ENED 4315 Projects
Fall, 2015
I. St. Louis River Corridor Paddling (focusing on under-represented
groups):
Hello Ken,
Nice chatting with you yesterday. Here is the City of Duluth Parks link to a brief
overview of the Tallas Island Paddle Center concept:
http://www.duluthmn.gov/st-louis-river-corridor/tallas-island-paddle-center/
Also, I attached a current concept plan that has been developed. This is not for
public consumption, but can be used for your classroom. Another document with
the Spirit Mountain Trail Center and River Connector concept is also attached to
highlight the greater connectivity to other outdoor recreation opportunities in the
area.
Lisa Luokkala
Project Coordinator
Parks and Recreation Division
City of Duluth
(218)730-4312
lluokkala@duluthmn.gov
The mission of Duluth Parks and Recreation Division is to promote the health
and wellbeing of our community, environment and economy by facilitating
recreational opportunities and coordinating the enhancement of our parks,
facilities and natural resources now and into the future.
Other Contact: Brad Little (UMD Grad Student)
II. & III .YMCA Camp Miller:
A. Farm & Garden Education Program
Infrastructure & Programming
A farm & garden education program for Camp Miller would offer a tremendous
array of prospects to expose people of all ages to the interconnectedness of
food, land and people through direct and hands-on experiences as well as
helping them discover the joy and healthful benefits of local foods.
Mission:
The Camp Miller Farm & Garden Program educates and engages children and
adults in sustainable agriculture through the participation in the processes
associated with planting, caring for, harvesting foods, and preparing meals at the
Camp Miller.
Goal:
 To raise awareness and understanding of all users of Camp Miller of
where food comes from and to provide opportunities for locally sourced
meals.
Objectives:
 Each summer camper will help prepare and be served a completely local
meal per week.
 Retreat users will be able to select locally sourced foods for the catering
associated with their stay.
 Summer campers will be involved with at least one aspect of the care and
nurturing of vegetables, fruits, or livestock.
 Camp Miller will conduct an annual “harvest festival” in cooperation with
local food producers.
 Camp Miller will explore lesson plans and opportunities for local schools to
learn about wild harvested foods, such as maple syrup and wild rice.
Infrastructure and Programming Ideas:
Project: Fruit Orchard Planting (Eric)
Purpose: Begin to plant an orchard of various varieties of fruit
Benefit: Teach about the sources of fruit, apple cidering, making apple sauce,
local food sources, healthier eating. Educational programming for local groups
(scouts, schools, home-school, …)
Cost:
Staffing Need:
Short-term - beginning summer 2015
Project: Establish bee hives for honey (Eric)
Purpose: Use bees to pollinate wild and domestic plants, while collecting honey
for the kitchen as well as a demonstration site for local education.
Benefit: Kitchen removes sugar and high fructose corn syrup, healthier children
Cost: $500 per hive, $2000 total
Staffing Need:
Short-term - pilot testing in 2014, expand in summer of 2015
Project: Establish Chickens for eggs and meat (Chris)
Purpose: Food for kitchen and educational opportunity. Also, tick reduction
(chickens eat ticks)
Educational Benefit:
Cost:
Staffing Need:
Short-term begin 2015
Project: Maple Sugarbush (Chris)
Purpose: Youth and staff tap trees, learn about the process of maple syruping,
camp uses the syrup. Could possibly be the basis for a spring cooking festival
and or a spring gardening event.
Educational Benefit:
 Learning about spring
 School groups participate
 Using camp syrup for the camp kitchen
Items and Cost:
 Syrup evaporator
 Taps & containers
 Tools
Financial Benefit: Save $ on syrup and sugar use in the kitchen
Staffing Need:
Short-term 1-3 years
Project: Vegetable Crops (Eric)
Purpose: Provide vegetables for the kitchen and for sale (pumpkins & gourds)
Educational Benefit: Youth participate in stages of growth of the plants - many
outcomes associated with this
Cost: Minimal
B. Design an educational mountain biking trail system through the 640 acre
Camp Miller Forest. The trail must include public use.
Contact Person: Eric Sommer, Director of YMCA Camp Miller (920) 277-7541
IV. Hawk Ridge Nature Bird Observatory
Write a long-Range Stewardship Plan for the Hawk Ridge Nature Preserve.
This includes trails, overlooks, and sight-lines to see migrating birds from a
distance (which are becoming blocked because of tree growth).
Following is a note and photos from David Alexander:
I’m still working on finding other old photos, but I’ve attached two photos for your review. The one in the
late fall is from around 2005, and the other one is from 2015. The perspective is a bit different, but what is
evident is the significantly different visibility of Moose mountain in the distance. On the late fall photo, you
can see at least half of the length of the mountain, and on the present day photo, only the very right end is
visible and rapidly disappearing. I’ve talked to Frank, and he said when he started counting in 1992, you
could see down the ridge to where it intersected with Moose Mountain in the distance and could see the
entire length of the mountain from the road. He noted that the general vegetation was much lower in the
90’s than is seen in my 2005 photo.
I don’t have a photo of the view down the ridge yet from the past, but by memory you could certainly see a
good amount of the ridge. Today, that view is completely obscured by the trees visible on the left of the
present day photo. This means birds that come down the ridge are completely obscured if they are low until
the moment they pop up at the overlook. This makes it especially difficult for those trying to learn hawk ID
and makes the hawk watching much more difficult.
As I’ve proposed in the past, what we need is a plan on what is our goal for visibility at all our overlooks. I
think a 5-10 year plan of selected tree removal would get us back to where we should be as a hawk
watching site without clear cutting and the public outcry it might entail. I think we can move forward this
year with some cutting at Summit Ledges without involving the city, and get a plan in place for selected
cutting next spring at the other overlooks after whatever approval is felt necessary.
More to come as we get more photos for comparison.
David
Contact person: Dave Alexander: (218) 590-5929 (phone or text is best access)
or dalean1@d.umn.edu