May 1950 (age 51)

Sigurd was elected this month to the National Parks Association board of trustees and executive committee, an outgrowth of the national reputation he had created through his leadership of the campaign to create an airspace reservation over the northeastern Minnesota wilderness known today as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The NPA actually wanted Olson to step in as its president, but he declined for the time being, saying he still had much to do to try to get approval of an historic U.S.-Canada treaty that would govern management of the Quetico-Superior canoe country of Minnesota and Ontario. Olson and others believed—mistakenly, as it turned out—that such a treaty was achievable within the next couple of years. (Ultimately, there would be no treaty, merely informal agreement over how best to manage the core wilderness portions of the canoe country.)

May 1965 (age 66)

American Forests published a feature article this month called "Sig Olson: Wilderness Philosopher," written by Dorothy Boyle Huyck. In the article, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall (shown at left) called Sigurd "one of the most inspired, and inspiring, of America's conservation leaders. " Sigurd also met one of his favorite writers, Loren Eiseley, for the first time, in Washington, D.C. Eiseley had just joined the National Park Service's advisory board.