In mid-May, six Hiawatha National Forest camps closed abruptly, possibly for the entire season.
Recreation.gov, the primary online resource for booking campsites on the federal lands, sent notice to holders of canceled campsite reservations for six campgrounds in the Hiawatha National Forest in mid-May. The cancellations arose from the closure of the campgrounds by the concessionaire operator, S’more Memories, LLC. The move affects roughly one-third of the reservable land-accessible campgrounds in the Hiawatha National Forest, including Brevoort Lake, Lake Michigan, Carp River, Monocle Lake, Soldier Lake, and Bay View.
Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Hiawatha National Forest spans 879,000 acres and contains 18 land-accessible campgrounds. The move by Recreation.gov to cancel reservations at six of the campgrounds has left many campers disappointed and confused as they scramble to make alternative arrangements. The situation was made more vexing by an opaque and conflicting story about the reason for the cancellation of all campground reservations, ostensibly for the entire summer season.
Recreation.gov emphasized that the booking site “did not cancel the reservations.” The Hiawatha National Forest authorities initially declined to answer direct questions about the sudden change. A Hiawatha USFS spokesman told a Michigan CBS News affiliate that the cancellations were due to campground closures because “trees at the campgrounds are unsafe and needed to be trimmed or cut down.”
Six campgrounds affected
Jim Akard contacted RV Travel to inform us about the abrupt cancellation of his July reservations. He and his family reserved campsites at Carp River and Monocle Lake campgrounds. “Everyone with reservations for any period during the entire season has had their reservations canceled. Our summer trip for mid-July has been destroyed. We received our notice on May 15th.” The notice of cancellation cited “hazard trees.”
The office of the Forest Supervisor for the Hiawatha National Forest in Gladstone, MI, confirmed that potentially hazardous trees were the root cause of the campground closures but then echoed the official USFS statement that “the concessionaire who holds the land grant for the parks made the cancellations without notifying USFS.” I asked whether it was normal for a campground concessionaire to close one or more campgrounds without notifying the Forest Service and was told that it was not.
Further investigation regarding Hiawatha National Forest
Further investigation revealed that the whole campground closure controversy is the fallout of a dispute between the Hiawatha National Forest and the concessionaire for the operation of the six campgrounds, S’more Memories, LLC. The dispute involves disagreement over campground trees that the operator considers hazardous and needing removal. The concessionaire’s side of the complex story can be read on the S’more Memories, LLC website.
I also exchanged email messages and had a telephone conversation with Jason Kirchner, Assistant Director for Communications for the Eastern Regional Office of USFS, who said that the agency empathized with the canceled campers and that the USFS was working toward a possible reopening of the six closed campgrounds at some point during the current season.
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Hazardous trees or employees too lazy to do their job. Plenty of unemployed out there to take those jobs
Our reservation for Bay View in mid September was cancelled. Yep, “scramble” is a good description of my trying to fill that gap in our Superior Lake Loop trip that I planned last fall – and set my alarm to make the reservation as soon as my dates opened. 😕 And, IF they do reopen, the original reservations do not get reinstated! We just have to monitor the site daily for updates, but we are hosting in a state forest until Labor Day… with no electricity and no wifi! NOT a happy camper.
Good luck. Same thing happened in North Idaho. They literally destroyed our beautiful Campgrounds. Huge piles of trees left in piles & in camping spots which makes it very unsafe. Brush everywhere. Whoever took out trees left such a horrible mess.
If Reservation.Gov is involved, it will be screwed up as much as can be!!! Just like always!!!
We stayed at both Monocle Lake and Bay View last June and the hosts at both places were absolutely wonderful. I’m really sorry to hear this and hope things get worked out soon.
” Gov’t employees are lazy and incompetent” “Private business can do a better job.” I’ve heard that for years. Having worked for a State entity during the “Lets Privatize for efficiency” era, my job turned into a “follow the contractor around to make sure he was doing his job” rather than just getting it done correctly. Higher administrators who have never actually WORKED for a living will never learn. The true costs are hidden in the nooks and crannies of the contract, but the “administrators” are happy because their books look good – and they have someone to blame.
That’s silly…… “NOT ALL Gov’t employees are lazy and incompetent”….. 😉
That was his point, actually. 😉
It was tongue in cheek. I think kelly knew that. LOL, just in case. 😅🤣
Kelly is very savvy. We have fun bantering back and forth (yes, I know that’s what banter means). He keeps me on my toes! Have a good night. 😀 –Diane
Agreed. Kelly is very savvy. We have had many laughs here.
That’s for sure, Cancelproof.👍 Have a good afternoon/evening. 😀 –Diane
To classify all Government employees as lazy and incompetent is as discriminatory as saying all women are less intelligent than men. I was a U.S. Government employee for 42 years. I was taught a good work ethic by my parents and believe in giving 110% to any job. Yes, there are people who fall into that category in Government service as there are in any other profession.
Just to clarify this, Donna, Kelly wasn’t making that statement himself. He was saying that he heard that for years. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
I totally agree, but where I worked, I guess it was in the 90s, the Admin was all about “farming the jobs out” to contractors because of attitudes and in some cases it was found the the “gov’t employees” were doing a better job than the contractor. My point was don’t knock the gov’t employees until you have tried to work under the vast amount of gov’t rules.
This is interesting! We work at a private campground just southeast of Hiawatha NF in Eagle River, WI, but I was not aware of this. We have sites available except for holiday weekends and a few other weekends.
I’m experiencing similar runaround from Acadia National Park campsites.
Anybody who camped at any government owned cg’s in the 70’s thru the 90’s knew that concession run campgrounds in years to come, this would comeback to haunt the public. The US government entites no longer have any say in running the CG’s. They let long term contracts and from there it goes downhill. Seen it and have been involved as a consumer to tangle with concessionaires. Some contracts have been awarded on the “buddy system” and recent government entity retirees having the inside dope on up and coming contracts. Pitiful but true.
Sounds like S’more Memories is now No’More Memories. Surely it doesn’t take an entire summer to clear some bad trees!
I thought the same–the vague explanation for the full-season closures/cancellations did not make much sense–until I was told of the concessionaire dispute.
I’m sure the real point is about who’s paying for the work and who will be liable for when something bad eventually happens.
When I was a campground host for a concessionaire we had several sites blocked off because of hazardous trees that needed to be removed. Concessionaire is NOT allowed to touch trees & the FS kept saying they were busy with other projects & couldn’t get to it- this went on for multiple years & more & more sites were removed from those available. Some years prior a large tree did fall during the night onto a tent & injured some people, luckily not seriously. The responsible party here is the FS & lack of these sites revenue seems to mean nothing to them. Also have had FS personally come in & take over campgrounds for training sessions & for fires in nearby areas. They leave some sites in terrible condition when they leave too- what’s up with that?
You nailed it!
I looked into this practice and found only 15% of the fees collected by National Forest Campgrounds were retained by the Forest Services. 85% went to the US Treasury. So in the late ’80s they started turning over management of campgrounds to private contractors. The rub here is the private contractors increased fees 400% but responsibility for maintaining the trees in the campgrounds (which are inside the National Forest) remained with the Forest Services. As to the Hiawatha National Forest Campgrounds, S’more Memories LLC is asking campers to contact the Forest Service directly to:
Call the Forest Service and tell them to remove the hazardous trees from YOUR campground. That’s right YOUR campground but MY money collected for YOU using YOUR campground.
The issue of fees is the subject of a pending lawsuit against Recreation.gov. If you haven’t, you can read about it here.