Aldo Leopold's Conservation Esthetic

Photo Credit to The Aldo Leopold Foundation

Aldo Leopold, also known as the Father of Wildlife Management, was born on January 11, 1887 in Burlington, Iowa. His intellect and passion for the outdoors led him to Yale’s Forest School where he graduated in 1909 and immediately found a job with the US Forest Service.

In 1928, Leopold left the Forest Service and headed north to Wisconsin where he would develop the formal education for the profession of wildlife sciences. Leopold was the first professor of wildlife management in the nation at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He used the book he published in 1933 entitled Game Management as the official course text. In 1934, the course name was Survey of Game Management. As we will come to define, wildlife management is much more than the management of game animals, but systems as a whole. Realizing his initial aberration, Leopold redesigned and named the course Wildlife Ecology in 1938.  

Along with being deemed as a notable ecologist, Leopold was a philosopher of sorts. Among his academic works, Leopold enjoyed to journal. A series of essays and sketches he would compile over many years now serves as a highly esteemed book nearly all wildlife enthusiasts have read (or should read!). A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (ASCA) was published in 1949, one year after having his manuscript for the book accepted for publication. On April 21, 1948, Leopold died of a heart attack while fighting a grass fire adjacent to his family farm.

Among the essays in ASCA, we all have a favorite. Alhough not my personal favorite, Conservation Esthetic is a great essay for an area of discussion. The essay, though written over half a century ago, still has much ethical and contextual merit to the challenges we currently face with wildlife management. Some of the issues Leopold addresses in the article, which I might add are quite controversial, are the value of a trophy, perception of isolation in nature and natural processes.

The following link, made available through the University of Iowa, allows you to read this essay in its entirety. A great read and supplement to healthy cogitation, I hope this essay inspires a good discussion.

Conservation Esthetic