July 1, 2009
The Department of Natural Resources today announced that portions of the Old State House Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Trail and Route in Iosco County will be closed. The trail will be rerouted around the boundary of a formerly used U.S. Department of Defense site north and west of the Bissonette and Indian Road area in Sections 5, 6, 7, and 8, T24N, R08E, Oscoda Township.
New information about the possibility of unexploded ordnance being on the property has recently been provided to the DNR by the U.S. Department of Defense, the former lessee of the property, in association with Wurtsmith Air Force Base. As a result of the existing potentially dangerous conditions caused by past use of the area as a bombing and gunnery range, it is necessary to close this area to ORV and other use. In order to maintain the safety of the public users on state land, the area will be closed and appropriate trail segments will be blocked. The closed area will be signed appropriately.
The Department of Defense is currently working toward a comprehensive survey of residual munitions, which may result in remediation work within the closed area. As a result, the DNR does not anticipate reopening the area to public use for an extended period of time.
The ORV trail will be rerouted onto existing county and state forest roads, and mileage is planned to be added nearby to make up for the closure. A map of the reroute will be available on the DNR's Web site www.michigan.gov/dnr.
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