with heavy equipment to date. Saw teams work in tandem with that equipment to clear roads.
Teams for recreation, threatened and endangered species, timber and wildfire risk continue to assess damage. Assessment work to date has been used to estimate total recovery costs for the Forest to submit a request for supplemental funding to cover those costs. The process to submit that request begins today with transfer of data from the Southern Area Red Incident Management Team to the National Forests in Florida.
Recreation: Workers continued opening access to hunt camps on the east side of the Ochlockonee River and a few sites on the west side. Inspectors certified Pine Creek and Buckhorn hunt camps as safe, so those are open to the public. Today work will continue on clearing access to hunt camps and inspecting them for safety. Some campgrounds will require arborists and bucket trucks to remove dangling limbs. Availability of this equipment is limited in the immediate area, so some sites will take some time to reopen. Archaeological assessments continued and should be completed for the entire Forest in the next few days.
Threatened and endangered species: Teams continue surveying clusters of red-cockaded woodpecker trees to develop a mediation plan to create artificial cavities. They have assessed 308 woodpecker tree clusters to date, about one third of the total clusters to be assessed.
Timber: District employees continue to plan for salvage operations and reengage existing timber sales. Almost 17,000 acres of damaged timber on the Forest west of state highway 65 are being assessed for potential timber sales.
Wildfire risk: Fire behavior analysts continue to work with the Forest to identify the increased difficulty to suppress wildfire due to downed trees and additional fuels to predict fire behavior and the need to update fire suppression and prescribed fire plans. Addressing wildfire risk will be a long-term process for the Forest. In the near-term, firelines will be cleared of hurricane debris. Yesterday 3 miles of fireline were cleared.
How to stay safe in the Forest: Many roads in the area remain blocked by fallen trees and anyone in the Forest should use extreme caution as leaning and broken trees and limbs are significant safety hazards. Under no circumstance should members of the public try to clear fallen or leaning trees from Forest Service lands. Doing so requires specialized training and supervision and poses a significant safety risk to those carrying out such actions. It could also slow operations of assessment and road-clearing teams. Archery season for deer and turkey is open, so visitors in open areas of the Forest should be aware that hunters may be in the woods. Visitors should also watch for heavy equipment such as excavators and masticators on roads and maintain a safe distance from them when they are in use.
The Osceola and Ocala National Forests remain open. They, and other national forests in the Southern Region unaffected by Hurricanes Michael and Florence, will continue to waive fees at campgrounds and concessionaire-managed sites for evacuees and displaced individuals from both storms.
Photo of fire operations on Apalachicola National Forest, Credit Drew Page/USFWS
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