Mautino State Fish & Wildlife Area park road reopens to the public

BUDA — The main road at Mautino State Fish & Wildlife Area in Buda reopened on Aug. 11. Visitors now have full access to the park.

The main park road had been closed as crews finished the aggregate base repair and seal coating.

This comes as great news to the surrounding community which has waited years for the park to reopen.

Much of Mautino State Fish and Wildlife Area was closed in 2015 due to road deterioration and a washed-out culvert in the park. The closure limited access to only one of the nine lakes within the park’s 871 acres.

While the park sat untouched for years, supporters and area residents of the park came together in 2018 and started making calls and wrote letters to state officials questioning why the park had not reopen. It was then that the state allocated $500,000 toward the needed road repairs.

Road work was originally scheduled to begin in the park at the end of last summer, however due to a rainy season and cool temperatures, the work was put on hold until summer 2020.

The Mautino State Fish and Wildlife Area is a former strip mine site that is now home to a total of 16 ponds and lakes, located south of Sheffield and west of Buda.