Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

Last updated
SOEI Winter 2.jpg

The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute is an outreach arm of Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. The institute originated in 1971 at an environmental conference at Northland that hosted Sigurd Olson as a speaker. Robert Matteson was the founder of the Institute. The Institute opened in Spring, 1972. [1]

Contents

LoonWatch

LoonWatch, a program of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, protects common loons [2] and their aquatic habitats through education, monitoring, and research. Though their primary focus is Wisconsin, their education and research activities extend to Upper Great Lakes region, such as Michigan and Minnesota. The Watch also lends support to North American conservation efforts by working with loon conservation organizations across the United States and Canada. LoonWatch, it's Advisory Council, and volunteers are all working toward common goals of loon conservation and protection.

Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award

In 1974, inspirational conservationist and writer Sigurd F. Olson [3] won the John Burroughs Medal [4] for his book, Wilderness Days. Since 1992, and in the spirit of celebrating Sigurd’s literary legacy, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute (SOEI) at Northland College has recognized remarkable environmental adult literature that attempts to capture the spirit of the human relationship with the natural world, and promotes the values that preserve or restore the land for future generations.

Since 2004, the SOEI has recognized a children's book of literacy nature writing—nonfiction or fiction—that captures the spirit of the human relationship with nature, and promotes the awareness, preservation, appreciation, or restoration of the natural world for future generations.

Land and Water Stewardship

The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute has a long history of combining programs, workshops, and outreach activities to assist with environmental protection and restoration in the Lake Superior region. Working collaboratively with private landowners, businesses, public agencies and tribal governments Northland College faculty, staff and students utilize a unique interdisciplinary approach to assessment, monitoring and planning. This collaborative approach provides services to the community and hands on engagement for our students. Current projects cover a spectrum that includes environmental monitoring, outreach education, community-based research, planning, and restoration. Specific examples: Monitoring Wisconsin Department of Transportation: Roy Johnson West Wetland Mitigation Bank, Wal-Mart Supercenter stormwater basin, John F. Kennedy Memorial Airport Wildlife Hazard Assessment Wisconsin Department of Transportation: Beartrap Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank groundwater. Outreach Education Brickyard Creek Learning Walks, Citizen Based monitoring, Tree Campus USA, Ecological Restoration Community Based Research Watershed Management: Bay City Creek, Brickyard Creek, Geospatial Interpretation, Multimedia Learning, Green Infrastructure Planning and Restoration Bony Lake shoreline restoration, Beartrap Creek Wetland Mitigation bank, Private Land Stewardship, Fish Creek Watershed Project.

Lake Superior Binational Forum

The Lake Superior Binational Forum is a model partnership of 24 volunteer members from various sectors including small businesses, environmental organizations, industry, Native Americans, First Nations and academia. Its purpose is to provide input and analysis to the governments about critical issues relating to Lake Superior such as discharge of toxic substances, pollution prevention and restoration efforts. The members are also responsible for developing creative new strategies for eliminating pollutants and contributing toward the foundation of a sustainable economy.

Apostle Island School

Apostle Island School is an environmental education program aimed at providing regional youth with an outdoor experience to increase students’ awareness of both the regional history and the wide array of local resources of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Lake Superior.

Island School runs each May and is held on various islands in the Apostle Islands archipelago. Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute started developing this unique learning experience in 1985 in cooperation with the Northland College Outdoor Education Department and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. For 19 years, the program curriculum and instruction has been led by outdoor education students at Northland College as part of their senior capstone. The Apostle Island School program works in collaboration with the Northland College Outdoor Education Department, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, and the Apostle Island Cruise Service.

The Apostle Island School hosts two different outdoor-educational experiences. Day Trips:Available for both fifth and sixth-grade students, the day is spent on Madeline Island in search of the island's history, natural ecosystems, geological formation, and growth/development of the historic town of La Pointe. The day includes a ferry ride, visitation of the Madeline Island Historical Museum or Big Bay State Park, Grant's Point Beach, and even a tour of La Pointe. Residential trips:Available to sixth-grade students, the two-and-a-half-day excursion begins by boarding an Apostle Islands Cruise Service boat in Bayfield, bound for Stockton Island, home of base camp for the next two nights. During the course of the trip, students will work on developing cooperative skills, participate in group cooking, explore Lake Superior, discover the natural history of the region, learn about the geological formation of the region, and participate in a multitude of games.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashland, Wisconsin</span> City in Wisconsin, United States

Ashland is a city in Ashland and Bayfield counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat of Ashland County. The city is a port on Lake Superior, near the head of Chequamegon Bay. The population was 7,908 at the 2020 census, all of whom resided in the Ashland County portion of the city. The unpopulated Bayfield County portion is in the city's southwest, bordered by the easternmost part of the Town of Eileen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Wisconsin–Superior</span> Public university in Superior, Wisconsin, US

The University of Wisconsin–Superior is a public liberal arts university in Superior, Wisconsin. UW–Superior grants associate, bachelor's, master's and specialist's degrees. The university enrolls 2,559 undergraduates and 364 graduate students.

Northland Scholars Academy, is a college prep high school, formerly a college, in Dunbar, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Fork River</span> River in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho

The Clark Fork, or the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, is a river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho, approximately 310 miles (500 km) long. The largest river by volume in Montana, it drains an extensive region of the Rocky Mountains in western Montana and northern Idaho in the watershed of the Columbia River. The river flows northwest through a long valley at the base of the Cabinet Mountains and empties into Lake Pend Oreille in the Idaho Panhandle. The Pend Oreille River in Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada which drains the lake to the Columbia in Washington, is sometimes included as part of the Clark Fork, giving it a total length of 479 miles (771 km), with a drainage area of 25,820 square miles (66,900 km2). In its upper 20 miles (32 km) in Montana near Butte, it is known as Silver Bow Creek. Interstate 90 follows much of the upper course of the river from Butte to Saint Regis. The highest point within the river's watershed is Mount Evans at 10,641 feet (3,243 m) in Deer Lodge County, Montana along the Continental Divide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apostle Islands National Lakeshore</span> 69,372 acres in Wisconsin (US) managed by the National Park Service

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a U.S. national lakeshore consisting of 21 islands and shoreline encompassing 69,372 acres (28,074 ha) on the northern tip of Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior. It is known for its collection of historic lighthouses, sandstone sea caves, a few old-growth remnant forests, and natural animal habitats. It is featured on the America the Beautiful Quarters series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Superior Lowland</span> Geographical region of Wisconsin

In the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the Lake Superior Lowland, also known as the Superior Coastal Plain, is a geographical region located in the far northern part of the state bordering Lake Superior. It covers about 1,250 square miles (3,200 km2), and does not extend beyond 20 miles (32 km) from the Lake Superior shore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigurd F. Olson</span> American writer, environmentalist and advocate

Sigurd Ferdinand Olson was an American writer, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario. He was known honorifically as the Bourgeois — a term the voyageurs of old used of their trusted leaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Mendota</span> Lake in Dane County, Wisconsin, USA

Lake Mendota is a freshwater eutrophic lake that is the northernmost and largest of the four lakes in Madison, Wisconsin. The lake borders Madison on the north, east, and south, Middleton on the west, Shorewood Hills on the southwest, Maple Bluff on the northeast, and Westport on the northwest. Lake Mendota acquired its present name in 1849 following a proposal by a surveyor named Frank Hudson, who claimed to be familiar with local Native American languages; Lyman C. Draper, the first corresponding secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, proposed that 'Mendota' could have been a Chippewa word meaning 'large' or 'great.'

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northland College (Wisconsin)</span> Private college in Ashland, Wisconsin, US

Northland College is a private college in Ashland, Wisconsin. It enrolls 526 full-time undergraduates and employs 60 faculty members and 99 staff members. Northland College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outer Island Light</span> Lighthouse in Wisconsin, United States

The Outer Island lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the northern tip of Outer Island, one of the Apostle Islands, in Lake Superior in Ashland County, Wisconsin, near the city of Bayfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apostle Islands Lighthouses</span> United States historic place

There are several historic lighthouses on Lake Superior on or near the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin. Six of these lighthouses, all in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, were listed as a group on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 under the name Apostle Islands Lighthouses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loon Lake (California)</span> Reservoir in El Dorado County, California

Loon Lake is a reservoir in the Eldorado National Forest of El Dorado County, California, United States. The 76,200 acre⋅ft (94,000,000 m3) lake is formed by Loon Lake Dam, completed in 1963 as part of the Upper American River Project by Sacramento Municipal Utility District to conserve spring snow melt runoff for use during the summer and autumn for hydroelectric power production. Loon Lake Dam impounds water at the headwaters of Gerle Creek which, prior to the dam, flowed intermittently through (natural) Loon and Pleasant Lakes. But most of the water now stored in Loon Lake arrives from Buck Island Reservoir in the adjacent Rubicon River watershed by way of the Buck-Loon Tunnel. Nearby is Loon Lake Chalet, a popular winter recreation destination. In summer, a boat ramp for water sports and camping are available, but the area is less popular than nearby Union Valley Reservoir and Rubicon Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeline Island</span> Largest of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior

Madeline Island is an island in Lake Superior. Now part of Ashland County, Wisconsin, it has long been a spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. Although the largest of the Apostle Islands, it is not included in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It is the only island in the Apostle Island chain open to commercial development and private ownership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Wall Kimmerer</span> Potawatomi botanist and author

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a Potawatomi botanist, author, and the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).

The Water Resources Development Act of 1992, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law  102–580, was enacted by Congress of the United States on October 31, 1992. Most of the provisions of WRDA 1992 are administered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Ashland County, Wisconsin</span>

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Ashland County, Wisconsin. It is intended to provide a comprehensive listing of entries in the National Register of Historic Places that are located in Ashland County, Wisconsin. The locations of National Register properties for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below may be seen in a map.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Lakeshore Nature Preserve is a 300-acre (1.2 km2) nature reserve along 4 miles (6.4 km) of the southern shore of Lake Mendota. The preserve's primary goals are to protect native plant and animal communities, as well as to uphold the campus's signature natural landscapes, all while providing an educational facility for the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration</span>

The Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) is a research center under the Office of Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) whose mission is to preserve regional biodiversity and restore ecosystems on campus lands. CCBER has three main functions: curation and preservation of natural history collections, native coastal ecosystem and habitat restoration on campus lands, and education and outreach for both UCSB students and local community schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UW Bothell Wetland Restoration Project</span>

The UW Bothell/Cascadia College Wetland Restoration Project is a 58-acre forested floodplain restoration site at the delta of North Creek in King County, Washington, USA. The State of Washington bought the site in 1994 from the Truly family, and dedicated the land to the construction of the Bothell regional campus of the University of Washington and Cascadia College. Construction began in 1998, as did the stream and floodplain restoration. Two years later, in 2000, classes opened for students, and in 2001 the main phase of the restoration was completed. Today the site is an ongoing area of restoration education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tia Nelson</span> American politician

Tia Lee Nelson is an American academic, environmental activist, and public servant from the state of Wisconsin. She has held several high-profile positions at The Nature Conservancy, served as Executive Secretary of the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, and is currently Managing Director of the Climate program at the Outrider Foundation. Nelson is the daughter of former United States Senator and Governor Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day.

References

  1. "Olson chronology". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
  2. "Loon", Wikipedia, 2022-09-18, retrieved 2022-09-30
  3. "Sigurd F. Olson", Wikipedia, 2022-07-22, retrieved 2022-09-30
  4. "John Burroughs Medal", Wikipedia, 2022-02-28, retrieved 2022-09-30

http://www.superiorforum.org/ http://Northland.edu