Sugarloaf the North Shore Stewardship Association

The organization operates and maintains the North Shore's only private, non profit nature center. Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center, located near Schroeder, MN, offers public access to Lake Superior and a variety of educational programs and workshops about natural history and coastal conservation throughout the year. The site also serves as a demonstration site for forest restoration projects. Over 25,000 people visit the site each year and many participate in our educational programs. Programs offered include bird banding demonstrations, geology educational walks, Master Naturalist workshops, and guest speakers. In 2023 we began the construction of a new outdoor education area to be completed in 2024.

Sugarloaf manages a reduced cost fencing supplies program for landowners in partnership with the North Shore Forest Collaborative. With funding from a private foundation and payments from landowners, landowners receive fencing and post which they use to protect seedlings they plant on their properties. This program is vital to restoring a healthy North Shore forest as approximately 75% of the property along the North Shore is privately owned. Through this program, over 82,483 trees have been planted since 2016 by private landowners.

Sugarloaf is committed to the restoration of the North Shore forest of Minnesota. As part of this commitment, we offered a variety of invasive species and forest restoration workshops, successfully procured funding for the North Shore Forest Collaborative coordinator position, and worked with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to enroll landowners in their forest management planning process. Sugarloaf is a founding and active member of the North Shore Forest Collaborative (NSFC) and contracts with the coordinator. The mission of the North Shore Forest Collaborative is to revitalize and maintain a healthy and functioning ecosystem along the North Shore of Lake Superior with emphasis on restoring and maintaining native trees and associated forest communities. The Collaborative is a coordinated effort between local, state, and federal land management agencies as well as public and private organizations and individuals who want to work together to assure a healthy forest environment. Recent efforts include popular North Shore landowner workshops, a discounted tree fencing programs for landowners, and the initiation of a program offering private landowners a visit by a Woodland Advisor who will tour their property and give them reforestation recommendations.