News

Aversion to Diversion

A year after “Aversion to Diversion” White Paper, Bayfield County Maps Artesian Wells

Paper addressed unique groundwater resources in a far-northern-Wisconsin county.

November 15, 2022

In September 2021, the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation convened a Water Summit titled “Aversion to Diversion: Groundwater, Bottled Water, and the Great Lakes Compact.” Following the summit, the Center released a white paper that put the hydrogeology of the region’s artesian resources into a statewide context while making several specific…

From the Archives: Sustaining the Brule River Ecosystem

By Alan Brew, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Executive Director
November 6, 2022

On June 21-22, 1994, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute hosted the Robert E. Matteson Brule River Workshop: Sustaining the Brule River Ecosystem, Past, Present, and Future. This event marked the revival of an Institute activity known as “problem-solving workshops.” Institute records show that the revival of these workshops was initiated by Jane Matteson in a…

A shelf of Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award winners

From the Archives: An Award for Nature Writers

By Alan Brew, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Executive Director
October 23, 2022

In October of 1990, Mark Peterson and Jeff Rennicke prepared a working paper titled “The 1991 Sigurd F. Olson Writing Award.” At the time, Peterson was serving as director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute and Rennicke was serving on its advisory board. Their working paper outlined a proposal to establish a writing award that…

Northland College campus aerial

Northland College President Karl Solibakke to Step Down; Chad Dayton Appointed Interim President

Solibakke to continue leading the College and prepare for leadership transition through December 31, 2022.

October 20, 2022

The Northland College Board of Trustees announced today that Dr. Karl Ivan Solibakke has decided to resign his position as president of the College after more than four years of extraordinary service and leadership. Additionally, the Board announced that Chad Dayton, previously chair of the Board of Trustees, will serve as interim president of the…

From the Archives: An Alliance for Wolves

By Alan Brew, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Executive Director
October 9, 2022

In 1932, Sigurd Olson completed a master’s thesis titled The Life History of the Timber Wolf and the Coyote: A Study in Predatory Animal Control. In the opening paragraphs of the thesis, Olson writes that “practically no scientific research or investigation has been made into the actual status of [predators] in regard to the herbivores…

Kids at Stockton

From the Archives: School on an Island

By Alan Brew, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Executive Director
September 25, 2022

“I feel happy being here. I like this island soooooo much!” “I felt peaceful. It’s not loud here. I felt like I am a part of nature.” “My heart feels right at home.” “Since my grandma died things have been different. At the sandstone rocks I felt her there. She loved nature.” “Out here you…

Northland College Recognized Among Top Regional Colleges for Excellence, Value

September 14, 2022

U.S. News & World Report recently named Northland College as both a Best Regional College and a Best Value School in the Midwest. Institutions are ranked based on a number of different criteria, and new rankings are released every year. This year, Northland College was named #19 in the Best Regional Colleges in the Midwest…

From the Archives: Publishing A Wonderful Country

By Alan Brew, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Executive Director
September 11, 2022

“To anyone familiar with the Quetico-Superior and the long struggle for its preservation as wilderness, Bill Magie needs no introduction.” So wrote Dave Olesen in a memo to Tom Klein, director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, on June 2, 1980. Olesen goes on to write in his letter that through Magie’s experience as a…

Two people hold a sign reading “Get Ready for Nonviolence” in winter

What I Learned in Jail

By Mary (Ganchoff) Smith ’94
August 31, 2022

I hear the crackle of police radios before the officers enter the badly-lit classroom in the basement of Bobb Hall, Jim Meeker introducing Vegetative Types of the Great Lakes Region. I’m at a desk in a middle row; too cool to sit in front, too anxious to fully give in to the back. I watch…

Photo of the Solitary Shores album jacket

From the Archives: A Musical Tribute to Sigurd Olson

By Alan Brew, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Executive Director
August 28, 2022

The back cover of the Fall 1983 issue of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute’s newsletter Horizons features a black-and-white image of a record album titled Solitary Shores by Douglas Wood. Accompanying text states that the album was produced by the Institute and “is about the calling of loons, the crashing of storm waves, the scent…