At the 2009 Gunflint Green Up, little Sydney Plumb of White Bear Lake, returned for her second year of planting trees.
Thethird annual GunflintGreen Up will take place May 7-8 on the Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway in northeastern Minnesota. Gunflint Green Up is a festive family-friendly event and features tree-releasing in the woods, informative talks, guided walks, food, music, and dancing.
During the past two Gunflint Green Up events, volunteers planted 100,000 seedlings in areas affected by the Ham Lake Fire of 2007. Thefocus of GunflintGreen Up 2010 is tree releasing. The woody vegetation growing around the little pine trees planted in the past two years needs to be clipped away to remove competing foliage and allow sunshine to reach the trees.
Release locations include the vicinities of Trail’s End Campground, Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, Kekekabic and Magnetic Rock Trails, Round Lake public landings and the Iron Lake Campground. These are all public lands and participants will be able to visit the trees in the years and decades to come.
Event committee chair Nancy Seaton says, “Gunflint Green Up has always been more than the sum of its parts. The trees, the woods, the music, the food, the information — they’re all multiplied with the sharing with friends, the return of neighbors, the return of spring. It’s just a great time to be out in the woods looking for new growth and the promise of what’s to come. Whether you focus on what’s to come this year or you daydream and imagine the forest in the next 50 or 100 years, it’ll make you smile.”
Friday afternoon walks and talks include a guided hike on the new Centennial Trail and a preview of the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. On the hike, led by USFS naturalist Steve Robertsen, participants will learn about the Ham Lake Fire of 2007, the Paulsen Mine of the 1890s and the PAD & W railway — all situated along the length of the Centennial Trail. The presentation and discussion about the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center will take place at the Gunflint Conference Center. The museum will be open this summer, with a grand opening planned for July 4, 2010.
Friday night’s dinner will be held at TheBig Tent at Gunflint Lodge and will be accompanied by music from the Pincushion Warblers.
Following dinner on Friday night, boreal owl researcher Bill Lane will give a presentation entitled “Owl in a Night’s Work.” For more than 20 years, Lane has been conducting nocturnal owl surveys in northeast Minnesota each spring. Since he started in 1987, he has experienced the night, its landscapes, and its denizens with a passion that remains as powerful in 2010, as it was in 1987. He has also, in that time, seen owls virtually disappear from the boreal forest.
Saturday’s events begin at 9:30 a.m. with a short training at the various sites, covering tree release instructions. Along with their team leaders, participants will hike to sites with equipment in tow. Registrants are asked to bring loppers and nippers.
Participants registered for the entire event (or if they have chosen these as ala carte options) receive a box lunch and are invited to the evening thank-you dinner and dance at “The Big Tent.” Dinner will be accompanied by music from The Sivertones. Dancing follows dinner with the Trail’s End Band providing the music.
Early May is a time of great temperature swings on the Gunflint Trail. Participants should come prepared for all temperature options by dressing in layers. A complete list of what to bring can be found on the Gunflint Green Up web site.
Participants can register for the Gunflint Green Up online at www.GunflintGreenUp.com. The registration fee of $45 per individual or $100 per family (one to two adults and their children 16 years of age and younger) includes Friday dinner, an evening presentation, Saturday tree releasing, box lunch, Saturday dinner and dance and a t-shirt. (Ala carte options are available for individual meals and t-shirts; a release-only option is available at no cost but requires registration so participants can get directions to the assigned staging area.)
For more information on the Gunflint Green Up, contact event chair Nancy Seaton at (218)388-2275 or by emailing hjo@ boreal.org.
Leave a Reply