Two roads near Vedauwoo are closed while the U.S. Forest Service implements the Pole Mountain Landscape Fuels Treatment Partnership.

A portion of Forest Road 700 (Vedauwoo Glen Road) and all of the 700E Road are temporarily closed to all motorized travel.  The closure affects roughly 1.2 miles of forest roads.

The Forest Service says in a press release that the 700 and 700 E road segments will be gated throughout the habitat improvement and fuels reduction operation.  The project is expected to wrap up on or before June 1.

“It is for wildlife and range habitat,” says U.S. Forest Service spokesman Aaron Voos.  “There’s a lot of benefits to removing some of that biomass out of the area.”

Those who visit the southern portion of the Medicine Bow National Forest’s Pole Mountain unit will encounter a barricade at the junction of the 720 Road and the 700 Road.  The 720 Road provides access to Vedauwoo recreation sites which are already closed for the season.

The Forest Service cites public health and safety as the reason for the closure.  The hazards presented by tree mastication close to the road and the possibility of drivers becoming stuck in unplowed portions of the road make a closure the agency’s best course of action.

Visitors may happen across plow trucks or machinery near the area where fuels reduction is taking place.  The Forest Service advises the public to use caution and stay out of closed areas.

The Forest Service says the closure is not related to the Pole Mountain Travel Management Project.

The Partnership agreement allows the State to conduct landscape restoration and fuels reduction treatments across a total of 2,676 acres of state and federal land.

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