by Bill Spencer
My family and I had just visited the Carson National Forest in Northern New Mexico. Previously I read an article on your website from Phil Rowe titled "New Mexico's Hopewell Lake." My family used to fish at Hopewell lake back in the 60's. We visited this lake the week of June 7th and unfortunately, the lake is closed. The forest service has closed it for renovations. Each year, 27,000 people visit the lake and this number of people has taken its toll. Ground cover around the lake was completely eroded due to use, camping, etc. and the banks along the lake were severly eroded. Through the years people had carved names, etc into the barks of the aspen trees. Now the trees are dying due to funges getting inside the trees through these carvings. The forest service is repairing / building campsites and reparing the erosion around the lake. Hopewell lake is scheduled to be closed the remainder of 1998.
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