Environmental Case Study
Aldo Leopold:
Maintaining the Integrity, Stability, and Beauty of the Land
In 1935, pioneering wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold bought 32 ha (80 acres) of worn out, sandy
farmland on the banks of the Wisconsin River not far from his home in Madison. Originally intended to be
merely a hunting camp, the farm quickly became a year-round retreat from the city, as well as a
laboratory in which Leopold could test his theories about conservation, environmental ethics, and
ecologically based land management. A dilapidated chicken shack, the only remaining building from the
original farm, was remodeled into a rustic cabin (fig. 1). The whole Leopold family participated in tree
planting, bird watching, gardening, and exploring nature.
The old farm was not pristine wilderness nor were the Leopolds merely spectators. They
regarded themselves as participating citizens of the land community, seeking to restore it to ecological
health and beauty. Planting as many as 6000 trees and bushes each spring, they practiced "wild
husbandry," using axes and shovels to reverse the abuses of previous owners and to revitalize the land
through active management, care, and understanding. "Conservation," Leopold wrote, "is the positive
exercise of skill and insight, not merely a negative exercise of abstinence or caution."
While building this relationship with the land-by which he meant all the plants and animals as well
as the nonliving components of the landscape-Leopold mused on the ethics and meaning of conservation
and the proper role of humans in nature. The first part of his much-beloved Sand County Almanac is a
collection of essays about experiments and experiences at the farm. All of us, he claimed, should choose
a piece of land on which we can practice stewardship and develop a sense of place. It doesn't have to be
a beautiful place. In fact, it might be best to adopt a weedy, unwanted patch that needs our love and care.
Both we and the land benefit from such connectedness, he maintained.
Leopold's essay on "The Land Ethic" is a cornerstone of the conservation movement and one of
the most eloquent statements of environmental philosophy in American nature writing. In it, Leopold
wrote, "We abuse the 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 land ethic, then,
reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual
responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is
our effort to understand and preserve this capacity. . . . A thing is right when it preserves the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise."
The story of Leopold's Sand County farm embodies many of the themes of this chapter. First, we
survey some of the major biomes or biological communities around the world as a measure of what the
components of a healthy landscape might be. Then we examine what the relatively new fields of
landscape and restoration ecology say about our environment and the roles we might play in it. Finally,
we look at the emerging goals of ecosystem management and some of the controversies and questions
that have persisted from Aldo Leopold's day to our own about how we can and should care for nature.
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
1
Environmental Case Study
Aldo Leopold:
Maintaining the Integrity, Stability, and Beauty of the Land
Figure 1. Aldo Leopold's Sand County farm in central Wisconsin served as a refuge from the city and a
laboratory to test theories about land conservation, environmental ethics, and ecologically based land
management.
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
2