[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21158]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         HONORING SIGURD OLSON

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 8, 1999

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the 
Wilderness Act today, I think it is equally fitting to honor the 
centennial birth of Sigurd Olson--one of America's true modern 
conservationists and a man who called Minnesota his home.
  Sig's long list of outstanding accomplishments include advising 
former Senator Humphrey and Wilderness Society Executive Director 
Howard Zahniser on the introduction of the first Wilderness Bill in 
1956, serving on the Department of Interior's Advisory Board on 
National Parks, Historical Sites, Buildings and Monuments, and 
receiving national acclaim as writer and environmentalist. In addition, 
he received numerous awards and honors from the Wilderness Society, the 
Sierra Club, and the Izaak Walton League. Although he became involved 
in many conservation issues nationally, his true love lay in the 
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA), and his tireless efforts 
to protect its natural beauty and true wilderness character. It was 
through his efforts to halt the use of float planes and secure 
appropriations for the Forest Service to purchase resorts and in-
holdings within the BWCA that brought him to the forefront of a 
burgeoning national conservation scene in 1947.
  Sig was a true environmentalist and realized the importance that wild 
areas hold for all of us, both physically and spiritually. His ideals 
and attitudes are increasingly becoming a rare quality in the political 
world. Although there are those of us who strive to adhere to these 
ideals, it takes a majority in Congress to implement them. It is time 
that we set aside this political partisanship and listen to those who 
elected us--the American people, 88% of which feel that many of our 
country's special places may be lost forever unless they are protected.
  Congress must revive the tradition of protecting America's wild 
places. We need to look back at forgotten ideals and move forward with 
an agenda that will protect increasingly fragmented wildlands. In the 
end, no one more eloquently pleaded a case for wilderness preservation 
that Sig when he spoke before the citizens of Ely, Minnesota who sought 
to motorize the BWCA. Sig said, ``Some places should be preserved from 
development or exploitation for they satisfy a human need for solace, 
belonging, and perspective. In the end we turn to nature in a frenzied 
chaotic world, there to find silence--oneness--wholeness--spiritual 
release.'' It is time we work together and make his wilderness vision a 
reality.

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