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Environmental Assessment: Meadow Area Landscape Rehabilitation Project
Grand Portage National Monument » Environmental Assessment: Meadow Area Landscape Rehabilitation Project » Document List
Grand Portage National Monument in northeastern Minnesota, proposes the development of an Environmental Assessment (EA) for rehabilitating an under-utilized portion of the cultural landscape within the 78-acre Lake Superior shore parcel of Grand Portage National Monument (GRPO or "the Park"). The EA will identify and disclose the potential effects of treatment alternatives developed during the planning process.
The project will require the development of a thorough EA that will assist park staff in selecting an appropriate treatment alternative for rehabilitating the cultural landscape in the "Meadow" area, located within the Lake Superior parcel of the park. The alternatives for the EA will be developed by analyzing potential impacts of treatment options outlined in the Park's 2009 cultural landscape report. Drawn heavily from the 2003 GRPO General Management Plan, the GRPO National Register Nomination completed in 2005, as well as the park's 2005 Cultural Landscape Inventory, the park's CLR, a document not yet analyzed under any NEPA review process, was developed to "serve as the principal treatment documents for cultural landscapes, establishing long-term management goals for the historically significant physical attributes of a place". More specifically, the CLR was developed in order to "define the desired condition of the park's historic landscape and visitor experience" as well as define the park's "approach to resource protection". The CLR further details appropriate treatments to support future interpretive programming, minimize intrusions on landscape view-sheds, manage vegetation to specific standards, improve vehicular circulation for park visitors and staff, as well as "provide guidance regarding the desired condition and character of the maintenance area following removal of the existing [maintenance] structures". Above all else, it is a priority that the EA process includes impact analysis of treatment options with a strong focus on cultural resource protection, interpretation of cultural resources, and visitor service options for the Meadow area.
Issues and topics that may be addressed or included as part of this planning process include:
• Archeological resource protection
• Cultural landscape rehabilitation
• Ethnographic landscapes
• Interpretive trail development
• Removal of "decommissioned" maintenance infrastructure
• Interpretation of the former village of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Exotic species management
• Shoreline erosion mitigation
• Cultural landscape vegetation management
• Wetland affects
• Visitor services
• Employee vehicular circulation
• Historic building reconstruction
The project will require the development of a thorough EA that will assist park staff in selecting an appropriate treatment alternative for rehabilitating the cultural landscape in the "Meadow" area, located within the Lake Superior parcel of the park. The alternatives for the EA will be developed by analyzing potential impacts of treatment options outlined in the Park's 2009 cultural landscape report. Drawn heavily from the 2003 GRPO General Management Plan, the GRPO National Register Nomination completed in 2005, as well as the park's 2005 Cultural Landscape Inventory, the park's CLR, a document not yet analyzed under any NEPA review process, was developed to "serve as the principal treatment documents for cultural landscapes, establishing long-term management goals for the historically significant physical attributes of a place". More specifically, the CLR was developed in order to "define the desired condition of the park's historic landscape and visitor experience" as well as define the park's "approach to resource protection". The CLR further details appropriate treatments to support future interpretive programming, minimize intrusions on landscape view-sheds, manage vegetation to specific standards, improve vehicular circulation for park visitors and staff, as well as "provide guidance regarding the desired condition and character of the maintenance area following removal of the existing [maintenance] structures". Above all else, it is a priority that the EA process includes impact analysis of treatment options with a strong focus on cultural resource protection, interpretation of cultural resources, and visitor service options for the Meadow area.
Issues and topics that may be addressed or included as part of this planning process include:
• Archeological resource protection
• Cultural landscape rehabilitation
• Ethnographic landscapes
• Interpretive trail development
• Removal of "decommissioned" maintenance infrastructure
• Interpretation of the former village of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Exotic species management
• Shoreline erosion mitigation
• Cultural landscape vegetation management
• Wetland affects
• Visitor services
• Employee vehicular circulation
• Historic building reconstruction