Sugarloaf Restoration

• Introduction
• History of Sugarloaf Cove
• Wetland Restoration
• Upland Restoration
• Native Plant List

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Sugarloaf Restoration

Introduction

Sugarloaf Cove is a beautiful rocky cove on the shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. Located approximately 73 miles northeast of Duluth and 6 miles south of Schroeder, ownership of the 35-acre site is shared by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Sugarloaf Interpretive Center Association (SICA). Approximately 7.5 acres of the site are dedicated as a Minnesota State Scientific And Natural Area (SNA).

From the 1940s through the 1970s, Sugarloaf Cove was used by Consolidated Papers, Inc. as a pulpwood landing—a place to collect logs before rafting them across Lake Superior to Ashland, Wisconsin. To do this, the paper company made many changes at the site. Low areas were filled and much of the forest was cut down so that logs could be stacked and buildings and roads could be constructed.

When the paper company stopped using the site in the 1970s, they removed most of the buildings and planted pine and spruce trees in some areas to cover the bare soil that was left behind. In other disturbed areas, plants began growing on their own. Many of these plants were exotic species, not the native plants that had originally grown at Sugarloaf Cove.

In the 1990s, when Sugarloaf Cove came under the protection of the DNR and SICA, the decision was made to try to restore the native plant communities that had existed at Sugarloaf Cove before the site was disturbed. To do this meant removing or controlling the exotic plants and restoring the soil and hydrologic conditions that would help the native plants to succeed.

next >> History of Sugarloaf Cove