Aldo Leopold and “The Sand County Almanac”

by Tony Orman

“The Sand County Almanac” is one of my most cherished books in my bookshelf.

Aldo Leopold was an American author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and the “A Sand County Almanac,” has sold more than two million copies.

When Aldo Leopold was named to the National Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Hall of Fame in 1965, the Wisconsin State Journal wrote “Aldo Leopold died in 1948 but he stands tall today like a giant pine tree, visible from the remote corners of the land and from the concrete racetracks of civilisation.”

By the 1930s, Leopold was the nation’s foremost expert on wildlife management.

In his 1933 book Game Management, Leopold defined the science of wildlife management as “the art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use.” 

The concept of “wilderness” also took on a new meaning; Leopold no longer saw it as a hunting or recreational ground, but as an arena for a healthy biotic community, including wolves and mountain lions. In 1935, he helped found the Wilderness Society, dedicated to expanding and protecting the nation’s wilderness areas. 

He regarded the Wilderness Society as “one of the focal points of a new attitude—an intelligent humility toward Man’s place in nature.”

But to the man as a writer of a conservation classic, Leopold’s nature writing is notable for its simple directness. His portrayals of various natural environments through which he had moved, or had known for many years, displayed a sensitivity and deep perception with what is and happens in nature. 

“This includes detailed diaries and journals of his Forest Service activity, hunting and field experience, as well as observations and activities at his Sand County farm.”

Early on, Leopold was assigned to hunt and kill bears, wolves, and mountain lions in New Mexico. Local ranchers hated these predators because of livestock losses, but Leopold came to respect the animals. He began to see that predators were just part of Nature’s interwoven web of life.

One day after fatally shooting a wolf, Leopold reached the animal and was transfixed. 

“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realised then and have known ever since that there was something new to me in those eyes, something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” 

He then developed an ecological ethic that replaced the earlier wilderness ethic that was born of the mistaken ego-centric belief in the need for human dominance. 

By the 1930s, Leopold was the nation’s foremost expert on wildlife management. In his 1933 book Game Management, Leopold defined the science of wildlife management as “the art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use.” 

The concept of “wilderness” also took on a new meaning; Leopold no longer saw it as a hunting or recreational ground, but as an arena for a healthy biotic community, including wolves and mountain lions.

Leopold’s nature writing is notable for its simple directness. His portrayals of various natural environments through which he had moved, or had known for many years, displayed impressive intimacy with what exists and happens in nature. In his writings there were perceptive quotes.

(a) “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” A Sand County Almanac.

(b) “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively the land.”

(c) “Man always kills the thing he loves. And so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in.” – A Sand County Almanac.

(d) “A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than by a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.” –

“A Sand County Almanac.”

Aldo Leopold