Links: Topics

Choose from the following topics:

Religion, Spirituality, and the Environment

"The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility": Pope John Paul II's 1990 statement on the environment.
National Religious Partnership for the Environment: The goal of this major interdenominational organization is to "integrate commitment to global sustainability and environmental justice permanently into all aspects of religious life."

Wilderness

Wilderness.net: As the site's home page says, "Wilderness.net is an Internet-based tool connecting the natural resource workforce, scientists, educators, and the public to their wilderness heritage through ready access to wilderness information. Through Wilderness.net and its partners, you'll find access to general information about wilderness, stewardship and educational resources, scientific information, agency policies, relevant legislation, communication tools to connect you with others in the wilderness community and more. "

Wildlife: Loons

The call of the loon, Sigurd wrote, is "the symbol of the lake country, the sound that more than any other typifies the rocks and waters and forests of the wilderness."

Common Loon: Population trends from the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
Loon Watch: This program of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute supports loon education and research across the Upper Midwest.
North American Loon Fund: This non-profit organization sponsors loon research, management, and educational programs across the continent.

Wildlife: Wolves

Sigurd Olson's 1932 master's thesis on the wolf, which he wrote at the University of Illinois, was the first scientific study of the species.

International Wolf Center: Located in Sigurd Olson's home town of Ely, Minn., the center sponsors wolf research and educational programs. In addition to basic information about and photos of wolves, this web site includes the text of half a dozen scientific articles.
Timber Wolf Alliance: This program of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute aims to help achieve a sustainable wolf population in the Great Lakes region.
Timber Wolf and Coyote: Links to a few sources and sound files.

Northern Lights

Sigurd knew the scientific explanation, but he preferred to think of northern lights as a Chippewa Indian once described them to him: the war dances of deceased warriors.

The Northern Lights: Aurora Borealis: A Norwegian planetarium has put together a nice exhibit, including scientific and cultural perceptions of the northern lights, photos, and even a Quicktime movie.

Canoes and Canoeing

"The movement of a canoe is like a reed in the wind," Sigurd wrote. "Silence is part of it, and the sounds of lapping water, bird songs, and wind in the trees."

All About Canoes: This is a great series of pages from Canoe, Canada's top web site. The canoeing portion of this web site is under the direction of Michael Peake, editor of Che-Mun, the journal of Canadian wilderness canoeing. Peake is making a great effort to keep alive the memory of the VIP canoeists called the Voyageurs. Sigurd Olson accompanied them on half a dozen major trips, including the one he wrote about in The Lonely Land, a 1955 expedition along the Churchill River. See Michael's article "Meet the Voyageurs," and also Voyageur Omond Solandt's memoir, "Sig Olson: the Bourgeois and His Voyageurs."
Heartistry Music: For some fine voyageur music, go to the albums page and check out "Les Fils du Voyageur," by a group long associated with Sig's treasured Northland College in Ashland, Wis.
American Canoe Association: Lots of information for all types of canoeists.
Wooden Canoe Heritage Association: The association is, in its words, devoted to "preserving, studying, building, restoring, and using wood, wood-canvas, cedar strip and birchbark canoes, and to disseminating information about canoeing heritage in North America." Lots of photos and information at this web site.
Peter Pond Society: A website devoted to the early American explorer

Fishing and Hunting

As a canoe country guide in the 1920s and 1930s, Sigurd Olson did all kinds of fishing, but his personal favorite was fly-fishing for trout, which he learned to do as a child. He also began hunting as a child. He hunted whitetail deer until he was in his forties and his hunting partners had died, but he hunted ducks until he was well into his seventies. He saw hunting as a natural part of human interaction with the wild, and did not agree with those who condemned it.

Sports Afield: This is the web site for the venerable outdoor magazine. Sigurd Olson wrote many articles for the Sports Afield in the 1930s and 1940s, more than he wrote for any other magazine.
GORP: Fishing Resources on the Internet: This one site will probably lead you to just about any fishing information available on the web.
Jim Powlesland's Hunting Page: This site comes out of Calgary, so it starts with Alberta-related hunting links, but scroll down and you'll find a very impressive and wide-ranging collection of hunting links.