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HANOVER TOWNSHIP — Some popular backcountry “park-and-pack” campsites in Mohican-Memorial State Forest have reopened, but a few remain closed.
The backcountry campsites scattered throughout the state forest have been closed since June 2022, when a tornado ripped through the area, leaving fallen trees and disfigured trails.
Crews with the state’s division of forestry have taken the last year-and-a-half to clean up and reopen the sites.
Sites 1 through 7 reopened in late October, with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry making an announcement on its website Nov. 13.
Three other sites, however — eight, nine and 10 — remain closed indefinitely.
Chad Sanders, the forest’s manager, said the reason those will remain closed is so his office and law enforcement can consider management options.
“Eight, nine and 10 have always been problematic,” he said.
Sanders said illegal activity at those campsites has ramped up since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve had homeless people camping there, partying and drugs associated with that,” Sanders said. “We had some incidents with neighbors, people threatening neighbors.”
The park-and-pack sites have been open for public use for more than 20 years, Sanders said.
The relative ease of registration and the fact they are free to use makes the sites popular among outdoor enthusiasts, Sanders said.
“The idea behind them is if you wanted to park your car, hike in a short distance with your family, you could,” he said. “It’s like having a camp away from a campground.”
The parking lot for sites 8, 9 and 10 is located at the end of County Road 3006 in Hanover Township, along the northern border of Mohican-Memorial State Forest. The dirt road also serves as an access road to several residential driveways.
Unfortunately, the sites’ greatest allure — the seclusion — also makes them vulnerable to illegal activity, said Tim Boyd, Lieutenant of ODNR’s Division of Parks and Watercraft.
Boyd said the sites have experienced squatters, drug and alcohol use and people driving vehicles into the forest to gain closer access to camp.
“Certainly there are people using them for the right reasons. But there is a fair amount of people using them illegally,” he said.
Even since they’ve been closed, Boyd said, there have been a few problems among those who ignore the posted closure notices.
“One individual was picked up off a warrant. Another, there were charges for alcohol use,” he said.
The use of alcoholic beverages is prohibited at the primitive campsites.
‘Keep ‘em closed’
Residents along the gravel road have mixed feelings about the ongoing closure of the park-and-pack sites.
“Keep ‘em closed,” said William Burger, a resident who lives on the dirt road leading into the campsite parking lot.
Burger built the house that sits on 10 acres in 1990.
He said he sees traffic coming in and out “all the time,” kicking up dust as the vehicles drive away. The dust, he said, exacerbates his breathing.
He’s already had a lung transplant, he said, opening the top of his shirt to reveal a scar.
“They dump trash, too. You wouldn’t believe the stuff we find here. And there’s the drug activity,” he said.
Burger hasn’t encountered any threats from homeless campers, but that doesn’t mean he’s not on edge about the possibility of the wrong person meandering onto his property, which sits the closest to the park-and-pack parking lot.
Jim Strong, Burger’s neighbor, is disappointed it’s come to the point of possibly closing the sites down permanently.
“Number 10 is the best,” he said.
He and his wife used to keep a geocache item near their favorite park-and-pack site. Over the years, however, people stole the geocache items — even the metal ammo box they used to store the items.
Strong has lived on that 27-acre property along County Road 3006 since 1984. He’s never had a negative interaction with a camper. But he suspects drug activity.
“I do see them drive back there a lot — especially at night. It’s quick,” he said. “They’re in and out — make a quick, clean exchange, you know?”
What’s next?
Sanders, the forest manager, said sites eight, nine and 10 will remain closed for a while.
“We decided, let’s crack down on this for a while and see if anything changes,” he said. “People, so far, have been pretty supportive of that.”
Before reopening back-country sites 1 through 7, the division of forestry had an open-house meeting at the Loudonville Public Library to discuss the problematic sites’ future.
“Camping at these sites has led to numerous health and safety issues related to homelessness, hunter conflicts and occasional criminal activity,” reads the annual plan on ODNR’s website.
“As the tornado clean-up draws to a close, there is the opportunity to consider management options for these sites. Those options include moving some of the problem sites, partnering with the state park for administrative management and law enforcement or closing some or all the sites permanently.
“(The Division of Forestry) is evaluating viable options for re-opening or relocating campsites to continue providing this desired recreational opportunity while providing for the health and safety of visitors,” reads the annual plan.
In the meantime, Boyd said, the officers he oversees have committed to patrolling the sites at least once during a shift. One of the officers even rides an e-MTB to patrol the sites. Boyd said the officer uses a bike to reach each site quicker, if there is ever a call.
Why’d it take so long for those sites to reopen?
The park-and-pack sites are located within the 4,541-acre Mohican-Memorial State Forest, which is managed by the Division of Forestry.
The forest is “managed under the multiple-use concept for timber and wildlife habitat, forestry research and demonstrations of good forest land management, primitive recreation and natural beauty, tree seed for forest nurseries and protection of soils and watershed,” reads ODNR’s website.
Recreation, therefore, is not the forestry’s first priority, Sanders said.
When the tornadoes happened in June 2022, forestry’s first priority was to clear the roads of trees and fallen limbs and ensure power lines were cleared of debris, Sanders said.
Crews then moved onto the trails and other recreational amenities.
“That took us all through the winter … getting all the parking areas open, the trails — for horses and the mountain-bike trail,” Sanders said, adding crews are still working on tornado damage.
Sanders said the storm impacted a couple thousand acres and led to the harvesting of 15,000 tons of logs over the last year, or 628 semi loads.
“There was a ton of trees down and debris,” Sanders said. “Basically, we were just making it safe for the people. We tried to get (the park-and-pack sites) set up so people could use them safely.
“We’re trying to avoid conflict with other users, like hunters. We just had to get it all sorted out.”