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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is finalizing plans to allow logging on about 40,000 previously untouched acres of public land, including nearly 2,500 acres of the Black River State Forest.

The DNR will hold a public meeting Wednesday in Black River Falls to present its updated master plans, which the agency prepared in response to 2015 legislation requiring that 75 percent of northern forests be classified for timber production.

The plans sparked widespread concern that the emphasis on logging severs the timber industry at the expense of the environment, tourism and outdoor recreation. Citizens who commented on the draft plan were also upset that the public and the DNR weren’t given more say in the legislation.

“There is considerably more to a forest than the dollar value of cords, boards, pulp and fiber,” read one comment on the plan. “This management approach negates and diminishes the environmental, social/psychological, aesthetic and economic (tourism dollars) benefits that our State Forests provide.”