TheUniversity of Minnesota Center for Changing Landscapes (CCL), which has worked to see a number of projects in Cook County come to fruition— including the cairn road signs along Highway 61—has received the Federal Highway Administration’s Environmental Excellence Award for its North Shore Scenic Byway work.
In 2005, the CCL completed a comprehensive North Shore All-American Road corridor master plan and interpretive plan to help stakeholders and communities make better informed decisions about future activities, growth, and development. CCL’s goal is to ensure that future actions will be ecologically and culturally sustainable while enhancing the intrinsic resources and scenic character and experience of the North Shore.
CCL researchers collaborated with the North Shore Scenic Drive Council, the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Natural Resources and the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies.
Mary Vogel, who worked with the Town of Tofte during its town center planning process, a CTS scholar and senior research fellow in the Department of Landscape Architecture, is the center’s co-director with Alan Elk of the Department of Forest Resources.
The award nomination was submitted to the Federal Highway Administration by Scott Bradley, landscape architecture chief in MnDOT’s Office of Technical Support.
The collaborative master plan has already led to funding and in-progress development of more than a half-dozen MnDOT cooperative wayside restorations, gateway markers, interpretive signing, and trailhead projects with scenic byways partners.
The CCL also worked with the community on the Cook County Community Center Revitalization plan.
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