ROGERS, Ark. — What used to be shaded area all across the trails at Hobbs State Park in Rogers is now open sky.
Throughout the 12,000 acres of the park, more than 2,200 trees were knocked down from the Memorial Day weekend tornadoes, leaving the park with extensive damage.
While all trails that are a mile and a half or shorter were cleaned and opened within the first two weeks, other areas have proven to be more difficult.
"What's challenging to us is most of those things are in remote locations," Park Superintendent Mark Clippinger said. "So, a lot of the cleanup you've seen going on in Northwest Arkansas with the big trucks and the knuckle booms picking up along the curbsides, that's not possible on 45 miles of our trails."
Some trees could fall at any moment, which is why it's taking crews longer to clean up.
"A lot of the timber that got knocked down is hung up on other timber and leaning," Clippinger explains. "So, we have a lot of weight bearing down on the base of those trees, which is very dangerous for saw operators."
FEMA will reimburse about 75% of the costs, but the rest is up to the park. Clippinger said they have already spent close to $500,000 and they are still in the early stages.
With so much debris Clippinger's team won't be able to reach, they're racing against the clock to burn what they can.
"If in the future we don't get some burning done in here, we're going to end up having a greater infestation of insects and pathogens that potentially could move out into the live timber," Clippinger explained.
But burning to that extent isn't a simple process. While they can burn smaller piles of twigs and branches now, areas where trees are scattered will take much longer to catch fire because they must be dried out.
"It's going to be, in my opinion, decades of burning to try to make this happen," Clippinger said.
So far, crews have cleared about seven miles of the multiuse trails. Clippinger adds it could take up to a year for contractors and climbers to completely clear those popular trails.
Clippinger said it's still safe to visit the parts of the park that are open. Those trails include Ozark Plateau Trail, Sinking stream, Van Winkle Historic Trail, and Skaddox Hollow.
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