The FS has taken the campgrounds back because we could not afford to remove the hazardous branches and trees.
The FS has taken the campgrounds back because we could not afford to remove the hazardous branches and trees.
Can you see the hole right through the tree?
Dennis, thank you for taking the time to ask some great questions in order to help me solve this situation. To answer your first question I would have to argue that in court if I want to know the answer to that legally, but my 17 years in law enforcement tells me that past practices will win in court. Also on my contract I said I would only take the permit if all hazardous trees were removed before the start of my permit. But the Forest Service Government agency has told me otherwise. Up until last year the Forest Service would come in a do their inspection and removed the trees they decided needed to be removed. Then region 9 which includes 20 US States, decided because of a lawsuit that they were no longer going to do inspections and are not responsible to do hazardous trees. This decision came from much higher up than my Area District. So last year I paid for more than my share of hazardous tree removal because this Forest Service thought I would be refunded. But I was not. I also got an estimate for 67 trees and that I had identified by a self taught method, for a total of $58,250. In Breevoort Lake Campground. I closed the individual campsites in question and my District Rangers went to work trying to figure out how it was to be paid. That is when they got the "policy" "changed" so they had some time of legal control before my pre- season and after my post season work. They came in with a large crew and removed around 100 trees. That is when I was invited to the workshop this year because my main complaint was that I didn't think the lives of my visitors should count on me, who was not educated in tree inspection or the laws that govern it. Imagine my shock when I realized at training in Breevoort Lake Campground that there were hundreds of trees that did not meet safely standards. I was ready to open that very day. I told my FS District that I would not do anything that put the lives of my visitors in danger and was against the law. The FS at this District had always worked very well will me in the past but my emails text and calls were going unanswered. I could only assume that it was working its way up the chain. But in the meantime I know that people from all over the world had plans to make memories in these campgrounds. And I knew something they did not, the wheels of the government move very slow, and they would assume I would do what everyone else was doing, make money. When they hired me they should have read my mission statement. Because I live by it. So to answer your 2nd question every campground in region 9 has the same "policy" I can only guess why they are not doing it , but maybe because it simply can not be done before operating season, would cost too much, are not educated, trained, or maybe understand the FS didn't do it to the letter of the law, so they don't do it. They would lose a great deal of money. And certainly everyone knows this is the end of my career. But I can tell you why I am doing it; because don't ask me to do a job even if you don't want me to do it , because if you give me a job, I will at least do my best. Don't ask me to make money at the risk of the lives of the people that I love. Don't ask me to break the law just because everyone else might be. Because we at S'more Memories LLC expect more of ourselves than we do of others. And because we care if someone dies under trees that we know are deemed unsafe by the standards of the law.
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We are waiting at the campground for them to come. We are doing our job, please ask them to do theirs.
We operate under a special use permit. The campgrounds are owned by the USDA and located in the Hiawatha National Forest. We are located in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
They include;
Bay View Campground
Brevoort Lake Campground
Carp River Campground
Lake Michigan Recreation Area
Monocle Lake Campground, and
Soldier Lake Campground
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