The
Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forest are located in Wisconsin's
Northwoods. The Nicolet covers 661,377 acres in Florence, Forest,
Langlade, Oconto, Oneida, and Vilas counties; the Chequamegon covers
858,416 acres in Ashland, Bayfield, Sawyer, Price, Taylor, and Vilas
counties.
Since
1993, the two national forests have been managed as one administrative
unit with headquarters offices located in Park Falls and Rhinelander.
Each national forest has retained its individual identity. Visitors
driving across the state, from east to west, on US Highway 70, for
example, will first see portal signs welcoming them to the Nicolet
National Forest and then the Chequamegon National Forest.
Each
national forest is divided into administrative units called ranger
districts. The Chequamegon comprises five districts, and has ranger
stations located in Glidden, Hayward, Medford, Park Falls, and Washburn.
As with the forests themselves, several ranger districts have been
combined. The Glidden and Hayward ranger districts have been combined
into the Great Divide Ranger District. The Medford and Park Falls ranger
districts are also administered as a single unit.
The
Nicolet comprises four ranger districts with ranger stations located in
Eagle River, Florence, Lakewood, and Laona. The Eagle River and Florence
ranger districts are administered as one unit, and the Lakewood and
Laona ranger districts are administered as one unit. The Blackwell Job
Corps Center is located near the town of Blackwell. Blackwell is
administered by the Job Corps field office in Lakewood, CO.
Both
national forests were established by presidential proclamations in 1933,
but that was not the beginning. The land, its wildlife, and its people
were already here. The cultures, the traditions, and life ways of the
past have created Wisconsin's national forests as we know them today.
Archeologists have traced the cultural history to the time 10,000 years
ago when the area was inhabited by the original people. The era of the
Paleo-Indians was followed by the Archaic Indians, and finally, the
Woodland Tradition Indians.
In
the 1600s, Europeans--missionaries and fur traders--arrived in what is
now Wisconsin. The Nicolet is named after Jean Nicolet, a French
explorer who came to the Great Lakes Region in the 1600s to promote fur
trading with the American Indians. The name Chequamegon is derived from
an Ojibway word meaning "place of shallow water," and refers
to Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay. During the 17th century growing
numbers of Europeans and Indians made the Northwoods their home.
Following
close behind the fur traders were the lumbermen who established the
timber industry. Early loggers used rivers to move pine logs to the
sawmills. When the old-growth pinery dwindled, lumbermen used railroads
to move the heavier hardwood logs to mills. Lumbering reached its peak
here in the 1920s.
When
the timber ran out, much of the cut over land was sold to immigrants for
farms and homesteads. But, the soils of the Northwoods proved better
suited for growing trees, and many of the farms were abandoned. During
that time it was not uncommon for fires to burn uncontrolled across the
land.
In
1928, the Federal Government, under the authority of the Weeks Law of
1911, began buying abandoned and tax delinquent land in the Northwoods
with the idea of establishing a national forest. Purchase Units were
approved and, in 1929, a Forest Service office was established in Park
Falls to oversee land acquisitions.
In
March 1933, shortly before he left office, President Herbert Hoover
issued a proclamation establishing the Nicolet National Forest. The
headquarters was located in Park Falls. A second office was opened in
Rhinelander to handle land acquisition in the eastern part of the state.
The Chequamegon was established as a separate national forest in
November 1933, by President Franklin Roosevelt, from the Nicolet's
westernmost lands. At that time, Park Falls became the headquarters for
the Chequamegon and Rhinelander the headquarters for the Nicolet.
When
the Great Depression rolled across the United States, thousands of
young, unemployed men joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. CCC camps
were established in the newly formed national forests. During the 10
years the Civilian Conservation Corps was active, Corpsmen planted
thousands of acres of jack pine and red pine, built fire lanes, and
constructed recreational facilities across the national forests. Much of
their work is still evident.
We
are fortunate in that these forests are resilient. If left alone, we
know they would recover from the destructive logging practices of the
late 1800s and early 1900s. But natural processes work slowly, and
recovery would take a very long time. With active management we
can--indeed, we have--shortened the recovery time. Today, the second
growth forests are teeming with life and providing us with a variety of
natural resources.
Management
The
Forests Plans. At present, each national forest has its own Land and
Resource Management Plan to guide its management activities. The forest
plans, as they are usually called, represent an integrated, ecological
approach to managing the forests' natural resources and guide all
natural resource management decisions. The forest plans provides
direction for multiple-use management and the sustained yield of goods
and services in an environmentally sensitive manner. The forest plans
are a dynamic documents. To date both the Chequamegon and Nicolet plans
have been amended several times.
Forest
Plan Implementation. The forest plans are being implemented through a
teamwork process called Integrated Resource Management. Under this
approach, all of the resources in a specific area are considered jointly
when management activities are planned. Planning is done by a team
representing several disciplines. An interdisciplinary team, for
example, may have an engineer, a silviculturist, a biologist, a
forester, and a landscape architect.
The
Integrated Resource Management approach assures that all future forest
plan implementation actions are coordinated, and that forest plan goals
and objectives are achieved.
Ecosystem
Management. In 1992, the Forest Service adopted a new management
philosophy--called ecosystem management--to guide the stewardship of our
national forests. By ecosystem management, we mean that an ecological
approach will be used to achieve multiple-use management of national
forests. It means that we must blend the needs of people and
environmental values in such a way that national forests represent
diverse, healthy, productive, and sustainable ecosystems. Ecosystem
management is not a radical departure from our recent management
strategy, but is the logical next step in the evolution of forest
management in the United States.
Forest
Plan Revision. Forest plans were not meant to last forever. They are
supposed to be amended on an as needed basis and revised every 10 to 15
years. Our plans were approved in 1986, and in 1995 we began the
revision process. The process began, informally, by asking ourselves how
well the plans were working and what, if anything, needed to be changed.
These discussions were expanded to include the Indian tribes and the
public, and several revision topics were identified.
The
formal forest plan revision process began in June 1996 with the
publication of a Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement in the Federal Register. When the revision process is
complete, we will have one consolidated forest plan for the
Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests.
