Celebrating the life, legacy of Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold. Photo courtesy Aldo
Leopold Foundation..

Posted by Lincoln Bramwell

Historian, U.S. Forest Service

Over his 40-year career as a forester, scientist, teacher, and writer, Aldo Leopold brought a greater understanding of our relationship with the natural world at a time when the technological advances of the 20th century increasingly shut people off from their surroundings.

Jan. 11 marks the 125th anniversary of Aldo Leopold’s birth and provides us with an opportunity to reflect on his contribution to forest conservation and ecosystem management. Leopold’s ability to communicate, by untangling the complex world around us into stories that we could easily understand and internalize, distinguishes his contribution to conservation.

Leopold is most widely known for his collection of essays, Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, originally published in 1949.

The fact that Leopold is still recognized as one of conservation’s leaders serves as testimony to the clarity, credibility, and depth of experience in his work.

Aldo Leopold seated on rimrock above the Rio Gavilan in
northern Mexico while on a bow hunting trip in 1938. Photo
courtesy Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Leopold’s early recognition of keeping and restoring biological diversity and ecological processes became central to his evolution of thought on the environment.

What Aldo Leopold teaches us today more than ever is the benefit that comes from slowing down and taking the time to listen to nature. In today’s world, being quiet is a valuable commodity; taking time to stop and listen for those minute details outdoors that weave a tapestry of stories all around us is a rewarding experience if we but stop and pay attention.

Leopold could read a landscape, just as well as we can read his prose, but he did not try to keep this knowledge to himself; instead he tirelessly worked on communicating the knowledge he had accumulated to those around him.

Imparting this understanding became his way to serve the land, his motive always to promote conservation of natural resources as demonstrated in his oft quoted statement, “We love (and make intelligent use of) what we have learned to understand.”

Aldo Leopold’s Forest Service career began in 1909, as a
ranger on the Apache National Forest in the Arizona Territory.
Photo courtesy Aldo Leopold Foundation.

As we remember the anniversary of Leopold’s birth, let us celebrate his unabashed enthusiasm and persistence in protecting and improving this land we all share.

Related Links:

Aldo Leopold Foundation

Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time

Watch a video about the Green Fire Project

Green Fire Trailer