Trail Builders Mark and Joan Strobel

North Shore saviors

Behind every successful park or trail effort you will find a Trail Builder, an individual that shepherded the dream into reality, giving time, money or both in pursuit of the goal. The following is a Q & A feature on a dynamic Trail Builder Duo -- Mark and Joan Strobel. Thanks in large part to their vision and persistence, our North Shore parks and trails are national treasures!

Q: How did you get involved in protecting parkland?
We became involved in protecting state parks through the Pigeon Falls project that led to the creation of Grand Portage State Park. Don Davison, former director of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Division of Parks and Recreation, made the connection between the Parks & Trails Council and our personal interest in preserving the wild beauty of the highest waterfall in Minnesota. We still fondly recall the Parks & Trails Council's Executive Committee meeting in which Martin Kellogg made the motion that we be named the chairs of the new "Pigeon Falls Committee" - and we were not even Parks & Trails Council members at the time! Luckily for us, Martin became our teacher, coach and mentor throughout the project. Sam Morgan, Alden Lind and Bill Morrissey were the "park believers" that we wanted to emulate, and they inspired us to continue working for the Parks & Trails Council and for state parks once the Pigeon Falls project was successfully completed.

Q: Why protect it as a park?
No other method of land protection is nearly as secure as a state or national park.

Q: What motivates you to continue this effort?
There are still more special places that need to be protected. We still have about a dozen North Shore "opportunities" that really should be in the state park system.

Q: What is your favorite success story?
The North Shore projects are the real successes. We've helped the Parks & Trails Council to complete at least 15 of them. Pigeon Falls, Middle Falls (the Parks & Trails Council's only Canadian project), the Palisade Valley addition to Tettegouche State Park, and the Horseshoe Ridge project in Crosby-Manitou are the North Shore projects that stand out for us. One of the most satisfying aspects of our work has been working with the Lake County government and with North Shore state park managers, particularly Phil Leversedge, Mark Kovakovich, Jim Willford and Richard Hoskins, to build the partnerships that led to the success of many of the Parks & Trails Council's North Shore projects.

Q: What do you see on the horizon for parkland protection efforts?
Unfortunately, we see a bleak future for parks and wilderness without a significant change in the fundamental attitudes of the general populace and our elected government officials. While we have protected many special places on the North Shore, the character of the shore is irreversibly changing toward more development and more pressure on the very natural resources that make the North Shore so special. The same type of development pressure is occurring throughout the state and the nation. Until we, as a people, start to value natural areas and wild things as much as recreational, suburban and commercial development, land-protection efforts are doomed to winning small victories while watching the overall ecosystem continually deteriorate.

The Parks & Trails Council has many Trail Builder stories of people giving their time, talents and resources to build parks and trails. A contribution to Parks & Trails helps energize and train more trail builders, and preserve and protect special places for generations to come.