Cleanup goes on at historic battlefield

REPUBLIC, Mo. -- Visitors to Wilson's Creek National Battlefield may find the park's trails periodically closed this spring as contractors continue to remove debris almost two years after a tornado struck the area.

On May 4, 2003, a storm ripped through the battlefield and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes also blew down 138 acres of trees on the 1,750-acre battlefield in southwest Missouri. Thousands of fallen and dead trees have not yet been removed from the park.

Gary Sullivan, the park's resource management chief, said the closures will keep visitors from being harmed by equipment used to eliminate a potential fire hazard.

"If there was a fire in those areas, we would not be able to get in there and stop it before it got out of the park," Sullivan said.

Ball Timber Company started to remove dead trees last week and will work through Oct. 31. It won't charge the government but will use the timber for local products.

Sullivan had expected years of cleanup after witnessing the tornado's aftermath.

"The damage was so widespread. So much material was down," Sullivan said.

Park officials did not have all the trails open until about a year after the tornado. They had to handle paperwork and regulations to start the recovery.

"It took a week before we even knew what damages were done," Sullivan said. "We opened the tour road first. We had to cut about 300 feet of that was covered with trees."

Dan Best, a Kansas City-based Federal Emergency Management Agency recovery branch chief, said fallen trees in a wilderness area or areas that are not open to the public would not be considered an immediate threat because it takes years for the fallen trees to dry out and become a fire hazard.

Park staff hopes to return the landscape to "pre-battle condition" with prescribed burns after more debris is cleared. Officials said the land is much more wooded than the day of the Aug. 10, 1861, Battle of Wilson's Creek, which marked the beginning of the Civil War in Missouri.

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com