State of the Foundation

2000 has been full and rewarding year. We have expanded our program and are financially solvent enough to be able to look further into the future. None of it has been easy but absolute faith in the worthiness of our cause, like a warm thermal, keeps us aloft. That and a continuing warm and enthusiastic response from the public. Here are some of the year's events.

Operation Sauna

For years, we have talked about repairing the sauna which, not surprisingly after over forty years, has been rotting out from the bottom. Estimates from Ely carpenters were astronomical ($7,000). But three wonderful fellows in Hayward, Wis., all experts in log work and carpentry, volunteered to do it for nothing! We paid for their expenses and materials, of course. Chuck Wick and Dave Peterson cleaned out the rocks and stove ahead of time. So the men fixed it all up including replacement of the floor and precision replacement of the logs on two weekends. A beautiful job! Everyone is best pleased and we celebrated with a slap-up dinner afterwards.

The Broke Down Sauna Foundation Restoration Foundation: Dave Tworek, John Fuller, Dave "Scrapiron" Eckstrom

Friend and Seeley log-cabin builder, Dan Dums, DONATED and sawed to size cedar planks for the flooring.

For new friends, the sauna is one of the original buildings at the Point, an authentic Finnish family sauna moved there along with the cabin. It has taken second place to the cabin but once upon a time, the dock and beach were the social center of Listening Point, a place for friendship, fun, and reflection. Sig loved it and wrote a chapter about it in his book, Runes of the North.

Conservation Easement

The Board authorized the Chairman to explore the option of a conservation easement for the two purposes of (1) lowering taxes, and (2) putting the natural integrity of Listening Point into legal form so that no one now or in the future could violate it. I asked the Minnesota Land Trust of St. Paul to draw up a draft contract for us. That has been done. We have discussed it within the Board and resubmitted it to the MLT with some minor changes for a second draft now under review. There is every reason to expect that we should have a final version signed before the end of the year.

Taxes

Completion of the Easement should lower taxes by 75 to 80 percent, according to the St. Louis County assessor, which will be worth over $3,000 p/a and more in the future.

The Board also agreed to pursue a second track at the same time, which would be a legal challenge for tax-free status with the County. We tried this earlier but were turned down flat. Now the Minneapolis firm of Faegre and Bensen have agreed, on a pro bono basis, to take a professional look at it. They believe we have a case and have submitted a closely-reasoned case to the county. Be patient, this will take some months, and keep your fingers crossed. Special thanks to Dave Zentner.

Fund Raising

This is one area where I am, for the moment, quite dissatisfied. We are even with last year's contributions at this time, but it should be better. I have made several overtures for corporate and foundation support, but without success. This in spite of fairly good PR. Don't get me wrong though, I am not pessimistic because "The fault dear Brutus lies not in the stars, but in ourselves." Especially in me. But I simply have not had the time to mount a more vigorous and aggressive fund-raising campaign. The obvious solution is to hire an Executive Director. But, for that we have to have the funds. So, 'round we go'. Actually, I am optimistic and have just begun to work. Our goal is whatever amount would generate enough income to hire an Executive Director, plus operating expenses. Eventually, of course, we would like to have enough to fund the building and maintenance of the International Wilderness Education Center. For further information, see the Financial Pages.

Duluth Birthday Dinner - April 22, 2000

We are happy to report that the second annual LPF Sigurd Olson birthday dinner at Duluth was a success. You know how some parties click and some don't? Well, the birthday dinner was a smash! We had a wonderful time. Dave Zentner gave a moving talk about his life and the generations-long battle for wilderness values in NE Minnesota. Everyone very much enjoyed giving Bill and Barb Rom a special plaque and accolades in recognition of a lifetime of support for wilderness and wilderness education.

Bill and Barb Rom

The venerable Kitchi Gammi Club with its old-world atmosphere, beamed ceilings, great fireplaces, deep carpets and dignity, a five-star dinner beautifully served, chansons by Les Fils du Voyageur, some lively and gay, some sweet and sentimental, and a pleasant mood of friendship and well-being made for an unforgettable evening. We agreed to do it again next year.

The Voyageurs, by the way, donated the evening to the LPF. Northwest Investment Services in Duluth gave us a generous contribution. So we actually came out a little ahead.

Les Fils du Voyageur (The Sons of the Voyageur), have recently released their new CD, "Bien Travailler." It is a marvelous collection of authetic music from the fur trade sung in four-part harmony. CDs can be ordered through Heartistry Music, 720 4th Avenue West, Ashland, WI 54806, or call 715-682-9362.
	Left to right: Grant Herman, Tom Yost, Gary Hecimovich, Tom Draughton, Ron Hobart.

Wilderness Education

Some interesting developments here.

We started exploratory conversations with the Executive Director of "Full Circle", which produces study materials and teacher's guides on environmental learning at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. We are looking into the incorporation of wilderness concepts into the curriculum.

Sigurd Olson hardcover books sales have dropped since the University of Minnesota Press (UMP) began to issue soft-cover editions. However, the soft cover editions are selling quite well and may have a positive effect on raising or reviving public interest in the books, which has been in decline for many years.

The UMP has also issued a soft cover edition of Dave Backes's Sigurd Olson biography, The Wilderness Within.

What's new? The UMP is preparing to publish a new book by David Backes in September 2001 entitled The Meaning of Wilderness: The Essential Articles and Speeches of Sigurd F. Olson. This is a compendium of materials, which provide the essential canon of Sigurd Olson's Wilderness philosophy, and which will provide the reader with an important (hitherto missing) resource in Sigurd Olson wilderness study and criticism. I have seen the citations and they are excellent.

Board members also hit the speakers circuit for the spring and summer. Dave Zentner spoke to the Sig Olson birthday dinner (see above), Chuck Wick spoke to about 80 scouts at the Sommers Canoe base outside of Ely. Mike Link, Dave Zentner, and Bob Olson were three of the six persons profiled by the Duluth News Tribune for the Earth Day edition—not bad for a fledgling organization. At the new Northwoods Nights series in Ely this summer, Dave Peterson spoke on the Basswood Lake resort era, Bob Olson on the Listening Point Story, Milt Stenlund on the history of Burntside Lake and the Listening Point area (see "Listening Point in History"), David Backes on Sigurd Olson and his wilderness philosophy, and Dave Zentner on wilderness battles and challenges, past, present, and future. Bob also delivered the keynote address to the year 2000 Rendezvous at Ely of the Sommers Canoe Base leaders and to students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources. The combined audience from these events is estimated at 600 to 700 not including several talks, seminars, speeches, and public radio talks by Dave Backes.

There are also some outstanding things we have not been able to do. One, that I care most about perhaps, is Listening Point Publications starting with A Wilderness Primer for the average interested student and adult. Again, there are no insuperable obstacles to doing it, just the time. We will try again next year.

Visits to Listening Point continue to be the most popular and effective part of the Listening Point Educational Program. We have received many letters of thanks and gratitude for the experience. In this case, many thanks to Chuck Wick in Ely who graciously leads and talks to a stream of visitors at the home of the author, the writing shack, and Listening Point while working full time at other things. Visitors were up from 175 in 1999 to 225 by September this year.

The newsletters, of course, are our official public presence and have received many compliments.

It is, however, too soon to try to evaluate the LPF wilderness education contribution. Suffice to say that we are being recognized and welcomed both within and without the wilderness community, have a full program of work, communicate regularly with up to two thousand directly and with more indirectly. It's a beginning.

By The Way ...

Vance Martin is off to South Africa to help set up the Seventh World Wilderness Congress.

Army worms (or tent caterpillars) erupted in northern Minnesota in their disgusting billions, blacking the roads and buildings, stripping the leaves from the trees, and spinning their revolting "tents". This includes Listening Point.

Steady rain reduced the fire danger from the July 4, 1999 blowdown to near zero. For the moment—situation normal and under control. The USFS is planning controlled burns this fall.

Did you know that Sig had written most of Listening Point before the cabin was built? He had it mostly drafted by December 1956, but didn't get the cabin up until the next summer. This is as if Thoreau had written Walden before even going to live there.

Did it occur to you that the message of Listening Point is not escape from the trials and turbulence of life (although we all know that was important) but, rather, using that escape and silence to think and listen and to enter into a larger spiritual existence? BIG DIFFERENCE. Read Chapter 1 again. Maybe there is something in the diaries that explains this change of perspective. Interesting.

On the international front, William Wang, retired Taiwanese diplomat living in New York, has joined the LPF as advisor on United Nations and Specialized Agency (UNDP, UNEP) programs. He will be doing original research on how United Nations programs support wilderness world-wide. This should be very interesting and we are grateful for his interest and service.