Not too long ago I got re-acquainted with an old friend with whom I hadn’t visited in some time.  I first “met” Aldo Leopold in the mid-1970s.  His book, A Sand County Almanac, was required reading for one of my classes in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  It was published in 1949, a year after his death.  I thought it about time to give it another read.

Aldo Leopold in the field, 1946.  (University of Wisconsin archives)

A Sand County Almanac is a collection of nature writings in three parts.  Leopold’s style is, on the one hand, simple and down-to-earth (“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”) yet lyrical (“One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring.” 

The first part is his engaging interpretation of the passing of the seasons, month by month, as viewed from his central Wisconsin farm.  The second part is somewhat autobiographical and provides a sketch of Leopold’s developing philosophy early in his career in resource management.

The third part entitled “The Land Ethic” is the presentation of his beliefs regarding conservation.  Leopold makes an eloquent case that ethical behavior must be expanded and applied to land use and management.  The natural world is not properly governed by expedience.  Rather, it is a community governed by a respect between equal partners: people and land (which includes soil, water, plants, and animals).  I would suggest that air is implicit in this partnership, too.  This belief that the land is our life support system is what continues to make A Sand County Almanac relevant today, more than 60 years after its publication.

I find Leopold’s discussion of preservation and conservation worth note.  He writes, “All conservation of wilderness is self-defeating for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when we have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish.”  Leopold was an avid hunter and fisherman and acknowledged the importance of resource management versus “hands-off” preservation.  I believe he favored a careful approach to resource management.  He writes, “The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant ‘What good is it?’  If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.  …  To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” 

We would all do well to tinker more intelligently.