January 1953 (age 53)

Sigurd's White House contacts led this month to the addition of 48,000 acres to Olympic National Park. Meanwhile, Dev Butcher, the hot-tempered editor of the magazine of the National Parks Association, of which Sigurd is about to become president, is stirring things up within the organization, saying that the executive committee is a do-nothing group too fearful to be a strong voice for the parks. For Sigurd, it is the beginning of a series of outbursts from Butcher that eventually will lead to organizational changes that will lead Sigurd to quit the presidency. Sigurd writes to NPA President William Wharton on January 12:

I believe Dev has confused a reasonable and diplomatic approach with fear. In my own experience...there are always two methods of approach to any problem, first the diplomatic, working together, mutual trust and confidence approach, the second when all other methods have failed direct assault with no punches pulled. Both work but by far the greater good is done by the former.... I do not feel that there is any lack of respect for NPA....As the mouthpiece of the NPS, I feel that it has great respect. Perhaps we have not publicized our real accomplishments enough. The answer here is to release Fred [executive director Fred Packard] from his terrific burden of correspondence, free him from desk routine of that kind, so that he can devote his major efforts to the things that are the real purpose of the NPA.

January 1968 (age 68)

The Citizens Committee for Voyageurs National Park is formed to lobby on behalf of the park's creation. Sigurd is an advisor to the group. The group is known today as the Voyageurs National Park Association. [For more information, go to the VNPA website.]