June 1956 (age 57)

Early in June, Sigurd received the Frances K. Hutchinson medal from the Garden Clubs of America, for his work in wilderness preservation.

Sigurd traveled to Scotland from June 20-July 2, to speak about wilderness at the conference of the International Union for the Protection of Nature and to tour various natural areas such as the Cairngorm Mountains, shown here. An excerpt from Sigurd's speech:

Should we forsake these last remnants of our background and sever all tangible ties with the past, then we abandon the nebulous dreams and aspirations, the long gropings of manind for meaning in the universe which formed him. Should we divorce ourselves physically from those influences that through the ages have molded the body, the mind, and the spirit of man, then like plants whose roots have been cut, we shall wither and die.... While it is doubtful if our primitive ancestry knew much of the appreciation of the intangible qualities of their environments, we moderns do have that capacity and powers of perception that make it possible to appreciate the qualities of the earth that give rise to those creative efforts that lifted man gradually from the dark abyss of the primitive to a state where he was able to express his deepest emotions of awe, wonderment, and religious belief in stone and color and finally in words and music. The wilderness concept has to do with the preservation of these well springs of the spirit for men of the industrial age.

June 1971 (age 72)

On June 23, Sigurd wrote to the Superior National Forest's supervisor that he opposed salvage logging in an area that had recently burned along the Nina Moose River. He said: "I believe the area should be left strictly alone without manipulation allowing post fire native types to come in. As a practicing ecologist, I feel strongly about letting nature take its course."