Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Aldo Leopold: An American Prophet*
Stephen J. Frese
Anson Middle School, Marshalltown, Iowa
Junior Division Historical Paper, National History Day 2003 Competition
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/37.1/frese.html

IN 1935, ALDO LEOPOLD bought an abandoned farm in the sand counties along
the Wisconsin River near Baraboo. Sandburs and quack grass had replaced
cornstalks in the dusty fields of overworked earth. A burned-down farmhouse
spoke of the previous owner's misfortune. Only a chicken coop waist deep in
manure remained. Leopold sensed promise in the land, and with his wife and
five children nursed the land back to health. They cleaned out the chicken
coop and affectionately called their new family retreat "The Shack."
Leopold kept detailed notes during the process of land restoration, and
then wrote the essays published in 1949 as A Sand County Almanac. His
writings present an eloquent plea for development of what he called "the
land ethic"—the belief that although people have the right to use the
bounty of the land, they must "limit freedom of action in the struggle for
existence"1 while accepting responsibility to treat the soils, waters,
plants, and animals in ways that restore and nurture their well-being.  1
      Leopold's life shaped his land ethic. He emerged as a leader of the
conservation movement of his time, challenging the notion that land was
merely property to be used—and used up if necessary—in the pursuit of
economic wealth. More than fifty years after publication of A Sand County
Almanac, Leopold's voice remains at the core of modern conservation ethics.
        2


Figure 1

      The Leopold family gathers in front of "The Shack" in 1939. Aldo and
Estella Bergere Leopold, back, with sons Starker and Luna. Daughters Nina
and Estella, front, pose with Flick. Son Carl, the family photographer,
appears in few family photos.




A Deskmaker's Son

      Seeds of the land ethic were planted in Aldo Leopold's life during
his childhood in Burlington, Iowa. Born on January 11, 1887, Aldo was the
first of Carl and Clara Leopold's four children.2 The Leopolds lived with
Clara's parents, Charles and Marie Starker, in a home overlooking the
Mississippi River. Charles, a German immigrant, came to Burlington in 1850
when it was a "rough town on the edge of the western prairie,"3 and
prospered as an engineer, banker, architect, and landscaper. Formal,
European-style gardens were popular at the time, but Charles preferred
native plants, sharing his passion for plants and songbirds with his
grandchildren. On family picnics, hunting or fishing trips, and walks in
the woods, Carl Leopold turned the outdoors into a classroom where he
taught his daughter and three sons how to "see" nature's mysteries.4    3
      There were few hunting laws at the time, but for Carl, sportsmanship
was a question of honor with a code of ethics that entailed rules and
responsibilities.5 He did not hunt species whose populations were
dwindling, or in the spring when game populations were vulnerable during
the seasons of breeding and rearing young. Carl voluntarily limited his
bag, teaching his children to kill only what their family could eat. He
endorsed laws that would set bag limits and forbid the sale of game. The
right to hunt, Carl believed, came with many responsibilities, in contrast
to market hunters who boasted of kills that numbered in the hundreds or
thousands.6     4
      Carl's business, The Leopold Desk Company in Burlington,7 depended on
a sustainable supply of high quality timber. The company motto mirrored his
ethics: "Built on Honor to Endure."8 Carl often watched rafts of pine logs
float down the Mississippi River from the northern forests of Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and Michigan. Once up to a half-mile long, the rafts decreased
in length and frequency by the turn of the century. Carl feared that
western forests would soon suffer the same depletion.9  5
      Aldo was in grade school when Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover
Cleveland set aside millions of acres out West in forest reserves.10
Outraged loggers, ranchers, and miners did not want the government to
restrict their rights to use public lands and resources. Other citizens
pushed for laws to protect remaining forests, taking responsibility for
forest preservation before it was too late.     6
      By the time Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States
in 1901, more than half of the nation's virgin forests had disappeared. The
rate of logging was nearly ten times that of re-growth.11 Many bird species
were being annihilated because of the fashion industry's demand for plumes.
Roosevelt, who created the first federal wildlife refuge to protect birds
from plume hunters,12 believed that it was government's responsibility to
intervene to save the nation's forests, streams, and wildlife. "The
conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we
solve that problem, it will avail us little to solve all others. We are not
building this country for a day. It is to last through the ages."13     7
      Aldo's avid reading of wilderness literature, his years of bird
watching, and his father's lessons in woodsmanship led him to pursue a
career in forestry. When the Leopold family explored the new national parks
in the Rocky Mountains in 1903, the experience inspired Aldo to write in
his journal that he could think of "no better possible vocation."14 Later
that year, Aldo left Burlington to attend Lawrenceville School in New
Jersey to prepare for college.  8

Preservation vs. Conservation

      In 1905, the same year Aldo Leopold entered Sheffield Scientific
School at Yale, Roosevelt named Gifford Pinchot to head the newly formed
United States Forest Service. Pinchot, a Yale graduate who studied forestry
in France and Germany, pioneered the "wise use" method of conservation.
Roosevelt, Pinchot, and other conservationists were more interested in
making sure that resources were used in the wisest, most efficient way
possible than they were in preserving untouched wilderness.15

    ...[Roosevelt] conserved not for nature's sake, though he thought that
a worthwhile goal, but for people's. He reminded everyone who would listen
that restricting grazing and logging on steep slopes protected watersheds,
which provided drinking and irrigation water and flood control. The
national forest, to his mind, preserved trees less for their beauty than to
ensure a stable supply of lumber for home building.16

        9
      Like Roosevelt and Pinchot, John Muir, self-taught naturalist and
founder of the Sierra Club, wanted to expand the national forest system,
but his motives were quite different. Born in Scotland in 1839 and raised
in central Wisconsin, Muir strongly disagreed with Pinchot and the
utilitarian philosophy that informed his view of conservation.17 He thought
that the wilderness areas that still existed were sacred refuges that
should not be touched.  10
      The 1906 earthquake and fire that devastated San Francisco ignited a
debate between the philosophies of preservation and utilitarian
conservation. The city of San Francisco wanted to build a dam and flood the
Hetch Hetchy Valley in California's Sierra Nevada, part of Yosemite
National Park, to supply water to the growing city. Pinchot supported the
project on practical grounds, opposing preserva-tionist-minded Muir, who
eventually lost the battle.18   11
      Leopold, who began his studies at the Yale School of Forestry in
1906, could see both sides of the philosophical debate, wise use on one
side pitted against total preservation on the other. While Leopold studied
the profession of forestry, President Roosevelt more than doubled the
number of protected forest acres. In 1907, Pinchot renamed the reserves,
which then totaled more than 150 million acres, as National Forests,
emphasising his belief that they were to be used, not reserved.         12


Figure 2

      Aldo Leopold in 1928.



      Leopold earned a Master of Forestry degree from Yale Forest
School—the first forest school in the nation19—in 1909. Under Pinchot,
the utilitarian conservation philosophy defined the rights for using
natural resources held in public lands, giving foresters, including Aldo
Leopold, the responsibility to manage and make decisions about each
forest's use.   13

Becoming the Voice of "The Land Ethic"


Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress
began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher
'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.
For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than
television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as
inalienable as free speech.20


      The Aldo Leopold who wrote A Sand County Almanac was not the same
man, philosophically, who entered the Forest Service years earlier with a
Yale education. Early in Leopold's career, foresters earned bounties for
killing varmints—predators that ate protected game species. In 1921,
Leopold wrote, "It's going to take patience and money to catch the last
wolf and mountain lion in New Mexico. But the last one must be caught
before the job can be called fully successful."21 Nine years later he
stated, "No predatory species should be exterminated over a large area."22
In his essay, "Thinking Like a Mountain," Leopold chronicles this shift in
thought from his forest service days.

    In those days we never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In
a second we were pumping lead into the pack.... We reached the old wolf in
time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and
have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those
eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain.23

Leopold believed that most environmental mistakes were due to ignorance,
and understood that his own ability to perceive how nature works was the
result of a lifetime of education and observation.24    14
      Leopold startled his colleagues in the November 1921 Journal of
Forestry by questioning whether Pinchot's utilitarian "policy of
development...should continue to govern in absolutely every instance, or
whether the principle of highest use does not itself demand that
representative portions of some forests be preserved as wilderness."25 His
opinions inspired the first public debate over the idea of wilderness,
advocating restraint in road building26 and the establishment of natural
areas within national forests. In 1924, his campaign to set aside a
wilderness area within the Gila National Forest in New Mexico succeeded,
creating the first region specifically set aside to stay wild.27        15

The Problem of Private Property


We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we
see the land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with
love and respect.28


      When Europeans first arrived on American shores, they discovered
seemingly endless resources and were lured by the right to own land. Many
viewed land as a commodity from which they derived their livelihood.
Accumulating possessions was a sign of status.29 This way of thinking
clashed with the culture of those who already inhabited the land. Mobile
tribal societies kept few possessions so there was less to carry with them,
making what they needed from materials at hand. Europeans, who thought the
American Indians lived in poverty and did not deserve this land of plenty,
rejected native land claims. Based on their own cultural judgment, they
codified into law the right to own a specific piece of land.30  16


Figure 3

      Nina Leopold plants a pine tree on the family's Wisconsin farm in
1936.



      Aldo Leopold lived in a society where private land ownership remained
part of the American Dream. Private property, though, posed a problem for
conservationists.

    Too many owners abused land...it was property law that enabled them to
do so. Governments might practice conservation on public lands, but
wildlife couldn't thrive, nor could soil remain intact and fertile, on
public lands alone. For the entire land community to become healthy,
private owners everywhere had to practice conservation as a way of life.31

Leopold penned "The Land Ethic"32 in response to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt's efforts to enforce personal responsibility through government
regulations during the Depression and Dust Bowl years in the 1930s.33 In
1933, Leopold accepted Roosevelt's invitation to oversee the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) in the Southwest. Leopold believed government
could play a role in solving problems caused the lack of conservation, but
that regulations alone would fail. Personal responsibility, he believed,
was the key to restoring drought-stricken land.

    All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the
individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.... The land
ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils,
waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.... A land ethic
changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to
plain member and citizen of it.34

        17
      Leopold's land ethic was not without precedent. It is reminiscent of
the American Indian belief in the unity of the natural world and the human
world—one world did not master the other.35 In the mid-1800s, religious
convictions led Henry David Thoreau to expand his concept of society to
include all of nature and its creatures. John Muir's ideas paralleled
Thoreau. Muir viewed nature as a community created by God to which human
beings also belonged. Leopold is distinctive because of the philosophical
dimension present in his writings.36 He wove poetry, history, science, and
philosophy together as he explored the idea of living responsibly within a
community in A Sand County Almanac.     18
      In 1933, Leopold became the first professor of game management in the
Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Wiscon-sin. He
helped students discover the mysteries of nature and enjoy them, passing on
knowledge he acquired through a lifetime of keen observation. Known as "the
Professor," Leopold helped develop the University of Wisconsin Arboretum
and the state's innovative system of citizen-guided conservation.37     19
      Leopold died in 1948, a year before A Sand County Almanac was
published.38 To his own children, who each played an important role in
restoring the family's farm to health, Leopold passed on his deep love for
the land. They established the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo in 1982
dedicated to education and land restoration. The forests, wetlands, and
prairies of the Leopold Farm and Memorial Reserve still serve as an outdoor
classroom for students exploring ecological relationships.39 Within the
Forest Service, the debate over the role of a land ethic in forestry
continues.40    20
      According to Fred Kirschenmann, director of the Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, Leopold's ideas about a
land ethic are more important now than when they were first written. "He
had that incredible gift of looking at things as a whole," Kirschenmann
said.41 "Leopold warned us to beware of salvation by machine. We've all
been educated to produce as much as possible, regardless of the cost to the
environment." The Leopold Center conducts research to discover ways to
develop profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources and
reduce negative effects of agriculture on the land.     21
      Industrialization, urbanization, and the abundance of material
blessings, Leopold believed, obscure people's understanding of their
connection to the land.

    There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger
of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat
comes from the furnace.

    To avoid the first danger...plant a garden, preferably where there is
no grocer to confuse the issue. To avoid the second, he should lay a split
of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let
it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside....42

In "The Good Oak," Leopold challenges people to trace the origins of life's
basic necessities back to their roots in the natural world. Once people
understand their connection to the land, Leopold concluded, they would
willingly take personal responsibility for maintaining its health.      22


* Photos in this article courtesy of the Aldo Leopold Foundation Archives.


Notes

1.  Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1949; reprint 1989), 202. (page citations
are to the reprint edition).

2.  Aldo's given name was Rand Aldo Leopold but he never used his first
name.

3.  Marybeth Lorbiecki, Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1996), 2.

4.  "The Legacy Lives On: The Wilderness Society Salutes Aldo Leopold"
(Wash-ington, DC: The Wilderness Society, 1999), 3. Aldo Leopold was one of
the founders of The Wilderness Society in 1934.

5.  Carl Leopold was a member of the Boone and Crockett Club, a big-game
hunters' conservation society founded by Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird
Grinnell in 1888. As a hunter who recognized the decline in game
populations, Carl developed his own personal code sportsmanship in the
field.

6.  Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 14-15. See also Gary G. Gray, Wildlife
and People—The Human Dimensions of Wildlife Ecology, for a summary of the
development of Federal wildlife laws. The Supreme Court in 1842 established
that wild animals were public property. Market hunters who supplied
restaurants and markets across the nation benefited from unrestricted
hunting. The government finally limited bags in 1878, but the law was
rarely enforced. States were given the right to regulate hunting in 1896,
and the position of state game warden was established in Iowa in 1897,
allowing wardens to enforce patrol fields during hunting times. From
1913-1928 legislation was passed that protected migratory birds. During the
1930s, Aldo Leopold pushed for game policies to manage dwindling wildlife
populations.

7.  Established as Rand Leopold Desk Company in 1886, Carl Leopold bought
out his partner, C.W. Rand's interests in the company in 1899. The company
produced fine office furniture until closing in 1990.

8.  Nina Leopold Bradley, interview by author, Guthrie Center, Iowa, 11
January 2003.

9.  The Census Bureau declared the western frontier closed in 1890.
Realizing that land and its resources were not infinite may have
contributed to the growing belief that people would have to take
responsibility for conservation in order for wood, game, and other
resources to remain plentiful.

10.  Lorbiecki, A Fierce Green Fire, 22. See also Library of Congress,
American Memory, Conservation Collection, for presidential proclamations
setting aside forest reserve acres. Forest reserves were called National
Forests after March 4, 1907.

11. Theodore Roosevelt: An American Lion, History Channel Documentary,
20-21 January 2003.

12.  Roosevelt created the first federal wildlife refuge on Florida's
Pelican Island in 1903. Since it originated by executive order, it receives
no funds from Congress. The Audubon Society took responsibility for paying
the warden. See "100 Years of Conservation," Audubon Magazine 100, no. 6
(November-December 1998): 34.

13.  Theodore Roosevelt, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt: An American Lion, 21
January 2003.

14.  Aldo Leopold 1903 journal, quoted in Lorbiecki, A Fierce Green Fire,
20. 15.

15.  Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 139.

16.  "100 Years of Conservation," Audubon Magazine 100, no. 6
(November-December 1998): 89.

17.  Steinberg. Down to Earth, 139.

18.  The dam was completed and the Hetch Hetchy Valley flooded in 1913.

19.  Gifford Pinchot's family donated money to Yale University to begin the
forestry school, which trained foresters in Pinchot's utilitarian
philosophy. See Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 76, 77.

20.  Leopold. A Sand County Almanac, vii.

21.  Curt Meine, "Leopold's Approach to Teaching." Lecture. Iowa
Conservation Education Council's Winter Solstice, The Leopold Legacy:
Conservation Wisdom Past and Present. Springbrook Conservation Education
Center, Guthrie Center, Iowa. 11 January 2003.

22.  Ibid.

23.  Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 130.

24.  Robert Finch, introduction to A Sand County Almanac, xxi.

25.  Leopold's 1921 Journal of Forestry article is reprinted in: Aldo
Leopold, The River of the Mother of God and other Essays, Susan L. Flader
and J. Baird Callicott, Eds. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press,
1991), 78.

26.  See Kendrick A. Clements, Hoover, Conservation and Consumerism:
Engineering the Good Life (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000) for
a discussion of how the prosperity of the 1920s, increase in automobile
ownership and use, and roads making "wild" areas accessible impacted
national parks and forests. See also Aldo Leopold, "Conservation Esthetic,"
in A Sand County Almanac for an assessment of the impact of roads in wild
areas.

27.  According to 1993 forest service reports, the national forest system
includes 548 wilderness areas in 44 states and includes 95 million acres.
Three wilderness areas lie within the Gila, one of which was named after
Aldo Leopold.

28.  Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, viii.

29.  Jerome Thompson, "Land and Personal Sovereignty," The Palimpsest 69,
no. 2 (Summer 1988): 90.

30.  Ibid.

31.  Eric T. Freyfogle, "Aldo Leopold on Private Land," in The Essential
Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries, ed. Curt Meine and Richard L.
Knight (Madi-son: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 155.

32.  Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 201-226.

33.  Curt Meine, interview by author, electronic recording, Guthrie Center,
Iowa, 11 January 2003.

34.  Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 203-204.

35.  Thompson, p. 91

36.  Peter Fritzell, professor of English at Lawrence University. Interview
by author, 15 May 2003.

37.  Joe Vanberkel, Sauk County, Wisconsin, Conservation Department.
Interview by author, 18 October, 2002.

38.  Leopold's manuscript was rejected by two publishers before being
picked up by Oxford University Press. A Sand County Almanac surged in
popularity in the 1960s and 1970s as the environmental movement gained
support. Now, according to the Soil and Water Conservation Society's
magazine, Conservation Voices 2, no. 1 (November 1999), A Sand County
Almanac is the most influential book within the environmental community.
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring ranked second, while Walden by Henry David
Thoreau ranked fifth.

39.  The reserve area surrounding the farm now includes 1400 acres.

40.  Greg Brown and Chuck Harris, "Professional Foresters and the Land
Ethic, Revisited," Journal of Forestry 96, no. 1 (January 1998). The
Society of American Foresters (SAF) debated whether to include in its Code
of Ethics a land ethic based on Aldo Leopold's philosophy. SAF members
voted in 1992 to modify the code of Ethics to express a general concern for
the land, but the debate over the role of a land ethic in forestry
continues because the ethics of resource management programs are influenced
by public and political attitudes toward timber production, mineral
extraction, and wildlife protection. Many foresters find it easier to
follow the utilitarian Pinchot values than the holistic Leopold approach.

41.  Fred Kirschenmann, guest of WOI Raido's "Talk of Iowa" call-in
program, 28 June 2000. Available on-line, www.leopold.iastate.edu.

42.  Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 6.

References
Primary Sources

Aldo Leopold Farm and Shack. Historic Site Tour. Baraboo, Wisconsin. 19
October 2002.
      I visited Aldo Leopold's farm, the place that inspired A Sand County
Almanac. After a morning tour of the farm and 'The Shack,' (the only
chicken coop on the National Register of Historic Places) and a picnic
lunch, I then volunteered with Aldo Leopold Foundation interns gathering
Solidago rigida seed for prairie restoration work. Leopold owned
approximately 150 acres at the time of his death. The farm is now
surrounded by an additional 1400 acres in the Aldo Leopold Memorial
Reserve. It was interesting and inspiring to see the progress of land
restoration that Aldo Leopold began almost 70 years ago. Aldo and his
family created a mosaic of restored forest (they planted more than 48,000
trees), prairie, and wetlands. No one was doing this type of restoration at
the time, so the Leopold family learned as they went along.

Aldo Leopold Foundation. Second Avenue and Oak Street, Baraboo Wisconsin.
18 October 2002.
      The Foundation gave me access to all of the photographs of Aldo and
his family that they have in their archives. Most of the photos were taken
by Aldo's son, Carl, during family weekends and vacations at The Shack. It
was interesting to see photos of the changes in the land that I had read
about in A Sand County Almanac, and of the people involved in its
restoration. Foundation staff members helped me locate several journal
articles and other publications that proved important to my research.
Interviews with people at the foundation illustrated how Leopold's efforts
to improve the health of the land continue through the foundation's ongoing
restoration projects. All Leopold photos in my paper are used with the
permission of the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Bradley, Nina Leopold. "Education in a 'World of Wounds.'" Keynote Address
at the Winter Solstice conference, The Leopold Legacy: Conservation Wisdom
Past and Present, sponsored by the Iowa Conservation Education Council.
Springbrook Conservation Education Center, Guthrie Center, Iowa. 11 January
2003.
      Nina is one of Aldo Leopold's daughters. Her lecture was very helpful
to see just how Aldo's ideas have been passed through the generations. She
told stories of her family's time together at The Shack and explained that
it is still a place where students study healthy relationships with the
land. Nina, a retired plant ecologist, is an advocate for nature in today's
society. She lives on the Leopold Memorial Reserve in Wisconsin where she
continues her research and family tradition of living close to the land.

Bradley, Nina Leopold. Interview by the author, 11 January 2003. Digital
recording. Springbrook Conservation Education Center, Guthrie Center, Iowa.
      When talking to Nina I really understood how much her father's work
had influenced her life and her career. She was very helpful to me and
described her father's understanding of the rights of landowners, hunters,
and fishermen, balanced by the responsibilities we have to maintain the
health of the land. "As we transformed the land," Nina explained, "it
transformed us.... As the land was restored, it was grounded in caring
relationships among our family members—of living in webs of
relationships."

Brown, Greg and Chuck Harris. "Professional Foresters and the Land Ethic,
Revisited." Journal of Forestry 96, no. 1 (January 1998): 4-12.
      Using a nationwide survey of forest service employees, this article
compares the land ethic of foresters with that of other natural resource
professionals. It illustrates a "land ethic scale" that placed individuals
and ideas along a continuum, ranging from American Indians on the far left
to New World Colonists on the far right. Muir, Leopold, Pinchot and others
were in between. The article examines the relationship between one's land
ethic and preferred forest policy options in the continued debate between
the utilitarian philosophy and a more holistic approach that includes
preservation. The article helped me understand how Leopold's concept of the
land ethic still challenges those in the profession of forestry.

"The Delicate Balance: Human Values and Iowa's Natural Resources." Museum
Exhibit. State Historical Building, Des Moines, Iowa. 29 April 2002.
      Going through this exhibit first introduced me to Aldo Leopold, who
worked in Iowa as part of his Game Survey of North Central States in 1928,
after leaving the forest service and before accepting a position at the
University of Wisconsin. The exhibit displays Leopold's field notes and
illustrates how Leopold promoted the concept of wildlife management and our
responsibility toward wildlife and wilderness areas.

"The Evolution of the Conservation Movement." Library of Congress: American
Memory Collection. Available from <http://memory.loc.gov>; Internet.
Accessed 15 January 2003.
      This site provided an overview article describing the conservation
movement in the United States from 1850 to 1920. Through this site I also
accessed photographs and background information about President Theodore
Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and others involved in early
conservation efforts.

Herbert Hoover Papers. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, West
Branch, Iowa. 22 August 2002.
      The archivists provided me access to the library's collections of Jay
Norwood "Ding" Darling's cartoons. Born in 1876, Darling was a Pulitzer
Prize-winning cartoonist who promoted conservation issues. Darling served
with Aldo Leopold on President Franklin Roosevelt's Committee for Wild Life
Restoration. Leopold, in his 1928 field notes, wrote that "J.N. 'Ding'
Darling is an ideal citizen for conservation leadership." I also accessed
Herbert Hoover's Secretary of Commerce Papers to understand the
government's role in conservation at that time.

Huffaker, Wellington "Buddy," executive director of the Aldo Leopold
Foundation. Interview by author, 18 October 2002. Baraboo, Wisconsin.
      By talking to Buddy, who is the executive director of the Aldo
Leopold Foundation, I learned how Leopold's teachings live on through
current conservation efforts. The foundation partners with more than 30
organizations to restore and preserve more than 15,000 acres of land. Staff
members conduct tours of the Leopold Shack and farm (approximately 2,000
people tour the area each year), sponsor educational programs and
workshops, work with property owners to foster responsible stewardship of
the land, and participate in conferences and seminars across the country.

John Muir Memorial Park. Fountain Lake, Marquette County, Wisconsin.
Historic Site Tour. October 19, 2002.
      This is the site of John Muir's boyhood home in Wisconsin. As with
touring Leopold's famous shack, it was good to see the land that had
inspired people who were involved in the conservation movement. Located
approximately 30 miles from the farmland Aldo Leopold restored, Leopold was
responsible for convincing the Wisconsin Conservation Department to acquire
the land where Muir's boyhood home stood and manage it as a state park.
Ironically, it is not a wild area—there are baseball diamonds, picnic
shelters, groomed walking trails, and boat access on Fountain Lake. Through
his work as a naturalist and writer, Muir advocated preserving land in its
natural state.

Kirschenmann, Fred. WOI radio's "Talk of Iowa" call-in Program. 28 June
2000. Abailable from <http://www.leopold.iastate.edu>; Internet. Accessed
19 February 2003.
      Kirschenmann is the director of the Aldo Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. His comments helped me
understand the application of Leopold's land ethic in today's society in
the area of sustainable agriculture. The foundation funds research,
distributes findings, and works in partnership with farmers. The center
believes that "agriculture in Iowa can support families on farms,
contribute to a healthy environment and maintain vibrant rural
communities."

Krapfl, Mike. "Self-described 'Prairie Boy' Shares his Farming Insight."
Ames (Iowa) Tribune, 25 January 2001. Reprint 18 March 2003.
      Krapfl's profile of Fred Kirschenmann describes how Kirschenmann, a
North Dakota farmer, brings the vision of a practicing farmer to the
position of director of the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The center funds research, works
with producers, and seeks to "grow" the ethic of Aldo Leopold who said that
land should be treated as a community that includes us, not a commodity
belonging to us. This article helped me see how Leopold's land ethic is
being taught and applied in agriculture today.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1949. Reprint, 1989.
      "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who
cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot,"
wrote Aldo Leopold in the foreword of this book, which has become an
established classic in the field of conservation. The essays trace the
seasons of change on Leopold's Wisconsin farm and the evolution of his
conservation theory. The environmental drama he presents call for a
fundamental reform in our relationship with the land. This book was the
foundation for my paper.

Leopold, Aldo. The River of the Mother of God and other Essays. Susan L.
Flader and J. Baird Callicott, eds. Madison: The University of Wisconsin
Press, 1991.
      The 59 essays in this collection were gathered over a lifetime of
Leopold's published and unpublished works. The essays show the development
of his ideas which led to his understanding of the "land ethic." Reading
these essays helped me to understand how Leopold's thoughts matured
throughout his career and gave me a greater understanding of his land ethic
essay.

Leopold, Carl. Interview by author, 11 January 2003. Digital recording.
Springbrook Conservation Education Center, Guthrie Center, Iowa.
      Talking with Carl, one of Aldo's sons, was a great experience for me.
Rights and responsibilities in relationship to the land, Carl said, was
"the central theme of Aldo Leopold's life." He and Nina had stopped briefly
at The Shack when I was there and getting to know him during this interview
was exciting for me—it helped me understand Aldo Leopold's influence as a
father. Relationships were important to Aldo Leopold, who connected
relationships with people to their relationship with the land. Carl also
explained why some of the pine trees on the Leopold farm are planted too
close together. Because of the drought their first year on the farm, many
of the trees they planted died. After that, they planted more than one tree
in each hole. Carl is now involved in restoring native plants to rainforest
land he owns in Costa Rica.

Muir, John. "The Treasures of the Yosemite." Century Magazine. August,
1890. Reprinted in Muckraking! The Journalism that Changed America. Judith
and William Serrin, eds. New York: The New Press, 2002.
      Muir's writing is included in this collection of reprinted articles
because of the tremendous impact it had on gaining support for preserving
wilderness land. His detailed descriptions of the land helped people who
may not have been there to "see" its beauty. This article helped me
understand Muir's philosophy of preservation.

Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge, Jasper County, Iowa.
      This reserve is the largest reconstruction of the tallgrass prairie
ecosystem in the United States. Visiting this refuge a number of times has
helped me to see just what Aldo Leopold was talking about when he wrote of
the concept of community including people in relationship to the land and
all of its elements. Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated
Florida's Pelican Island as the first wildlife refuge in 1903, the National
Wildlife Refuge System has grown to include more than 535 wildlife refuges
and more than 3,000 small waterfowl breeding and nesting areas. Today,
according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there is at least one
wildlife refuge in each of the 50 states, and one within an hour's drive of
every major U.S. city.
Secondary Sources

"100 Years of Conservation." Audubon Magazine 100, no. 6 (November-December
1998): 34-79.
      In honor of its 100th anniversary issue, Audubon Magazine featured
highlights from a century of conservation efforts. The article was very
helpful for putting Aldo Leopold's work in context with the efforts of
other conservationists and preservationists throughout the century.

"Aldo Leopold '09 and the 50th Anniversary of A Sand County Almanac." Yale
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Forest School News 85, no. 2
(Spring 1999).
      Leopold graduated from the Yale Forestry School in 1909. This
forestry school publication examines the impact of Leopold's book 50 years
after its publication. It helped me understand how much Leopold's work
influences the people who now study forestry. At Yale, Leopold learned
Pinchot's utilitarian theory. This Yale publication shows how Leopold's
land ethic is incorporated into the forestry program today.

Berger, Cynthia. "Aldo Leopold Remembered." Conservation Voices 2, no. 5
(October/ November 1999): 16-17.
      Berger interviewed Curt Meine, an author who has written extensively
about Aldo Leopold. This helped me prepare for my opportunity to interview
Meine. Meine explained that at the time Leopold was writing, the science of
ecology was brand new. Leopold, through his writing, was able to
"communicate the relevance of this new integrated world view in a way
that's still fresh and resonant."

Bledsoe, Helen Wieman. "John Muir: Friend and Protector of Nature."
Cobblestone Magazine 10, no. 8 (August 1989): 13-15.
      Bledsoe's article helped me to see the history of John Muir's
preservationist ideas, and the lasting impact of his work. Muir wrote that
"in wilderness lies the hope of the world." At the turn of the century, the
same time Carl Leopold noticed how the log rafts coming down the
Mississippi River from northern forests had diminished, Muir wrote, "Now it
is plain that the forests are not inexhaustible, and that quick measures
must be taken if ruin is to be avoided."

Callicott, J. Baird, ed. Companion to 'A Sand County Almanac.' Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.
      Callicott calls A Sand County Almanac "the bible of the modern
American conservation movement." The twelve interpretive essays by ten
different authors in this book helped me better understand the development
of Leopold's ideas over his lifetime of study and growth. The book also
includes Leopold's original autobiographical foreword which had never
before been published, giving me a better understanding of what Leopold
hoped to accomplish through his essays. In one of the essays, "The Legacy
of Aldo Leopold," Pulitzer prizewinning author Wallace Stegner described A
Sand County Almanac as "one of the prophetic books, the utterance of an
American Isaiah." This helped me choose the title for my paper.

"Champions of Conservation." Audubon Magazine 100, no. 6 (November-December
1998): 80-134.
      This article put Aldo's life and work in perspective with one hundred
people who shaped the environmental movement in the United States. The
magazine proclaimed that the 20th century was a "peculiarly American" time
because of the rise of the environmental movement which has evolved from "a
lonely crusade led by scattered zealots...to an extraordinary social and
political force whose impact has changed how human beings think, feel, and
live on the earth."

Clements, Kendrick A. Hoover, Conservation and Consumerism: Engineering the
Good Life. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000.
      Herbert Hoover believed that prudent, planned use of resources could
assure widespread prosperity, and that prosperity would raise the standard
of living, generating more time for leisure activities that would increase
demands for outdoor activity and for a healthy, attractive environment.
Hoover's thought embodied the preconservation frontier ethic of development
and elements of the Progressive idea of utilitarian conservation. Hoover's
opinions in his role as Secretary of Commerce, beginning in 1921,
influenced government policy. It was very interesting to see how Hoover's
thoughts and Aldo Leopolds's were similar but different.

"Conservation of Natural Resources." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth
Edition. 2001. Available from
<http://www.bartleby.com/65/co/conserva-nat.html>; Internet. Accessed 14
January 2003.
      I found this article early in my research and it was helpful because
it provided a chronology of the conservation movement in the Unites States,
focusing on U.S. government policy. The government became involved in
conservation efforts with the creation of a U.S. commissioner of fish and
fisheries in 1871. The article briefly traces the expansion of the
government's conservation efforts through the 1960s.

Dinsmore, Dr. James J. A Country so Full of Game: The Story of Wildlife in
Iowa. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994.
      Dinsmore's book details the conservation of wildlife in Iowa. From
this book I obtained information about laws passed to conserve wild game in
Iowa, where Carl Leopold taught Aldo to hunt as a young boy. Carl Leopold's
personal code of ethics as a hunter predated formal legislation.

Dusek, Karen H. "Preserving the American Wilderness." Cobblestone Magazine
10, no. 8 (August 1989): 6-10.
      This article briefly describes the development of the conservation
movement and how some of the legends of conservation worked separately for
the same ideals. Dusek highlighted Henry David Thoreau's efforts to have
wilderness areas preserved, resulting in the Yosemite Park Act of 1864. She
described John Muir's belief that all living things, no matter how small,
are equally important. In addition, she highlighted the work of foresters
Aldo Leopold and Robert Marshall. Dusek's overview helped me understand
Leopold's contributions in context of 19th and 20th century environmental
thinkers.

Fritzell, Peter A., professor of English at Lawrence University. Telephone
interview by author, 15 May 2003.
      Fritzell wrote one of the essays published in Companion to 'A Sand
County Almanac,' J. Baird Callicott, ed. (see above). His essay, "The
Conflicts of Ecological Conscience," is a literary critique that examines
the philosophical and artistic qualities of A Sand County Almanac. I called
him to discuss how Leopold's ideas differed from those who came before him,
such as Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, and John Muir. Fritzell
explained that Leopold is distinctive because of the philosophical
dimension that led to his land ethic. There is a religious dimension to
Darwin and Muir, but not the philosophical dimension present in Leopold's
writing.

Gray, Gary G. Wildlife and People: The Human Dimensions of Wildlife
Ecology. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993
      In Mr. Gray's book I found an overview of the federal laws governing
wildlife. He highlights the 1842 case, Martin vs. Waddell, heard by the
Supreme Court that established the "public trust" doctrine, under which
wild animals are considered public property. Later court decisions affirmed
the states' rights to regulate wildlife within states.

Hong, Karen E. "Reclaiming the West." Cobblestone Magazine 10, no. 8
(August 1989): 18-21.
      When I interviewed Curt Meine, a prominent Leopold biographer, he
said that "without all the other great leaders, there would have been no
Aldo Leopold." Meine identified John Wesley Powell as one of the important
predecessors to Leopold. This article explains Powell's efforts to explore
the West and change the way the West was viewed and cared for. This article
helped me understand Leopold's place in the succession of conservation
leaders.

Kaufman, Sharon Ferguson. "Built on Honor to Endure: Evolution of a Family
Philosophy." M.S. thesis, University of Iowa, 1985.
      Kaufman's thesis was very helpful because it illustrated and analyzed
how values and ethics were passed on from generation to generation in the
Leopold family. She focused on how Aldo Leopold's life was shaped by his
parents and their sense of responsibility and ethics. It also examines how
Leopold transmitted his values and attitudes to his own children.

Knight, Richard L. and Suzanne Riedel, eds. Aldo Leopold and the Ecological
Conscience. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
      Written by ecologists, wildlife biologists, and conservationists,
this collection of essays documents the legacy of Aldo Leopold to the
environmental movement, ecological sciences, and natural resource
management. An essay by J. Baird Callicott, "From the Balance of Nature to
the Flux of Nature," was especially helpful to my understanding of
Leopold's conviction that human beings are an integral part of the biotic
community, not separate from it. Human beings have the ability and
responsibility to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the
biotic community.

Lee, Jill and Jody Garlock. "Walking the Talk." Conservation Voices 2, no.
5 (October/ November 1999): 12-15.
      Aldo Leopold wrote, "When the land does well for its owner, and the
owner does well by his land—when both end up better by reason of their
partnership—then we have conservation." This article helped me understand
Leopold's legacy by showing how his thoughts about the land ethic are being
put into action today by people around the country.

"The Legacy Lives On: The Wilderness Society Salutes Aldo Leopold."
Washington, DC: The Wilderness Society, 1999.
      The Wilderness Society's pamphlet illustrates how Leopold's ideas of
conservation are still driving the conservation movement. Leopold was one
of the original founders of the Wilderness Society in 1934.

Lorbiecki, Marybeth. Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1996.
      This illustrated biography of Aldo Leopold was the first book that I
read about him. It helped me understand how the influences of Leopold's
childhood were integrated into his essays later in his life. Lorbiecki
shows how Leopold devoted his life to the question, "How do we live on the
land without spoiling it?" She credits Leopold as being "America's foremost
conservationist and environmental scholar," who founded the field of
wildlife management, started the national wilderness system, and wrote the
conservation classic, A Sand County Almanac, which has and continues to
inspire millions of people.

Meine, Curt. Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work. Madison: The University of
Wisconsin Press, 1988.
      Meine wrote the first comprehensive biography of Aldo Leopold. Before
the publication of this book, Aldo Leopold was only known as the writer of
A Sand County Almanac. Meine's book opened up the door to people to learn
more about Leopold and how his life and experiences shaped his thoughts and
ideas.

Meine, Curt. Interview by author, 11 January 2003. Digital recording.
Springbrook Conservation Education Center, Guthrie Center, Iowa.
      Interviewing Curt Meine was a helpful experience for me. We discussed
Leopold's position on land ownership and his belief that life, land, and
community will be better if owners take responsibility for their land,
realizing the effects of their actions on others. Meine suggested authors
specializing in property rights and helped me understand how Leopold fit
(or did not fit) into the political landscape of his time.

Meine, Curt. "Leopold's Approach to Teaching." Lecture at the Winter
Solstice conference, The Leopold Legacy: Conservation Wisdom Past and
Present, sponsored by the Iowa Conservation Education Council. Springbrook
Conservation Education Center, Guthrie Center, Iowa. 11 January 2003.
      Meine discussed how Leopold's thoughts, in the area of predator
control, changed over time. He depicted Leopold as a life-long learner, who
learned through observation and detailed record-keeping. Meine emphasized
that Leopold's growth as a writer, thinker, advocate, and land manager did
not come alone—it came because he was part of a community of people whose
inner circle was his supportive family. Meeting Meine and members of
Leopold's family had a great impact on the development of my paper.

Meine, Curt and Richard L. Knight, eds. The Essential Aldo Leopold:
Quotations and Commentaries. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press,
1999.
      For the first time many of Leopold's greatest quotations have been
published in one book in a topical format. Essays by prominent conservation
scholars addressed the themes that were selected to group the quotations.
The essays and quotations dealing with private and public lands were
especially helpful.

Nelson, Rob, education director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Interview
by author, 18 October 2002. Baraboo, Wisconsin.
      Rob Nelson is the education director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation.
This interview helped me focus on the aspects of Leopold's life and work
that illustrated his understanding of rights and responsibilities applied
to the land. Nelson also provided me with information from the Sauk County
Registrar of Deeds that showed that Leopold bought the farm in four
portions from 1935 to 1948 as the land became available for sale. The
original portion was approximately 55 acres.

"One Family with the Earth." Cobblestone Magazine 10, no. 8 (August 1989):
22-23.
      The American Indian who was interviewed for this article showed the
same beliefs as that of Aldo Leopold's land ethic. Undoubtedly the American
Indians who came before Leopold practiced those ideas first. Leopold does
not mention that American Indian philosophy influenced the development of
his land ethic, however I thought there was a parallel worth exploring.

Steinberg, Ted. Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
      Aldo Leopold thought it was the responsibility of historians to look
at history not simply in terms of human events, but at the impact of the
land on human events and the impact of human events on the land. Steinberg,
an environmental historian at Case Western Reserve University, did that in
this book, showing that nature is not just a stage on which the drama of
history unfolds—nature is a major character. Much of Steinberg's imagery
reflects Leopold's thoughts in A Sand County Almanac, for example: turning
nature into a commodity and thereby isolating Americans from the natural
world; the imagery of a historian's tools including a shovel; and the
impact of modern conveniences on an individual's ecological conscience.

Theodore Roosevelt: An American Lion. History Channel Documentary. 20-21
January 2003.
      The second portion of this documentary featured President Theodore
Roosevelt's impact on the conservation movement at the turn of the century.
This is where I learned about the wildlife refuges and forests that he set
aside. The documentary also discussed Roosevelt's appointment of Gifford
Pinchot to head the newly formed Forest Service, and Roosevelt's
relationship with preservationist John Muir. In 1903, Roosevelt toured
California with John Muir as his guide through the high Sierras. This
experience strengthened Roosevelt's resolve to do something about the loss
of Americas wild places.

Thompson, Jerome. "Land and Personal Sovereignty." The Palimpsest 69, no. 2
(Summer 1988): 88-93.
      From this article I was able to see how the American Indians viewed
the rights and responsibilities of land use compared to European ideas
concerning property rights. Aldo Leopold did not deny the rights of land
ownership, but he believed that land ownership comes with the
responsibility to practice conservation in order for the entire land
community—including people—to be healthy. His belief that people are
members, not conquerors, of the land community parallels the American
Indian philosophy Thompson describes in this article.

Vanberkel, Joe, Sauk County Conservation Department. Interview by author,
18 October 2002. Baraboo, Wisconsin.
      Mr. Vanberkel is a member of the Sauk County, Wisconsin, Conservation
Department. He happened to stop at the Aldo Leopold Foundation office while
I was looking through the photo archives. We discussed conservation policy
in Sauk County (where Leopold's farm is located), and the idea, which
mirrors Leopold's thought, that one person's action on their
land—especially relating to farmers—affects adjacent land and other
owners. Owners must cooperate for conservation efforts to succeed.

Walker, David. "A Regulated Society." The Palimpsest 69, no. 2 (Summer
1988): 95-104.
      This article discusses the rights of landowners in the mid-1800s. It
also discusses the territorial and federal law enforcement in frontier
towns including Burlington, Iowa, Aldo Leopold's home town. This background
information helped me to understand the prevailing attitudes toward land at
the time that Aldo's grandparents settled in Iowa. It illustrates how
government turned wild land into a regulated society.

Waters, Luann Sewell. "A Half-Century of Influence." Outdoor Oklahoma 55,
no. 1 (January/February 1999): 18-21.
      Walters' article examines the impact of A Sand County Almanac 50
years after its publication, pointing out that Leopold's words are
sometimes misquoted to suggest that he opposed hunting. Leopold believed
that responsible hunting reminds people of the dependency on the
soil-plant-animal-man food chain and fundamental organization of the biota.
Leopold, like his father, believed in voluntary limitation of sophisticated
armaments and that one should only kill what they can eat.

Yoder, Carolyn P. "Environmentalism: Keeping the Natural Balance."
Cobblestone Magazine 10, no. 8 (August 1989): 4-5.
      This article provides an overview of the environmental movement in
the United States. It helped me to see how the more industrialized the
nation became the more people became concerned of ecology (the relationship
between organisms and their environment).