MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. — A complete shock.
That’s how a West Michigan camper described her last experience at one of the area's most celebrated state parks.
She frequently visits Muskegon State Park's Channel Campground with her husband.
Instead of natural beauty, however, she said she found something else entirely during her last visit.
She turned to 13 ON YOUR SIDE for an explanation.
“I said 'let's go out and look at the park and pick up some sites,'” Sharry Cooper relayed the details of a recent conversation with her husband.
With its proximity to the lakeshore and pristine forests, Muskegon State Park is one of Cooper’s favorite spots.
“When we drove up to it, it was just like, 'oh, my goodness,'” she explained via phone Tuesday.
The last time around, however, proved a decidedly different experience.
“What has happened to this beautiful park?” Cooper questioned. “Devastation. That's exactly what I thought because it looked to me like about two thirds of the trees had been cut down.”
13 ON YOUR SIDE went out to the scene and found a broad stretch of bare ground spiked with dozens of tall stumps.
“We had that pretty substantial flooding, I think that was 2018 and a good chunk of our trees in that specific campground, the Channel Campground were in water for an extended period of time.”
Park Supervisor Greg Sherburn explained that was why the DNR had to been forced to cut around 200 of the park’s trees – primarily red oak – that had died of what the agency referred to as 'wet feet.'
“We gave them as long as we could to see if they were going to recover and they just never recovered,” he relayed. “Eventually they become a hazard to our visitors, so we had to take them out.”
The intention, Sherburn said, is to grind down the stumps later in the season and replant just as soon as the DNR is able source the new trees.
“Oh, I'm so happy,” Cooper exclaimed, thankful the property would be restored.
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