The wilderness areas of the Lake Superior region are on the agenda for a two-day conference on the shores of the big lake this Friday and Saturday. The event will feature more than a dozen speakers to discuss wilderness management, education and protection.
The event is intended to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and put “wilderness management issues back on the regional agenda for action.” It promises the opportunity to:
- Learn about wilderness areas that exist in the Lake Superior region, why they are important and how we all have a role to play in their protection.
- Be a part of the movement to bring wilderness management issues back on the regional agenda and provide a foundation for future events concerning our Lake Superior wilderness areas.
- Strengthen your relationship with people interested in wilderness through networking opportunities with those of similar interests, develop friendships, and develop partnerships in support of wilderness issues.
Speakers include Adventurers and authors Gary and Joanie McGuffin, Conor Mihell, Dave and Amy Freeman, Mike Link and Kate Crowley, and representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and other public agencies. A full schedule is available here.
Friday night will feature a performance of the one-man play, “Aldo Leopold – A Standard of Change,” performed by Jim Pfitzer. The play is “set in one evening in and around the famous Wisconsin shack that inspired much of his writing, A Standard of Change explores the influences and challenges that led Aldo Leopold to penning some of the most important essays in his book A Sand County Almanac.”
The Lake Superior Wilderness Conference is organized by Northland College’s Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute and sponsored by the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation, the Quetico Superior Foundation (publishers of Wilderness News), and SSC. Partners include the Aldo Leopold Foundation, E.C. Oberholtzer Foundation, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, Listening Point Foundation, Minnesota Division – Izaak Walton, League of America, National Parks Conservation Association, North Country Trail Association, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Sierra Club, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Wilderness Inquiry, Wilderness Society, and Wilderness Watch.
More information is available at http://www.northland.edu/wilderness.