Collaboration Helps Boaters on Hiawatha
The improvements will greatly improve anglers' access experience while reducing their impact.
Road and launch repairs cure erosion problems
Story submitted by Greg Gardner, West Zone Engineer.
This past August, Hiawatha National Forest and Alger County Road Commission worked together to complete the reconstruction and paving of the Fish Lake boat launch access road on Munising Ranger District. The road and boat launch had problems with erosion caused by rain water running down the gravel road and into the lake at the boat launch, washing sediment into Fish Lake and the Indian River, and causing damage to the boat launch and parking lot.
To eliminate the erosion problem, 0.1 mile of road was reconstructed, and the road and parking lot were shaped to divert the water off into the woods before it reached the lake. The road and parking lot were then paved.
The Forest provided the design and the funding to perform the work, and the Alger County Road Commission provided the on-site supervision and construction crew to complete a well built project. Both the Forest and the County benefited from this cooperation. The Forest was able to utilize the experience of the County construction crew to complete the project within budget, and the County Road Commission was able to receive funding from the Forest for its crew during a time of shrinking budgets. We look forward to working with the County on future projects.