Sand County Almanac Review

Although Leopold’s love of great expanses of wilderness is readily apparent, his book does not cry out in defense of particular tracts of land about to go under the axe or plow, but rather deals with the minutiae, the details, of often unnoticed plants and animals, all the little things that, in our ignorance, we have left out of our managed acreages but which must be present to add up to balanced ecosystems and a sense of quality and wholeness in the landscape.

In “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments”, Thomas Hill explores the idea that those who would destroy natural environments may lack necessary human virtues. He lays out this idea through these claims:

Aldo Leopold is another American environmentalist who was dominant in the development of modern environmental ethics. Aldo was more for holistic ethics regarding land. According to him, “An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom action in the struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct.” He describes in his article that politics and economics are advanced symbioses in which free-for-all competition has been replaced by co-operative mechanism with an ethical content.” He thought that ethics direct individuals to cooperate with each other for the mutual benefit of all. Also he believes that community should be

Fall is a time of change. The leaves change from green to brilliant shades of brown, red and yellow. The seasons begin to change from the dog days of summer to the cool stillness of winter. Fall is my favorite time of the year. When asked to choose just one chapter from A Sand County Almanac, my first idea was to look in the section about the fall.

Roderick Frazier Nash’s book, Wilderness and the American Mind, compiled contemporary debates about wilderness by outlining the changing positions concerning wilderness throughout history. In chapter 11, “Aldo Leopold: Prophet,” Nash discuses Aldo Leopold’s house metaphor. Here, Leopold refers to six vacant lots and what it would mean to build houses on all six lots. He describes how the first few houses might make sense; however once you build upon all six lots you no longer remember the meaning of the homes. He argues that they somehow the sixth house would become “stupidity.” Conversely, I disagree with this theory. I feel each house, so to speak, is built differently and suits different needs and wants. Just as in the wilderness,

16) How does Leopold outwit the great trout at the Alder Fork? What was “big” about the trout caught that day?

Within Aldo Leopold’s Thinking Like a Mountain and Annie Dillard’s Living Like a Weasel there is a communal theme, which incorporates the conflict between people and nature. Throughout Dillard’s piece, she uses comparisons between the life of humans and the life of a wild weasel while applying the theme of freedom of choice. After an unexpected encounter with a weasel, Dillard concludes that humans can learn from the wild freedom of weasel. She states, “...I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (Dillard 8). In Aldo Leopold’s writing, his overall motive is to communicate to the reader that we humans must not destroy the wilderness, as

“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land… harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left” (Pg 189). In less than three sentences, to me this quote summarizes everything that Leopold is trying to say in his novel. Metaphorically, the quote is talking about two friends. In regards to the novel, Leopold is saying that humanity cannot take and use the lands resources without making a conscious effort to replenish them. The non-fiction novel A Sand County Almanac written by Aldo Leopold characterizes the importance in loving, caring and understanding our environment, land and ecosystems that surround us.

What exactly is land ethics? According to Leopold, “Land ethics expands the boundaries of ethics by including soils, waters, plants, and animals,” (Leopold, page 239). However, a land ethic cannot prevent the alteration, management, and the use of the resources stated above. Basically, Leopold states that land ethics change the role that we humans play from that of a land-conqueror to that of a citizen and member. In class, we learned that land ethics imply respect for the surrounding community. We as humans are important, and thus, have more responsibility to protect the environment.

“I came home one Christmas to find that land promoters, with the help of the Corps of Engineers had dyked and drained my boyhood hunting grounds on the Mississippi river bottoms…. My hometown thought the community enriched by this change. I thought it impoverished it” (Leopold). Could you imagine your life, the place you found comfort and passion throughout your entire youth, and everything you devoted your adulthood towards was just stripped away? Suppose it was all taken from you because you moved halfway across the country to work towards everything you believed in. This is exactly how Aldo Leopold felt during his career as an environmentalist and author. Leopold’s entire childhood and environment growing up influenced him into

After reading the essays in parts one and two in A Sand County Almanac readers can begin to see how much passion and love Aldo Leopold has for nature. Both parts of the book show evidence of his selfless character. He lives in balance with the world around him. He gives back to nature all or more of what he took from it. Leopold does not see what nature can do for him, but what he and nature can do for each other. His personality is that of an outdoors man. He seems happiest when he is with nature, and gets joy from the simple things like watching a bird dance in the air (Leopold 32). From the essays the reader can see that Leopold loves his family, including his dog, just as much as he loves nature. It is refreshing contrast in the essays

As the swamp is most vital to the species that live in it, the value of nature is most desperately felt by the urgent parties- indicating that humans, caught in the modern trend towards economical profit and away from ecological ethics, have often failed to notice such vitality of nature to itself as well as to other parties. However, Aldo Leopold brilliantly successes to break this common rule and spot the importance of nature in A Sand Country Almanac. In A Sand Country Almanac, Leopold releases observations of the current ecological problems in the first branch, confirms the need for ecological ethics in the second, and proposes conclusions of such phenomenon in the third. Leopold concludes that human beings need to overcome the lack

During his time, Aldo Leopold was a conservationist who believed in the longevity of the land and that we should protect it, even if we must protect the land from ourselves. While this was an unpopular opinion, realizing that the land and animals naturally work together in a symbiotic relationship to protect one another was very apparent to Leopold. He believed that humans should be doing our best to lessen our impact on the environment. Time has caught up with Leopold’s ideologies and it is time that our efforts and contributions to the earth did too.

“The Land Ethic” written by Aldo Leopold was critiqued by J. Baird Callicott. “The Land Ethic” in short explained the idea that humans are not superior to animals or species on earth, but humans should live on earth as simple members. (Leopold, 2013) Callicott found three things that lead to the confusion, contempt, and contempt of Leopold’s writings.

Another adjustment to the microscope, and we can examine Leopold's biocentric opinion of how environmental ethics should be governed. His approach enlarges the moral category to include soils, waters, plants and animals and claims our obligation is to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. Philosophers Devall and Sessions further define the biocentric view with the concept of deep ecology. Devall and Sessions argue that "the well-being and flourishing of human and non-human life have value in themselves. These values are independent of the usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes." (503)