Wednesday, February 19, 2025
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Pickett State Forest Trails Reopened

The northwestern portion of Pickett State Forest has reopened after the state spent several months restoring trails and roads.

Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry Communications and Outreach Unit Leader Megan Carpenter said several roads had suffered severe erosion from motorized vehicles.  Carpenter said the restoration project covered 14.5 miles of hiking trails, 18.2 miles of non-motorized use trails, and 34.7 miles of motorized use paved and unpaved roads.

“They actually rerouted the roads slightly and when there was such severe damage that it couldn’t really practically be repaired with the resources that we had available,” Carpenter said. “So in general it was a lot of you know filling things in and then resurfacing to make it a more stable and smooth surface moving forward.”

Carpenter said Remond Rim Road and Yellow Doors Road are now seasonal motorized use roads from March 15-December 20. Carpenter said making the roads seasonal use will prevent having to do another large-scale restoration project.

“That’s part of the strategy is to keep those OHVs (Off-Highway Vehicles) off of some the more vulnerable areas,” Carpenter said. “Then also you know like I said the seasonal roads will help control that damage and give us that opportunity to address it.”

Carpenter said the one deadline extension was used as the project was not quite completed and a few months of cushion was needed. Carpenter said there were a few factors that made the project challenging.

“It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of resources, and it takes a lot of man hours,” Carpenter said. “The other factor is obviously the weather because if the weather is bad and the ground is frozen or you’ve got real bad rain that is making everything super wet and muddy. We don’t want to go in there and cause more damage so we were waiting a little bit before we get back in there.”

Carpenter said the Division of Forestry is excited to reopen that area of the forest. Carpenter said the newly renovated roads and trails will now allow emergency vehicles to access areas that were impossible to reach before.

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