Missouri Conservationist 1:1 (1938)
Whither Missouri? Aldo Leopold’s Challenge
Susan Flader
Friedrich Runge, wife and three children sail from Bremen to the USA in 1834. Charles J.J. Leopold, on the same ship, marries Thusnelda Runge; they move to Liberty. Marie Runge, Thusnelda’s sister, marries Charles Starker of Iowa.
Friedrich Runge land, Femme Osage Valley 1853 (Mar 16): Charles J.J. Leopold contracts with Howard Estes, a free man of color, to help drive sheep to California 1853 (Jun 10): Liberty Tribune reports Leopold’s death while attempting for the fifth time to swim Big Blue River 1856: Leopold reappears buying a lot in Burlington, Iowa, where his wife and children have gone to be with her sister Marie, wife of Charles Starker, who immigrated from Germany in 1848. They return to Liberty in 1862.
1886: Carl Leopold m. Clara Starker 1887: Aldo Leopold born, eldest of 4
AL to Mama Lawrenceville NJ May 1, 1904
Yale Forest School Class of 1909 Leopold Escudilla Mountain Apache National Forest
Aldo’s Reconnaissance Crew 1909 Estella and Aldo, married 1912
Mia Casita, Tres Piedras Carson National Forest Supervisor, Age 25 Theodore Roosevelt to Leopold (1917) “setting an example to the whole country” Executive Secretary, Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, 1918-1919 Chief of Operations, Southwestern Region, US Forest Service (1919-1924)
Inspection Team
Watershed Handbook 1923 Erosion as a Menace to the Social and Economic Future of the Southwest Aldo Leopold, Address to New Mexico Association for Science, 1922
Of 30 agricultural mountain valleys Leopold tallied, 12 were ruined or partly ruined, 15 starting to erode, and only 3 undamaged.
Blue River Valley: 3580 of 4052 tillable acres destroyed, 34 of 45 homes destroyed.
“The day will come when the ownership of land will carry with it the obligation to use and protect it from erosion so that it is not a menace to other landowners and the public.”
Gila Wilderness, 1924
Current River 1926
Missouri Shanty Current View 1929-1939 Game survey of the north central states, 1928-1931 Missouri Survey, Dec 1929 – Jan 1930
Drove through Irish Wilderness in an ice storm: “wildest spot east of the plains” Report on a Game Survey of Missouri By Aldo Leopold, March 1, 1930
• No national or state forests, but 14 million forested acres
• Agriculture less industrialized than most states
• “As to attitude [about conservation], there is none.”
Recommendations:
• Public purchase of forested land, especially Irish Wilderness (suitable for restoration of wild turkey population)
• More active state research, demonstration and education program
• Establishment of a non-political commission with full authority for administration of conservation programs
1933
Chair of Game Management University of Wisconsin, 1933-
Journal of Forestry, 1933 1935
1934 1935
1936 Rio Gavilan
1935 1934f Leopold advises Rudolf Bennett and Werner Nagel on game survey 1935 Conservation Federation formed to promote constitutional amendment for bi-partisan conservation commission, led by E. Sydney Stephens
1936 (Nov): Initiative petition passes to create conservation commission
1937 July: new commission takes over (E. Sydney Stephens, chair) Aug: Commission approves Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at MU, a nationwide system of research units advised by Leopold Sept: Leopold advises new commission and is asked (?) to be director
Nov: Irwin T. Bode hired as director (recommended by Leopold?)
Bode approach
• Research • Education of landowners and public • Work with farmers and private landowners • Little acquisition of public lands
University of Missouri, April 26, 1938
“We shall be ready, I think, to practice conservation when ‘farmer plants tamarack’ is no longer news.” Missouri Conservationist 1:1 (1938) Dedication of Ashland Wildlife Area
Steps to Conservation:
1.First step is to want it: Missouri does 2.Create competent authority: MCC 3.Research and testing: Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit 4.Practice conservation: Leopold’s tally of 100 farms showed only 40 with any woodlots, 39 of which were grazed, and 62 with raw gullies
“When [wild crops] have become an expression of pride in land, then and not until then will we have conservation in Missouri.”
Starker Leopold Research 1939-43 The Shack, 1935-
The Role of Wildlife in a Liberal Education (1942)
The objective is to teach the student to see the land, to understand what he sees, and enjoy what he understands.
Audubon Magazine (1942) Brown Leopold Darling Stephens Love “The Statesmanship of E. Sydney Stephens” (Sept 1947)
What should Missouri do to ensure the continuance of Stephens’s work?
• High quality commissioner appointments. • Who is the conservation public? Not just sportsmen, but “Missouri recognizes the landowner and farmer as ultimate prime movers.” • Leadership to avert the narrowness of some citizen conservationists more interested in their own wants than in the land system. • Keep administration always in contact with research.
“Let me now avow the belief that if conservation can become a living reality anywhere, it can do so in Missouri. This is because Missourians, in my opinion, are not yet completely industrialized in mind and spirit, and I hope never will be.” Charlie Schwartz June 1948
4000+ Missouri Stream Teams with 80,000+ individuals Slide 15
Slide 15
Leopold in crop art at the Land Institute, Salina KS
A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land. Aldo Leopold, “Axe-in-Hand”