HUNTSVILLE — Due to increasing habitat destruction, crime and littering, overnight camping will be sharply restricted this spring and summer at the Middle Fork Wildlife Management Area.

“Last year it was really bad,” said Trevor Doman, a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources conservation officer. “We’ve seen it increasingly getting worse and worse and worse.”

The management area east of Huntsville, created to help preserve habitat for deer, elk, moose, turkey, grouse, chukar and other wildlife, still will allow camping for those who backpack into the interior.

The restriction, to run from April 10 to Sept. 9, applies only to camping in the parking lot and within a third of a mile of that lot. The management area is closed from Jan. 1 until the second Saturday in April each year to protect wintering wildlife.

Doman said the lot will reopen for overnight camping for the fall hunting season and through Dec. 31.

Conservation officers and Weber County Sheriff’s Office deputies back each other up on calls in the management area.

Officers from the two agencies handled about 75 calls in and around the parking lot last year, Doman said.

“Domestic violence, drug abuse, vandalism, illegal burning, trash, destruction,” Doman said. “People were cutting down fences, using fences as wood, cutting down live trees that are vegetation for animals.”

Middle Fork and some other management areas around the state are a magnet “because they’re free,” Doman said.

The areas were formed intended for public use, but the situation of the Middle Fork lot has become urgent.

“What we’re stopping is camping in the parking lot, and we’re only stopping it for a period of time,” Doman said.

He said officers found that homeless people have been drawn to the free camping area as well, and officers had to break up about two dozen camps that existed more than 10 days.

The parking lot trouble also has posed a risk for law enforcement personnel. “Any time you have drugs and a domestic violence situation, it is very much a concern for officer safety,” Doman said.

Vandalism included destruction in the camp restrooms, and the volumes of trash required frequent cleanup.

“Let’s see how this works,” Doman said of the coming season. “I have a feeling there will be a learning curve with the new rules.”

Officers might be spending time kicking people out who don’t read the signs or tear them down, he said.

Plenty of other campgrounds are available in the region, he said, “prettier campsites, but the main problem is ours is free and they charge a nightly fee.”

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the Middle Fork situation.