February 1956 (age 56)

Sigurd spent all but a few days of February in Washington, D.C., working mostly on National Parks Association business. An excerpt from a letter he wrote at this time (ironically, on Valentine's Day) to the NPA's executive director, Fred Packard, indicates the time-consuming nature of the job and some of the frustrations he felt at times:

...your letters are always far too long. Busy men will simply not read that much bulk. When I got home yesterday, my desk was piled high as always. I start at the top and work down. Letters over a page in length and with not too clear carbons, I am forced to skim. That is bad. Please try to boil your thoughts down to one page, write on a second page only under the greatest urgency and then never a full page. I consider this extremely important. It will save you time and energy and mean greater results from those who get your letters.

But shortly after he sent that one off he received one from Alfred Knopf that must have brightened his day. Knopf was in the final stages of getting The Singing Wilderness ready for its April publication, and he wrote, "I think you have done a fine job."

And if Sigurd's ears were ringing, it may have been because the leaders of The Wilderness Society were discussing the possibility of inviting him to join the group's governing council. Olaus Murie, writing to Robert Griggs on February 24th, strongly endorsed Sigurd:

First, there is Sig Olson, a national figure who knows his way around and is a true wilderness man if there ever was one. I need say no more.

Febuary 1971 (age 71)

On February 16th, Sigurd, as president of The Wilderness Society, testified in Washington, D.C. against the proposed Trans-Alaska Pipeline. An excerpt from his testimony will resonate with those familiar with the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989:

Interior's impact statement acknowledges the threat of oil spills to the fish and wildlife of the Beaufort Sea, off Prudhoe, and Prince William Sound at the other end of the pipeline where the oil would be transferred to tankers. Strangely ignored, however, is the jeopardy to the Pacific seacoast of both Canada and the lower United States, by exposure to the virtual certainty of spills from the tanker fleets churning from Valdez to Puget Sound and California.... A major oil spill disaster depleting the rich Alaska fisheries or Arctic breeding waterfowl populations would be of much more than local or regional impact.

At this point, Sigurd was still optimistic about stopping the pipeline, but he told friends that he wasn't sure how his testimony went because he was sick at the time: "As soon as I got down, I ran into the most awful flu cold combination and gave my testimony sounding as though my head was in a barrel and I am sure my brains were too."