ASHLAND — The idea for the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute formed during an environmental conference held on the Northland College campus in 1971, the same day Rocky Barker arrived as a student.

The organization officially formed the next year, and Barker served on its student advisory board.

But after Northland College’s closure a year ago — and nearly 55 years after the institute formed — Barker and other alumni, former faculty and others are trying to forge a new path forward for the organization, making sure it continues to operate despite losing its former home.

“That’s important for us who have a link to Northland,” Barker said. “This kind of keeps that alive, but more importantly … (Olson) was an amazing man, a great writer, and he helped people understand the wonder of nature, and we want to keep that alive.”

Before Olson became a famed Ely writer and conservationist who pushed for the protection of the Boundary Waters, he graduated from high school in Ashland. He then attended his first two years of college at Northland, where he met his wife, Elizabeth.

When Northland announced it was closing last year, people connected to the institute volunteered their time to incorporate it as a nonprofit, said Alan Brew, who led the institute as executive director from 2017 to 2024 and is a former Northland faculty member.

“It’s moving forward,” Brew said. “It’s alive, and there’s a lot of committed people behind it, which I think is really super and exciting.”

During the transition, several long-time projects will continue: the Timber Wolf Alliance, which educates the public on wolves in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; LoonWatch, which uses volunteers to monitor Wisconsin’s loon population for the last 50 years; and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, which is given annually to top nature books.

But as the organization works to secure funding, it hit pause on its Apostle Islands School, which brought kids out to the Apostle Islands for a week of camping.

Without Northland, whose students largely focused on the environment, there are fewer ways for young people to connect to the region’s natural resources.

Although it serves a younger demographic, Apostle Islands School could help fill that gap.

“That continues to be a real need,” Brew said.

But it’s expensive to staff, and there aren’t any Northland students who can easily step in to lead the trips like before. Still, both Barker and Brew hope it returns.

“That program has been very successful, but we can’t keep that alive because right now we’re all volunteers, and that takes a lot of work, but we hope to get that going again as we hire staff,” Barker said.

Without financial support from a college, the institute has become more reliant on donations, but there may be other funding opportunities.

Northland, which had drawn from its endowment as it faced financial difficulties in its final years, had just $3.3 million left after closure. According to
Wisconsin Public Radio,
Northland’s Board of Trustees filed a petition in February to distribute almost $1 million to the institute.

Additionally, the board said it wants to send $2.1 million of its remaining endowment to the
Burke Center for Ecosystem Research,
which was also formed at the college but spun off into its own organization upon the school’s closure.

At 55, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute is facing perhaps its largest challenge, but Barker and others want to chart a path for its next 50 years.

“We’re really in the middle of trying to figure out exactly where we want to go with this,” Barker said. “What is it that people here need and want to help keep alive that sense of wonder?”