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About 22 miles north of Tomahawk and a half hour west of Rhinelander, the Willow Flowage is a tempting choice. State officials thought so and spent nearly $10 million of Wisconsin Stewardship Fund money to buy the land surrounding the 6400 acre flowage in October, 1997.
Except for one small enclave on the eastern end, the 73 miles of the Willow’s shoreline remain essentially undeveloped. This outstanding feature is largely due to the tightly controlled access allowed by paper companies who created the flowage in 1926 when they dammed the course of the Tomahawk and Willow Rivers. The state’s purchase includes more than 100 small islands, 6600 acres of woods, and 2130 acres of bogs and lowlands.
“The locals,” says Jim Wise, “call this the poor man’s Canada.” A Tomahawk resident, Wise is a Willow Flowage enthusiast and guide for the day. “I go here a lot,” he says, and mentions that he and a buddy have a hunting shack near the flowage.
The size and quiet of this Oneida County land offers a primitive, wilderness quality not easily found elsewhere in the northwoods. Notes Wise: “You can get lost in it.” And more than once he’s helped direct a hapless adventurer back towards a more civilized setting.
For many, Highway 8 marks the true edge of northern Wisconsin. Downstate residents can travel up Highway 51, towards Rhinelander, and intersect this dividing line. The Willow lies a few miles west and north. Two roads lead to the flowage: County Y heads to the eastern tip while we take the second, turning off Highway 8 and onto McCord Road.
It’s a narrow old logging road that sends us to the lower, western lip of the Willow shoreline. Sporadic bursts of sun splash across the truck while we slowly motor through the forest canopy. The mix of pines and fast growing poplar part every so often revealing the occasional bog, meandering stream or logged clearing.
After a couple of stops, the eight mile ramble ends at a small bay. The canoe is hoisted from the truck, loaded with the essentials, and pushed into the flowage waters. Eagles wheel across the spring sky joined by osprey, crows and other less remarkable birds.
We are alone on the water; no other humans visible or within sound. The state’s fishing opener and major holidays will draw weekend crowds to the flowage, but it’s not unusual to find peaceful waters during the week. The solitude is one reason why the flowage was declared an “Outstanding Resource Water” by the DNR in 1997.
Our intent is to shoot to the opposite shoreline, glide east through the flowage, fish (successfully) and take a hike or two through the woods. The gusty northeast wind has other ideas. It’s not exactly a walleye chop but the swells are tinted with smatters of white and the bluster is more than enough to drive the light canoe sideways in spite of pumping paddles.
Simple “Plan B” is invoked. We instead paddle off into another, more sheltered bay, fish (unsuccessfully) then land for a lunch of venison dogs and munchables. It appears hiking along the shore and in the woods will be the order of the day.
The flowage, of course, is not a natural system. Yet the eagles don’t mind. Crunching our way through layers of snail and other mollusk shells beached by the wind, current and water fluctuations, most any upward gaze captures the gliding bird. In spots, Wise wades 100 feet out into water that can’t reach his knees for casting opportunities.
Our hike also provides an occasion for discussing the future of the Willow Flowage. The DNR is currently developing a management plan for the Willow that will shape its future use, the type of facilities it will contain, and the style of recreation that state residents can engage in. State reg’s governing the creation of the master plan are new and the Willow Flowage will likely be the first test of the new process.
Wise and a group he belongs to, ECCOLA (Environmentally Concerned Citizens of the Lakeland Areas), have proposed that the lower 40% of the Willow be placed in what’s called Type II Recreation status. This classification would create a zone of non-motorized recreation, prohibiting the use of vehicles, ATV’s, motorcycles and snowmobiles on the land. Access to this part of the flowage would come via hiking, biking, or by boat (motorized or non) from the flowage’s waters.
“We need to keep some of these wild places for future generations, to bank it for them,” says Wise. “This is one of the least developed regions of any size in Wisconsin. We hope this will be for people and families that appreciate quiet areas that are easily accessible.” He expects camping on the land or islands in the area would have only primitive facilities.
Kermit Traska is in charge of the master plan process for the DNR. What the DNR’s been hearing about the Willow, he says, is that “remoteness and solitude are real important on this property.” Traska describes Type II status as “an area where a person could go and get away from almost all human activity.” By comparison, he indicates that Type I would apply to pure wilderness settings and Type IV resembles Devil’s Lake State Park with its high activity, high use and low natural setting.
On June 19 in Tomahawk, the DNR hosted the last in its series of public meetings to gather public input on the management plan. People, according to Traska, have indicated a preference for a DNR plan emphasizing low usage levels with a high natural setting. Traska says the DNR will develop its preferred alternative by the end of July, then hold more public meetings. One such gathering will take place in Madison near the end of August or in early September.
Wise is upset by the damage caused from illegal ATV activity inside the Willow Flowage boundaries. State law limits ATV use to “designated trails” when the vehicles are operated on state lands. Evidence of ATV problems abound in the Willow. As we hike the flowage’s woods, he points out ATV caused erosion along embankments, tracks running off logging roads and around DNR erected berms, and treadmarks along the shoreline.
The ATV abuse was particularly bad last summer when extended dry spells lowered flowage water levels revealing broad shorelines and a pathway for ATV wildcatting. DNR Ranger Brett Bockhop spent a good chunk of the summer issuing citations and warnings to ATV operators. The ATVs, he notes, were “running all over the place.” This spring’s abundant rains have recharged the reservoir, returning water levels to normal, helping rein-in ATV beachrunning.
When the land initially came under DNR control in late 1997, one of the agency’s first moves was opening what’s known as the “iron gate.” The iron gate was a locked barrier erected by Tenneco Packaging - the previous land owner - to control movement through the eastern end of the Willow. During hunting season, Tenneco would open the gated road but the entrance was locked and closed the rest of the year - although a few company employees had keys and access at other times.
In May, 1998, the DNR tried to re-lock and close the gate. But someone pulled the barrier from its hinges, destroying it. Traska acknowledges the problem with policing the area. “Trying to maintain gates in remote areas is really difficult,” he says. “There are so many ATVs and people coming in from all over. Anything goes.”
Two miles further down the same road, a second gate was vandalized and broken earlier this year. Ranger Bockhop, who has been investigating, says he has a suspect in “Gategate.”
Tenneco’s Woodlands Manager, Steven Guthrie, is so annoyed by the damage ATV abuse has caused in the area that he has been sending public officials a letter expressing the company’s opposition to further ATV trail development.
A more enjoyable part of Bockhop’s job has been inventorying the Willow’s numerous campsites for the management plan. Bockhop has been checking how many of the 54 camping areas - many of which are on the flowage’s 117 islands - meet the state’s minimum guidelines for toilet facilities.
Bockhop says the state is trying to encourage a “carry in, carry out” approach for camping to keep the area as pristine as possible. This past Memorial Day, more than 30 of the campsites were occupied. The DNR’s final management plan will certainly eliminate some of the unsuitable sites but could include as many as 40 if they pass the septic test.
It’s also possible that the state may buy additional land around the Willow and expand its asset. In late May, state officials acknowledged they were negotiating a massive 161,000 acre northwoods land deal. Part of the land would be added to the Willow parcel. Traska, who’s excited by the prospect, says it could more than double the size of the area.
Two wolf packs roam the flowage. Bockhop, reflecting on his hiking and monitoring of the wolf population, expresses his personal take on the land. “The state needs some more quiet areas,” he says. “It was so nice to be out in a non-motorized area.”
Wandering down another forest road after lunch, we too are looking for signs of wolves. The Willow’s southern pack numbers seven animals and we see possible evidence, but my untrained eye can’t determine if the scat is coyote or wolf. Wise insists that he and his wife even encountered a cougar while bicycling along this same road a few years back. The startled cat, with outstretched tail touching one side of the road and nose the other, bolted off into the brush.
Bear, raccoon, fisher, deer, and otter are other animals that make their home here; a great blue heron rookery lies just north of the flowage. And, although we can’t prove it today, anglers consider the Willow’s waters excellent habitat for bass, muskie, northern, walleye, and panfish.
“The trend,” says Wise, “is that there won’t be any more places like this. Someone needs to advocate for it.”
[versions of this story have appeared in several Wisconsin publications]