The core natural history focus of this expedition, we will attempt to create, as completely as possible, a primary baseline inventory of the composition and diversity of flora and fauna of the coast of Lake Superior. Although there has been no such cross-state/province inventory of the entire shoreline, we certainly are not the first to undertake this kind of project. A similar study, the Michigan Natural Features Inventory - a joint project between the Nature Conservancy and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality - analyzed the journals of men who first surveyed Michigan in preparation of it becoming a state. Among other things, they contained detailed observations of flora, fauna and the natural features of Michigan's shorelines before settlement, dating back to the 1830s. It may be interesting to contrast those observations with what we find, how much has changed in the past 180 years.

Aided by digital technology, we hope to accomplish this within the summer of 2010. Traditional methods of vegetative surveys will be supplemented by high-resolution photography towards each cardinal compass point of each sample plot, creating a detailed photographic survey of the terrain.

More conventional plot samples will be conducted at evenly spaced intervals throughout the circumnavigation, at which we will record the following observations:

• Date & Time
• GPS Coordinates
• Species present
• Species relative abundance
• Animal sightings, tracks or sign
• Other notable observations, e.g. environmental anomalies, land use, particular landscape features