News

The Bad River makes one last turn through the Kakagon-Bad River Sloughs on its way to Lake Superior

Northland College’s Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings Appointed to Wisconsin Natural Resources Board by Governor Tony Evers

Northland College is proud to announce that Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, associate director of the Northland College Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute and a HEAL Earth Partnership doctoral fellow, has been appointed to the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board by Governor Tony Evers. Jennings, a citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, brings a wealth…

Great Lakes

A Needs Assessment for the Midwest Climate Asset Map

Right now, I am staring at the conference poster printer in confusion of what to write; I cannot say that I am asked to participate in features regularly. I am in what I believe to be the study room, fluorescent lights shining dimly above me as my fingers glide across the keys of my laptop.…

Plastic bottle floating in water.

Burke Center Hosts “Perils of Plastic” Talk

In honor of World Water Day, and in service to its goal of improving water literacy, the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation hosted a lecture by leading researcher Dr. Sherri Mason. The study of plastic pollution started in the world’s oceans—most famously focused on what has been called the ‘Great Pacific…

ALL SONWA books 2022

2022 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Awards Announced

The Northland College Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute has announced the winning books for the 2022 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA). In the Adult Nonfiction category, a trio of books was jointly awarded the top prize: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (Random House); How…

The northern lights over a frozen Chequamegon Bay

Northland College to Help Finlandia University Students Continue Their Education with the Sisu Promise

The Sisu Promise creates a seamless transfer pathway to Northland College for Finlandia University students following FinnU’s closure at the end of the 2022–23 academic year.

Northland College is launching the Sisu Promise to support Finlandia University students in response to the closure of Finlandia University at the end of the spring 2023 semester. The Sisu Promise offers automatic admissions, low tuition, and generous credit transfer for qualifying Finlandia students. All Finlandia University students are guaranteed automatic admission with a cumulative…

A Quetico Provincial Park guide license for Sigurd Olson

From the Archives: A Guide and Outfitter for the Northwoods

In the entryway to the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute building on the Northland College campus, a display cabinet houses memorabilia from Sigurd Olson’s life. Nestled among these objects, next to a Finnish Puukko knife and under a Case penknife, is a worn and creased piece of paper with printed text that reads: “The Quetico Provincial…

Alaina Lenz

The Text Effect

If you had asked me at any point before my senior year of high school where I hoped to go to college, I never would have seen myself at a place like Northland. For as long as I can remember, it was my desire to follow in my parents’ footsteps and attend the University of…

Intangible Fall 2020 Issue

From the Archives: Giving a Voice to Intangibles

The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute archives include a small, saddle-stitched pamphlet titled Two Essays by Sigurd F. Olson. The pamphlet was produced by the Institute and, though undated, was likely published shortly after Olson’s death in 1982. The first essay in the pamphlet is titled “Those Intangible Things,” and a note explains that the essay…

From the Archives: Forest Lodge on Lake Namekagon

In the summer of 1994, a number of individuals with homes or summer cabins near Cable, Wisconsin, received a card in the mail. A small piece of gray paper with four pine trees etched in green was glued to front of the cream-colored card, and inside crisp, green text invited recipients of the card to…

The Bad River makes one last turn through the Kakagon-Bad River Sloughs on its way to Lake Superior

From the Archives: The Chequamegon Bay Area Partnership

Chequamegon Bay and the wetlands and waterways associated with it are one of the most ecologically significant areas in the Lake Superior Basin. The Bay and its surrounding watersheds contain approximately one quarter of the coastal wetlands and one fifth of the nearshore waters associated with the United States’ Lake Superior coast, and many of…