March 1949 (age 49)

March 1949 was a hectic month in the campaign to ban airplanes from what is now called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The first major federal hearing was held by the federal Air Coordinating Committee's regional board in Chicago on March 16, and, because the group postponed making a recommendation until March 31, the two weeks in between were a blur of activity as groups on both sides tried to generate public support for their position. "Things are boiling all over the country," Sigurd wrote to a friend. In Ely, airplane supporters accused the Forest Service and Olson of stacking a Rod and Gun Club meeting that resulted in the organization's support of the airplane ban. Those who opposed the ban got the Ely Chamber of Commerce to formally take their side, and pressured the Rod and Gun Club to hold another meeting with advance notice to all.

Writing to Sigurd, who was in Toronto organizing a Canadian Quetico-Superior Council, an Ely friend who attended the Chamber of Commerce meeting said, "Your name has been mud around here for some time past but that is mild to what the dear citizens of Ely think of you now." That saddened Sigurd, who hadn't yet gotten used to the antagonism. "I've been accused of so many things the past year," he responded, "that I'm glad my dear mother is gone or she'd really be worried. The important thing to me is that the cause we are fighting for is just and right and that future generations will benefit. That is more than the opposition can say and that is actually what bothers them."

When the Ely Rod and Gun Club met on March 27, it reaffirmed its position supporting the airplane ban. On March 31, however, when the Air Coordinating Committee's regional board met again, it said it found "no justification" for a federal airspace reservation over the canoe country. The tide seemed to be turning against the conservationists.

March 1964 (age 64)

Not much to report for this month. Sigurd was in Washington, D. C., in his role as advisor to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and to the National Park Service. One thing he was working on was to restore funding for national park research (the lack of which continues to be a problem to this day). He wrote to his friend and fellow Minnesotan, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, as follows: "I also serve on a special advisory committee to help set up a Research program for the National Park Service that will eventually answer many questions as to what is happening to National Parks and how to preserve them in view of increasingly heavy use by the public. In fact, basic research is absolutely necessary if the National Park Service is going to fulfill the mandate of Congress to pass on these precious areas unimpaired."