$2.5 Million Gift Ensures Future of Wilderness Research in Northern Minnesota

The University of Minnesota has received a gift of $2.5 million that ensures continuation of wilderness research in northern Minnesota. The gift is from the Wilderness Research Foundation, which operates the Wilderness Research Center, based near Ely, Minn. The gift creates an endowment to be used by the University's College of Natural Resources to fund ecological and forestry research and education, with a focus on the forests of northeastern Minnesota.

The gift is the result of a 50-year relationship between the college and the Chicago family of Frank Brookes Hubachek Sr., who established the Wilderness Research Center and Foundation.

The elder Hubachek began what was to become a lifelong investment in the Quetico-Superior wilderness in 1937 when he purchased a tract of pines on the shores of Basswood Lake, land, which is now a part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Hubachek created the Wilderness Research Center in 1948 to fulfill his passion for learning more about forested communities and how natural ecological systems function. The center, now located on Fall Lake, includes approximately 350 acres, which lie contiguous to the BWCA.

Back to News About Giving to the U