Sugarloaf The North Shore Stewardship Association

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, and successfully procured funding for the North Shore Forest Collaborative coordinator position. 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 tour their property and give them reforestation recommendations.

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 90,000 trees have been planted since 2016 by private landowners.