Students from the Spiritual Life Center theme house first guided me through the woods south of campus, along Bay City Creek to the Grandfather Tree. It was the fall of 1996, my first year as the College chaplain, and I had asked them to tell me what made Northland special. They responded, “to tell you,…
In its early days, what was then the Sigurd Olson Institute of Environmental Studies was based in Bobb Hall. The basement, to be specific. Co-founder and Executive Director Bob Matteson spent countless hours in this space, shepherding an advisory board and collaborating with the College’s Environmental Studies Committee.
The Northland College Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute has announced the winning 2021 books for the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA). Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (Alfred A. Knopf) by Suzanne Simard has been selected for the top prize in nature writing. “Rooted firmly in British Columbia,” Institute director…
“That’s an interesting idea,” said Elizabeth Olson. “Tell me more.” I was sitting at the large maple table in the living room of Sig and Elizabeth Olson, around which countless conservation campaigns and strategies had been hatched over the decades. Even with Sig gone for eight years, the table was still a centerpiece for ideas…
Fifty years ago, an administrative assistant in the president’s office at Northland College rolled a piece of paper into a typewriter, dated it “March 27, 1972” in the upper right corner, and then transcribed a letter from Malcolm McLean (president of Northland College 1971–87) to Sigurd Olson and Robert Matteson. McLean wasn’t just pen pals…
On the morning of August 27, 1971, Mary Griggs Burke and her husband woke together on the south shore of Lake Namekagon. We don’t know for sure what they did upon waking, perhaps one or both of them went for a swim, perhaps they had tea on the screened porch of the rustic lodge where…
COVID-19 gave us the opportunity to get creative with the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute’s regularly occurring Apostle Islands School. Because we couldn’t take students to the islands in the month of May, we created Stewards of Tomorrow instead. In July and August of 2021, participants joined a small group of four peers for three nights…
The Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) will hold the WCC 2022 Spring Hearings virtually, allowing the public to submit comments via an online survey from April 11 at 7 p.m. until April 14 at 7 p.m. If you have questions on how to participate, you can review The…
Bayfield School District fifth grade teachers, Gina Monroe, Sarah Potter, and Amy Day are doing what teachers do best; engaging their students in fact-finding, critical thinking, and then teaching them how to take action on what they find out. The plan for the fifth grade, beginning the week of January 17, is for students to hear…
As the rate of coronavirus cases declines nationally and we move toward what will hopefully be a less restrictive phase of the pandemic, I want to take a moment to reflect on the past two years and express personal gratitude to the Ashland community for your support during what has been trying times. My presidency…
