Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program

Sugarloaf Cove Summer Outreach

Molly Thompson, Executive Director

1/19/2009

Project No. 306-STAR04-08

Contract No. B16408

This project was funded in part under the Coastal Zone Management Act, by
NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, in cooperation with
Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program.

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Introduction

Each summer, approximately 5000 people visit Sugarloaf Cove, at Milepost 73.3
in Schroeder Township. Popular activities at the 34-acre site include walking the
one-mile interpretive trail with a top-quality guidebook, viewing exhibits in the
interpretive center, and participating in regularly-scheduled interpretive programs.

During the summer of 2008, two unique opportunities emerged to strengthen

coastal outreach at the Cove. Sugarloaf worked on significantly enhancing the
quality of the interpretive trail guides, and with help from important new partners,
Sugarloaf increased its regular interpretive programming from monthly to weekly.

Work Completed

Tasl 1 - Update interpretive trail guidebook.

The one-mile interpretive trail at the Cove is a popular recreational and education
asset. Each year, approximately 3000 people use the trail. The original
guidebook for the trail explained in depth geological, cultural and ecological
topics; about 1500 copies of the guidebook were distributed each year.

Since the last printing of the guidebook in 2005, significant changes have
occurred at Sugarloaf Cove. With funding from the DNR Environmental Partners
grant program and from the Great Lakes National Program Office via the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Sugarloaf has established four
demonstration sites at the Cove to demonstrate techniques to restore native
coastal forest. These sites include significant plantings and even the location of a
prescribed burn in 2006. STAR money was used to update the guidebook to
include details of the sites and the restoration work completed there. This is a
critical step to make the restoration work completed most obvious to the visitors,
allowing visiting landowners to learn how to apply some of the restoration
techniques on their own property.

Originally STAR money was going to be used to update and reprint 3000 of the
trail guidebook. After discussion with Sugarloaf's Board of Directors a decision
was made to request using some of the funding to produce a tri-fold trail guide
brochure and the balance for the reprint of the trail guide booklet. This request
was granted.

The brochure is a shorter version of the booklet which is much more economical
and gives the visitor a good overview of the trail. This brochure will be available
in brochure boxes found in the parking lot and at the nature center at the Cove.

The booklet will be offered to visitor's interested in more in-depth information

about Sugarloaf Cove. Changes to the booklet include a turning the text 90
degrees to a more user-friendly format, and updated information and pictures.
This booklet will be available to visitors who request a copy from a site host and

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will be distributed as an educational aide to formal groups visiting the cove, i.e.
school groups, educators, landowners interested in Cove restoration projects,
etc.

Three thousand copies of the brochure were printed and 2200 copies of the
booklet were printed.

Task 2 - Expand Second Saturday Programs

In response to new partnerships and the great increase in North Shore visitors in
the summer, Sugarloaf expanded its traditional “Second Saturday” interpretive
programs to run every Saturday in the months of July and August.

These programs have been the only regularly scheduled coastal interpretive
programs on the North Shore, and have been in place since 2000. Attendance
ranges from 5 people to 50 people, and is comprised of both North Shore
residents and tourists.

A side benefit of the regularly-scheduled programs is that the additional publicity

for the programs brings more visitors to the Cove overall; were it not for the
offered program, many individuals would not have come to the Cove to begin
with.

The Saturday programs were a success. The dates, topics and presenters were
as follows:

Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center (ELC) naturalists presented two

programs: Wolves on July 22 and Raptors on August 9. Thirty-four people
attended the Wolves presentation while 30 attended the Raptors presentation.
These programs were part of Sugarloaf’s required match.

Sugarloaf offered programs on July 19, July 26, August 16, and August 23. The
program topics with attendance numbers were: July 19-North Shore tree planting
with Wes Seeley, USFS - 0 participants; July 26 and August 23 - "Field and
Screen - Tips and Techniques for Outdoor Photography" with Chris Sandberg - 8
and 12 participants; August 16 - "Tall Trees and Trains....and even taller tales!"
with Ken Buehler - 50 participants (part of annual meeting - public invited).

All programs were lauded by participants. The photography workshop had a

limited number of participants allowed to register. Interest was so great, we
offered it an additional time.

Programs were promoted via press releases to the Cook and Lake County
weekly newspapers and the Duluth News Tribune. Additionally, all Sugarloaf
members received an email announcing the programs and the programs were
listed on the Sugarloaf web site.

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Results

A total of 144 people attended the Saturday programs. Wolf Ridge ELC was
especially satisfied with the opportunity to provide programs to an audience they
generally do not reach – casual North Shore visitors. Currently, Sugarloaf is
working with Wolf Ridge ELC on an agreement securing additional summer
programming at the Cove presented by their staff. Sugarloaf is planning to
continue offering Saturday programs during the summer of 2009 as our funding
allows.

The brochures and booklets will be distributed at Sugarloaf Cove beginning this
winter.

Conclusions

Without the funding received from the Coastal Program, it is doubtful whether
Sugarloaf would have been able to complete either one of these tasks. The
guidebook funding was especially critical because Sugarloaf ran out of copies of
the 2005 guidebook at the beginning of the summer. Although a temporary
brochure was produced for use during the summer, the new guidebook and
brochure were much needed and great improvements.

The Saturday programs were a great asset for the Cove. Without STAR funding
Sugarloaf would not have been able to pay the mileage of instructors and likely
would not have been able to offer as many quality programs as we did.

Sugarloaf did encounter a slight difficulty with the timing of the grant. Due to
Wolf Ridge staff scheduling limitations, one of the Wolf Ridge programs took
place on June 21, before the grant period began. To meet the match of $200,
Wolf Ridge staff worked with our summer intern on her phenology project. This
involved working together to set up a computer program and presenting this
program to teachers at Wolf Ridge.

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Appendices – Trail guides are included as separate documents.

Photo 1 – Wolf Ridge presentation on July 22, 2008.

Photo taken by Andrew Lundgren.

$$ Saturday program
Photo 2 – Group enjoying
– July 22, 2008. Photo by Andrew Lundgren.

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