DOCSLIB.ORG

Ethos, Conservation, and the Rhetorical Construction of Aldo Leopold Daniel Cryer

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ethos, Conservation, and the Rhetorical Construction of Aldo Leopold Daniel Cryer University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1-28-2015 A Model Citizen: Ethos, Conservation, and the Rhetorical Construction of Aldo Leopold Daniel Cryer Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Cryer, Daniel. "A Model Citizen: Ethos, Conservation, and the Rhetorical Construction of Aldo Leopold." (2015). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/31 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Language and Literature ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Daniel A. Cryer Candidate English Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Michelle Hall Kells , Chairperson Gary Harrison Charles Paine Bruce T. Milne ii A MODEL CITIZEN: ETHOS, CONSERVATION, AND THE RHETORICAL CONSTRUCTION OF ALDO LEOPOLD by DANIEL A. CRYER B.A., English and Cultural Studies, Towson University, 2003 M.A., English, University of New Mexico, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy English The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2014 iii DEDICATION To my father, who made me love arguments. “Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.’” New King James Bible, John 5.19 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project could not have begun, much less been completed, without the dedication shown by my advisor and dissertation committee chair, Dr. Michelle Hall Kells, who has encouraged me, taken my ideas seriously, and prodded me to dig deeper throughout my graduate career. Many thanks are also due to committee members Chuck Paine, Gary Harrison, and Bruce Milne, all of whom shared my enthusiasm for this project and offered thoughtful feedback. Invaluable support came in the form of a year-long dissertation fellowship from the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Foundation and a Future Faculty Grant from the University of New Mexico’s Office of Graduate Studies, both of which allowed me to complete this project in a timely manner. Thanks also to David Null at the University of Wisconsin-Madison archives for thoughtful and friendly guidance through the Leopold papers, and to the Aldo Leopold Foundation staff for making me feel welcome on the Leopold family land that they so carefully maintain. Many helpful colleagues and mentors offered their comments on chapter drafts in various stages of completion, including Mellisa Huffman and Lindsey Ives, and M. Jimmie Killingsworth, who provided critical guidance on Chapter 5. I must especially thank Valerie Kinsey for sustained, helpful discussions of every chapter during the writing of this dissertation. Our weekly meetings kept me on track and her scholarship pushed me to think about my topic in novel ways. The support of my family has been especially meaningful: my mother, Shirley Savoie; my father, Jim Cryer; and my sisters, Sarah, Amy, and Kellie. Good friends Paul Shoukas, Peter Heald, Peter Keegan, and Carson Metzger offered good humor and good questions over a beer, a game of chess, a plate of enchiladas, or all three. And thanks to Peter Heald, Brian Hendrickson, and Don McIver for hiking and camping with me in New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness, which Leopold was instrumental in creating nearly a century ago. I am most grateful for the love and support of my wife, Stacey Kikendall, whose example as a scholar, teacher, friend, and partner motivates me every day. v A MODEL CITIZEN: ETHOS, CONSERVATION, AND THE RHETORICAL CONSTRUCTION OF ALDO LEOPOLD by Daniel A. Cryer B.A., English and Cultural Studies, Towson University, 2003 M.A., English, University of New Mexico, 2009 Ph.D., English, University of New Mexico, 2014 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the changing, multifaceted ethos of Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), one of the twentieth century’s most versatile environmental communicators. Drawing on scholarship in environmental rhetoric, rhetorical genre theory, citizenship theory and ecofeminism, I argue that throughout his career Leopold offered evolving rhetorical versions of himself as ideals of ecological behavior to be emulated by his readers. The chapters analyze Leopold’s ethos as it was constructed in his early-career writings in the New Mexico Game Protective Association Pine Cone, a wildlife protection broadsheet; in the Report on a Game Survey of the North Central States, his first book; in reports and articles he wrote during the Wisconsin deer irruption debates of the early 1940s; in the essays of A Sand County Almanac, his best known work; and in its current manifestation on the property of the Aldo Leopold Foundation in central Wisconsin. By focusing on these key rhetorical moments in Leopold’s ethos formation, this study reveals the sources from which his ethos arose, including nineteenth and early-twentieth century conservation movements and scientific literature, and the specific environmental crises to which he responded. In revealing, on one hand, the rhetorical strategies that excluded or alienated key stakeholders in the issues on which he wrote, and, on the other, his remarkable ability to connect with a range of audiences in a variety of genres, this study shows that Leopold can serve as both a model and cautionary tale for environmental communication in our own time. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Introduction.......................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: Progressive Exclusions: The Contradictions of Sportsman Citizenship in the Pine Cone..........................................................................................................................32 CHAPTER 3: Leopold’s “new view point”: The Rhetorical Ecology of the North Central States Game Survey Report........................................................................................74 CHAPTER 4: Dreaming of a “better public”: Rhetorical Scarcity in Wisconsin’s Deer Irruption Crisis .................................................................................................................141 CHAPTER 5: The Intimate Polis: Place, Ethos, and Domesticity at the Leopold Shack ...........................................................................................................................................190 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion .........................................................................................................230 Notes............................................................................................................................................246 References...................................................................................................................................254 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Aldo Leopold’s now-classic book, A Sand County Almanac, was more than a decade in the making before its publication in 1949 and was conceived early on as a collaboration with Leopold’s former student Albert Hochbaum, a talented illustrator. As Leopold drafted the book’s essays he sent them off to Hochbaum, then working at a waterfowl research station in Manitoba, who often responded with comments. Their correspondence reveals much about how Leopold and his work were viewed by his contemporaries, and about his legacy as one of the twentieth century’s giants of environmental writing. Hochbaum clearly admired his former professor, judging in a letter dated January 22, 1944, that Leopold already sat “in a circle which may never hold more than a dozen in the century” (3). But when he found room for criticism he leveled it with the directness of a trusted friend. At several points, Hochbaum addressed what he saw as a mismatch between the persona Leopold’s essays constructed and Leopold himself. In the same letter he says, “[Y]ou […] deplore the fact that brute man has spoiled the things you love [but] you never drop a hint that you yourself have once despoiled, or at least had a strong hand in it” (1). In another, dated February 4, he says that “the reader cannot help but gather that you believe your reaction is always the proper one and that it has been always so. […] You almost chide him for not having the vision you didn’t have 20 years ago” (2). To back up these kinds of claims, Hochbaum quotes a two-decade old article of Leopold’s in which he advocated for the wholesale slaughter of predatory animals like wolves, a position he had come to regret. 2 Hochbaum caught Leopold in the act of sanitizing his persona, and he felt it was a serious error because this persona was the center not just of the book, but of Leopold’s legacy. On March 11 he wrote, “Perhaps more than anything else,” the book was “a self portrait” (1). He continued: Please don’t feel uneasy that I should call this a self portrait. I doubt that you ever thought of it as such. I think it is very important that it should be. If you will put yourself in perspective you might realize that within your realm of influence, which is probably larger than you know, Aldo Leopold is considerably more than a person; in fact he is probably less
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Wilderness Act and Howard Zahniser
    WILDERNESS ACT AND HOWARD ZAHNISER In: The Fully Managed, Multiple-Use Forest Era, 1960-1970 Passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 involved decades of work on the part of many people both inside the Forest Service and from a variety of interest groups. As early as the 1910’s and 1920’s, there were several important proponents of wilderness designation in the national forests. Three men are considered pivotal in these early years and all were Forest Service employees: Aldo Leopold, Arthur H. Carhart, and Robert Marshall. Their efforts were successful at the local level in creating administratively designated wilderness protection for several areas across the country. At the national policy level, there was a series of policy decisions (L-20 and U Regulations) in the 1920’s and 1930’s that made wilderness and primitive area designation relatively easy, but what was lacking was a common standard of management across the country for these areas. Also, since these wilderness and primitive areas were administratively designated, the next Chief or Regional Forester could “undesignate” any of the areas with the stroke of a pen. Howard C. Zahniser, executive secretary of the Wilderness Society (founded by Bob Marshall), became the leader in a movement for congressionally designated wilderness areas. In 1949, Zahniser detailed his proposal for Federal wilderness legislation in which Congress would establish a national wilderness system, identify appropriate areas, prohibit incompatible uses, list potential new areas, and authorize a commission to recommend changes to the program. Nothing much happened to the proposal, but it did raise the awareness for the need to protect wilderness and primitive areas from all forms of development.
    [Show full text]
  • Land Ethic Observe • Participate • Reflect Leaders Join Us for a Special Land Ethic Leaders Program! November 14 - 16, 2016 at the Watershed Center (Springfield, MO)
    Land Ethic Observe • Participate • Reflect Leaders Join us for a special Land Ethic Leaders program! November 14 - 16, 2016 at the Watershed Center (Springfield, MO) Presented in partnership between the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks. What is Land Ethic Leaders? In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold set forth his most enduring idea, the “land ethic,” a moral responsibility of humans to the natural world. Aldo Leopold’s land ethic idea is extremely relevant in today’s society, but it can be difficult to define, discuss, and implement. To even begin that monumental task, we need leaders who are deeply committed to rolling up their sleeves and building a land ethic at the grassroots level in communities everywhere. The workshop uses the land ethic as a powerful platform for helping leaders learn to facilitate dialog about the meaning and value of conservation in today’s world. Our “Observe, Participate, Reflect” framework is based in Leopold’s own method of helping lead his family and students in the process of developing their personal land ethic. During the two and a half day training, 20-30 participants explore and deepen their own land ethic together through outdoor observation, environmental service, and reflective discussions. Activities are largely planned and facilitated by members of the group. Afterwards, participants walk away with new relationships, tools, and ideas to inspire creative ways to bring the land ethic back home. Why You Should Attend Environmental conservation work can be gratifying, but it can also be emotionally draining as we grapple daily with tough questions.
    [Show full text]
  • A WILDERNESS-FOREVER FUTURE a Short History of the National Wilderness Preservation System
    A WILDERNESS-FOREVER FUTURE A Short History of the National Wilderness Preservation System A PEW WILDERNESS CENTER RESEARCH REPORT A WILDERNESS-FOREVER FUTURE A Short History of the National Wilderness Preservation System DOUGLAS W. SCOTT Here is an American wilderness vision: the vision of “a wilderness- forever future.” This is not my phrase, it is Howard Zahniser’s. And it is not my vision, but the one that I inherited, and that you, too, have inherited, from the wilderness leaders who went before. A Wilderness-Forever Future. Think about that. It is It is a hazard in a movement such as ours that the core idea bound up in the Wilderness Act, which newer recruits, as we all once were, may know too holds out the promise of “an enduring resource of little about the wilderness work of earlier generations. wilderness.” It is the idea of saving wilderness forever Knowing something of the history of wilderness —in perpetuity. preservation—nationally and in your own state— is important for effective wilderness advocacy. In Perpetuity. Think of the boldness of that ambition! As Zahniser said: “The wilderness that has come to us The history of our wilderness movement and the char- from the eternity of the past we have the boldness to acter and methods of those who pioneered the work project into the eternity of the future.”1 we continue today offer powerful practical lessons. The ideas earlier leaders nurtured and the practical tools Today this goal may seem obvious and worthy, but and skills they developed are what have brought our the goal of preserving American wilderness in per- movement to its present state of achievement.
    [Show full text]
  • Books to Feed the Mind & Soul
    Books to Feed the Mind & Soul Audubon Rockies staff and Colorado Chapter leaders were asked to share some of their favorite books. Listed below are a mix of nature-oriented, conservation-minded, humorous, and engaging reads. As we continue to find ourselves practicing social distancing, especially in these colder months, chapter leaders are welcome to use this list for their personal enjoyment or pull from it to share with chapter members in newsletter articles. Or perhaps for a book club or a reading list for your local library? The following books are provided in no particular order. Additional information listed for some books are a mix of details gleaned from online searches as well as those graciously provided by the original contributor. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson - A nonfiction tale of the British Museum of Natural History, home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, and obsession, nature, and man's unrelenting desire to lay claim to its beauty. Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird by Katie Fallon Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration by Kenn Kaufman The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham - From these fertile soils—of love, land, identity, family, and race—emerges The Home Place, a big-hearted, unforgettable memoir by ornithologist J. Drew Lanham. A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik - Journalist Mark Obmascik creates a dazzling, fun narrative of the 275,000-mile odyssey of these three obsessives as they fight to win the greatest— or maybe worst—birding contest of all time.
    [Show full text]
  • Leopold's Last Talk
    Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy Volume 2 Issue 2 12-1-2012 Leopold's Last Talk Eric T. Freyfogle Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjelp Part of the Environmental Law Commons Recommended Citation Eric T. Freyfogle, Leopold's Last Talk, 2 WASH. J. ENVTL. L. & POL'Y 236 (2012). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjelp/vol2/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Freyfogle: Leopold's Last Talk Copyright © 2012 by Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy LEOPOLD’S LAST TALK Eric T. Freyfogle* Abstract: During the last decade of his life, Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) delivered more than 100 conservation talks to various popular, professional, and student audiences. In them, he set forth plainly the central elements of his conservation thought. By studying the extensive archival records of these talks one sees clearly the core elements of Leopold’s mature thinking, which centered not on specific land-use practices (good or bad), but instead on what he saw as deep flaws in American culture. Leopold’s sharp cultural criticism—more clear in these talks than in his lyrical, muted classic, A Sand County Almanac—called into question not just liberal individualism but central elements of Enlightenment-era thought. This article distills the messages that Leopold repeatedly presented during his final years.
    [Show full text]
  • The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: an Exploration of the Meanings Embodied in America’S Last Great Wilderness
    The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: An Exploration of the Meanings Embodied in America’s Last Great Wilderness Roger W. Kaye Abstract—The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been the sub- Central Brooks Range, expanded their understanding of the ject of more than 50 major studies investigating the bio-physical psychological benefits and cultural values one could experi- resources potentially threatened by oil development. This continu- ence in this landscape (Collins, personal communication ing project investigates the more elusive qualities at risk: the set of 1994, 1995). Aldo Leopold, a personal friend of most of the meanings this place holds for those who value it as wilderness. refuge founders, was another who had a “profound effect” on Findings indicate that these meanings may also be diminished or the range of scientific, experiential, and symbolic values dispelled by the potential introduction of new technologies, public they perceived wild places to hold. Collins says that Leopold’s uses or management actions that leave no footprint, some as writings gave early refuge proponents more reasons to value intangible as the mere naming of a mountain. A network of fourteen wilderness. “It was his ideas that we brought with us to meanings is described to provide a framework for interpreting the Alaska” (Collins, personal communication 1999). wilderness experience visitors seek and discover here, and for Through the late 1950s, the founding conservationists’ understanding the refuge’s emergence as a symbolic landscape of writings inspired a growing constituency to write, speak and national significance. testify for the area’s permanent protection. In 1960, the nine-million-acre Arctic Range was established by order of the Secretary of the Interior.
    [Show full text]
  • Rediscovering and Rethinking Leopold's Green Fire
    Spring 2015 45 Rediscovering and Rethinking Leopold’s Green Fire Holmes Rolston, III Aldo Leopold shot a wolf a hundred years ago, the most iconic wolf kill in conservation history, a shooting now historically confirmed, which three decades later he elevated into his “green fire” metaphor and symbol. There are tensions. Was Leopold a hypocrite? He spent the rest of his life hunting and trying to produce more game to kill. Thinking like a mountain, thinking big in the big outdoors, there is a dramatic shift of focus from a dy- ing wolf’s eyes to a land ethic. Thinking big enough, globally, Leopold saving wolves, or wilderness, or game management seems simplistic and parochial before global warming or environmental justice. Still, Leopold is on a moral frontier. I. THE SHOOTING—REDISCOVERED AND CONFIRMED “Shoot!! They’re wolves, not deer! See her shake that big tail coming out of the river.” Rifles emptied, the mother wolf was down. One yearling pup was limping past some willows into bushy rocks. The others had vanished. Recently, I stood on a rimrock bluff high over the Black River, about where Aldo Leopold shot those wolves, over a hundred years ago, on Sunday, 19 September 1909. This was to become the most iconic wolf kill in conservation history.1 I saw no wolves. But I did see a mule deer crossing that same river below, and thought, “Maybe I could hit her with a telescopic sight, but not with the iron sights Leopold had.” Leopold’s rifle was a Winchester .30–.30 model 1894, a carbine.
    [Show full text]
  • National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
    NPS Form 10-900 OMBNo. 1024-0018 (Rev. Aug 2002) (Expires: 1-31-2009) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places -2007 Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to CompleWiri^^tionA[-Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If an item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, or computer, to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name Listening Point other names/site number 2. Location street & number 3128 Listening Point Road D not for publication N/A city or town Morse Township Ely vicinity state Minnesota code MN county St. Louis code 137 zip code 55731 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this ^nomination D request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property Exl meets D does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant ^nationally Qstatewide D locally.
    [Show full text]
  • Whither Missouri? Aldo Leopold’S Challenge
    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.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold
    LEP Leopold Education Project Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold An outdoor activities guide for educators The Aldo Leopold Foundation P.O. Box 77 • Baraboo, WI 53913 608.355.0279 • www.aldoleopold.org LEP: Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold was developed by Writing Team: Phoebe Atkinson, Shaker Lakes Nature Center Terry Bedford, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center Vince Gresham, Rum Village Nature Center Katherine Hunt, Treasure Lake Job Corps Christine Jacobsen, Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District Clifford E. Knapp, Northern Illinois University Janine Kohn, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Benji Kohn, Outdoor Education Consultant & Professional Photographer Mary Moulton, New England Region Leopold Education Project Coordinator Celeste Prussia, Bull Shoals Field Station of Missouri State University Jeannine Richards, Aldo Leopold Foundation Cheryl Riley, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Writing Project Manager: Melissa Arthur, Kansas Association for Conservation & Environmental Education Advisors: Ted Cable, Kansas State University Horticulture, Forestry & Recreation Resources Laura Downey, Kansas Association for Conservation & Environmental Education Sheryl Hodge, Kansas State University Office of Educational Innovation & Evaluation Ron Leathers, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Jan Mittendorf, Kansas State University Office of Educational Innovation & Evaluation Pilot Facilities: Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, MI Lee Richardson Zoo, Garden City, KS Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA St. Joseph County
    [Show full text]
  • Aldo Leopold Fact Sheet
    Aldo Leopold Considered by many as the father of wildlife management and of the United States’ wilderness system, Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast. Born in 1887 and raised in Burlington, Iowa, Aldo Leopold developed an interest in the natural world at an early age, spending hours observing, journaling, and sketching his surroundings. “That land is a Graduating from the Yale Forest School in 1909, he eagerly pursued a career with the newly established U.S. Forest Service in Arizona and New Mexico. By the age of community is the 24, he had been promoted to the post of Supervisor for the Carson National Forest in New Mexico. In 1922, he was instrumental in developing the proposal to manage basic concept of the Gila National Forest as a wilderness area, which became the first such official ecology, but that designation in 1924. land is to be loved Following a transfer to Madison, Wisconsin in “As a society, we are just 1924, Leopold continued his investigations into now beginning to realize the and respected is an ecology and the philosophy of conservation, and in 1933 published the first textbook in the field of depth of Leopold’s work and extension of ethics.” wildlife management. Later that year he accepted thinking.” a new chair in game management – a first for the - ALDO L EOPOLD University of Wisconsin and the nation. MIKE DOMBECK, CHIEF EMERITUS U.S. FOREST SERVICE, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL In 1935, he and his family initiated their own ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT UW- ecological restoration experiment on a worn- STEVENS POINT, UW SYSTEM FELLOW out farm along the Wisconsin River outside of OF GLOBAL CONSERVATION Baraboo, Wisconsin.
    [Show full text]
  • Land Ethic", Or a Responsible Relationship Existing Between People and the Land They Inhabit
    Watershed or Vineyards? For a greater understanding of environmental philosophy and ethical decision-making. I. A Sand County Almanac, a philosophy about land, an argument for ‘voluntary decency’. Briefly: A Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring stand alone as the two most venerated and significant environmental books of the 20th century. A Sand County Almanac is a 1949 non-fiction book by American ecologist, forester, and environmentalist Aldo Leopold. The collection of essays advocate Leopold's idea of a "land ethic", or a responsible relationship existing between people and the land they inhabit. Leopold also rails against the way that policy makers need to find an economic motive for conservation. In "The Ecological Conscience" section, he wrote: "Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." He believed that land is not a commodity to be possessed; rather, humans must have mutual respect for Earth in order not to destroy it. He also puts forth the idea that humans will never be free if they have no wild spaces in which to roam. Aldo Leopold's Environmental Land Ethic: Aldo Leopold proposes that the next step in the evolution of ethics is the expansion of ethics to include nonhuman members of the biotic community, collectively referred to as "the land." Leopold states the basic principle of his land ethic as, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." He also describes it in this way: "The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land .
    [Show full text]