The forest ranger who became a man of words and profound ideas - meet Aldo Leopold.
Aldo Leopold (1886 - 1948)
Rand Aldo Leopold was born on January 11, 1886 in the town of Burlington, Iowa, USA. He was to be an author, philosopher, naturalist and one of the forebears of the American conservation movement. It was his father, Carl, who first taught Leopold about nature. He took such a keen interest in forestry that he entered the newly created School of Forestry at Yale. He graduated with a master's degree in 1909.
In that same year he joined the U.S. Forestry Service and took up his first assignment in the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico). Indeed, he was here he met his wife, Estelle, and it was where they lived for fifteen years.
Leopold's participation in wildlife conservation came about somewhat by accident. As part of work he was involved in settling a range dispute in a secluded part of the Carson National Park in New Mexico. He was caught in a blizzard and suffered inflammation of his knees. Wrongly diagnosed with rheumatism Leopold almost died from a case of acute nephritis. A recurrence, which could occur from over exertion, would probably prove fatal so he focused his career on wildlife conservation.
He left the Forestry Service in 1918 to serve as secretary of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce in an effort to further the cause of preservation. During this time he promoted victory gardens, agricultural drainage of the Rio Grande Valley, a civic centre for Albuquerque and public parks. In 1919 he returned to the Forestry Service with new ideas and vigour.
In time Leopold came to be known as the father of wildlife management in America. In 1933 his book, "Game Management" was published was to be a 'bible' of the profession. The objective of the theory of game management was to preserve the healthy functioning of the ecological system rather than the protection of the individual animal. In his essay, "The Land Ethic" he writes, "a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community." He was keenly interested in people's relationship with the land.
However, despite his conservationist background, he was not a foe of the hunter. In fact, he started as a hunter with his father in his early life. Leopold felt that hunters had their place in the equation too. He saw hunting as an active partaking in the spectacle of life.
Leopold died of a heart attack in 1948, suffered while he was fighting a grass fire which threatened his farm in Sauk County. However this was not to be the end of Leopold's philosophy. The year following his death saw the publication of "A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There". The book emphasised his 'Land Ethic'. The onus was on each person to become a custodian of the landscape. This theory would lead to the contemporary ecology ideology. The book itself won widespread critical acclaim for its inventive writing on nature. It was a very personal piece of work, enriched with humour and irony and permeated with a sense of admiration and marvel. Leopold's 'Land Ethic' with the onus on each person's obligation remains his most lasting contribution to the field of wildlife management.
