Matthew Sundell, a member of the Great Lakes Climate Corps, works on the Eagles Nest Community Forest Trail on Friday. The trail, located off County Road 550 in Marquette Township, is open to the public. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

MARQUETTE — The public now has a better way to access Lake Superior via a new trail that leads from County Road 550 by Eagles Nest Road to the lake.

Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior contributed materials and labor for the construction of a section of boardwalk on the Eagles Nest Community Forest Trail in Marquette, which is about 1,000 feet long and leads to the waterfront where Thoneys Point is visible just a few miles down the shoreline.

The boardwalk was constructed by the Great Lakes Climate Corps of the Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy, which is the steward of the Eagles Nest Community Forest.

CSCLS stepped in to purchase $2,500 worth of lumber for the boardwalk, said Jane Fitkin, director of outreach and communications for CSCLS, since much of the trail goes through wetlands.

“It goes through some old railroad area, so you’ll notice some gravel and railroad ties along the trail, and then you’ll make your way into some wetland,” Fitkin said during a Friday work day, noting that a sandy area at the lakeshore has beach grass and beach pea protecting the shoreline.

The trail is located just a few miles away from the proposed vertical rocket launch site, which the CSCLS is opposing due to what it believes are environmental threats to the pristine area. In fact, the organization is collecting signatures from the public against the project.

“We were interested in this location specifically when we heard they were building a trail out here because of its proximity to the proposed spaceport,” Fitkin said.

The fact that the trail is so close to the proposed site, she stressed, makes it an important site to protect.

The Powell Township site, if built, would be part of the Spaceport that would include a horizontal-launch site at the downstate Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport. The Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association is proposing the Spaceport, which according to MAMA, would launch satellites into low-earth orbit.

Most of the trail project has been completed, Fitkin said, with wood chips added to make it easier for hikers. It also provided a bit of cleanup and transplanted some of the beach grass and beach pea to an area off the trail to make it easier for people to walk to the beach without trampling the grasses and wildflowers.

“We like to define that trail so we can concentrate our impact,” Fitkin said.

CSCLS President Dennis Ferraro thanked the SWP for contributing to the project, which honors the late Jerry Maynard, co-founder of the former Chocolay Raptor Center.

“We thank them for the great work they do all the time,” Ferraro said of the SWP.

Tyler Penrod, SWP program manager, said it is appropriate the Eagles Nest property is dedicated to Maynard.

“I think it’s a really fitting name with his role at the Chocolay Raptor Center that the Eagles Nest property is named after him,” Penrod said. “You can come out to this property and often times see eagles nested in the big pines here.”

This summer, the GLCC has been at the spot building trail, which he indicated is important for several reasons.

“This is the northernmost access to Lake Superior beach until you reach Big Bay,” Penrod said, with people who travel northward passing Wetmore Landing and Little Presque Isle before coming up to the Eagles Nest Community Forest.

“Another reason I think this place is really special is it’s a coastal wetland, which is an ecosystem that the Great Lakes has been losing pretty rapidly, and this one as a community forest is going to be protected forever,” he said.

Penrod said the trail, which has a public parking area, is relatively flat so a family can enjoy it and hang out at Lake Superior for the day.

He said the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Forest Program funded the SWP’s acquisition of the property.

As a land conservancy, the SWP is required to perform annual monitoring of its properties, Penrod said.

“Our staff goes out every year and visits beaches, properties to document what’s happening, if there’s been any changes or impacts from people,” Penrod said.

Although people can enjoy the site, it is expected that the wildlife that lives there will benefit as well.

“The reason that we wanted to protect this place is because it’s a coastal wetland, and it provides such a tremendous benefit to the organisms that call this place home,” Penrod said.