Lead, SD - The Forest Service is teaming up with volunteers from the Norbeck Society to implement the Forest’s Travel Management Decision and to assist in the conservation of plant habitat in one of the Forest’s Botanical Areas.

Forest Service Road 228, a well-established road locally known as Ice-box Cave Road, cuts through the heart of the Englewood Springs Botanical Area, about 5 miles south of Lead.  This road was officially closed to public motorized vehicle traffic in 2010 with the publication of the Forest-wide Travel Management decision.  However, the road still sees frequent use, since there are no outward indications of the closure such as signs or barriers. That will change on Saturday, when a series of buck and pole road barriers will be erected by agency employees and volunteers. 

The fencing project will improve habitat conditions for some of the forest’s least conspicuous rare species.  “The Englewood Springs Botanical Area has long been cherished by area plant lovers as a place that harbors 13 different species of wild orchids, a distinction that earned it a special designation in the Black Hills National Forest Plan,” Jill Welborn, Northern Hills Ranger District botanist said.  “The unique habitat is fed by a group of springs that originate high on a hillside and flow down a steep slope. The road to be closed passes right through the spring flow, with orchids growing on both sides of the road.”

For more information on the project or the area, please contact the Northern Hills Ranger District office at (605) 642-4622.

For more information on the Black Hills National Forest, visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/blackhills.