Imagine a northern lake without the haunting calls and awe-inspiring presence of the Common Loon. It's a disturbing thought, but in some places, it's happening. Air and water pollution, loss of habitat, and increasing recreational activities on lakes all pose serious threats to loons across North America, and in some cases are responsible for loons and loon music disappearing from traditional nesting lakes.

LoonWatch, a program
of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, protects common loons and their aquatic habitats through education, monitoring, and research. Though our primary focus is Wisconsin, our education and research activities extend to Upper Great Lakes region, such as Michigan and Minnesota. We also lend support to North American conservation efforts by working with loon conservation organizations across the United States and Canada.

Photo courtesy of Hank Krizman

LoonWatch, its Advisory Council, and volunteers are all working toward common goals of loon conservation and protection.  For more information about the program, contact the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College, (715) 682-1220, or email loonwatch@northland.edu. 

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Above came a soft whisper of wings, and as the loons saw us they called wildly in alarm and took the laughing with them into the gathering dusk.  The shores echoed and re-echoed until they seemed to throb with the music.  This was the symbol of the lake country, the sound that more than any other typifies the rocks, waters, and forests of the wilderness.  
                                              --Sigurd F. Olson, Listening Point