Often referred to as the father of wildlife management in the United States, Aldo Leopold will forever remain a significant icon for anyone interested in the earth, or man’s relationship to it.
His book, A Sand County Almanac, is often acclaimed as the century's literary landmark in conservation. A combination of natural history, scene painting with words, and philosophy, it melds exceptional poetic prose with keen observations of the natural world.
His lifelong love for the wild was borne from a childhood spent close to the natural world. In 1909, he received his Masters in Forestry and went on to serve for the United States Foresty Service. Following his retirement from the Service in 1928, he became Professor of Game Management in the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Though his foundation of the Winderness Society in 1935 and his conservation work will ensure his legacy in America for many a generation, it is for his writing that he will remain an icon for the world at large.
'The Almanac reflects an evolution of a lifetime of love, observation, and thought. It led to a philosophy that has guided many to discovering what it means to live in harmony with the land and with one another.' (Aldo Leopold Nature Society).
It is hard to envision the environmental movement evolving as it did in the 60's and on into contemporary times without the voice of Aldo guiding many of its pioneers. One can actually draw a definite path from the publication of the book to the very first Earth Day.
He was very critical of the harm contemporary human activity was having on healthy natural systems, and despised the mentality that led people to believe we were some how owners or sovereigns of the land. He worried about how systems of law, society and order worked to encourage a culture of individual self interest, leaving many important communal and natural issues unaddressed.
He believed (rightly) in humanity as a community, part of a much broader system of interrelated communities, all making up one whole. His portrayal of various natural environments through which he had moved displayed a very impressive intimacy with the natural world, its inhabitants and the cultures that exist among them.
He will live on because of the poetic nature of his existence, his beliefs and his writings. You get this great sense of a man content among nature, observing, recording and philosophising as only humans can.
Even at a time when the West was 'won', when much of the America had been colonised and industrialised, his work not only portrayed the greatness and beauty of this vast land, but the idea that man can and should live in harmony with it, for everybody's sake.
In a world growing every more populated, hectic, industrialised and detached from the natural world, he is a constant reminder of our true place among nature, and our kinship with all natural beings.
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