1
Life Lessons from “A Sand County Almanac”
Aldo Leopold
Nyack College, 15 April 2015
http://www.news.wisc.edu/13501
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/
Dr. Carlos F. A. Pinkham, Professor Emeritus of Biology,
Norwich University, Northfield, VT
2
Lesson one:
Once a (Pink) ham,
always a (Pink) ham
3
4
Lesson two:
Aldo Leopold was one
of several who looked
back to look forward.
5
Prior to 1850, exploration and exploitation
1854
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods
1860’s -1920’s, growing drive for conservation
1898
Ernest Thomson Seton, Wild Animals I have Known
1911
John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
1920’s-1960’s, growing drive for wilderness preservation
1949
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
1962
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
After 1960’s, growing environmental movement
6
Lesson two:
Aldo Leopold was one
of several who looked
back to look forward.
7
Lesson three:
There is a fine line
between Stellar and
Stupid.
8
Between the time I graduated from college, entered
grad school and began my professional career, the
Environmental Movement transitioned from a loosely
organize “Earth Day” to many firmly established national
laws.
Interestingly, all of the following came under one President
National Environmental Policy Act-1970
Clean Air Act-1970
Water Pollution Control Act-1972
Marine Protection, Research, & Sanctuaries Act-1972
Endangered Species Act-1973
Safe Drinking Water Act-1974
9
This same President is credited with
other important accomplishments:
Detente with an enemy,
Unilateral cessation of open air
testing of offensive chemical and
biological weapons systems.
Who was he?
10
Let’s have a little fun and see how
many know.
Write your answer on one of the pieces of
paper you were handed when you came in and
fold it in half with the answer to the inside.
11
When I say “Go,” hand the paper to the person
designated in the following diagram and continue to
pass that paper on as indicated until I say, “Stop.”
12
13
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
14
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
15
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
16
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
Nixon?
(69-74) 37 5
17
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
Nixon?
(69-74) 37 5
Ford?
(74-77) 38 3
18
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
Nixon?
(69-74) 37 5
Ford?
(74-77) 38 3
Carter?
(77-81) 39 4
19
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
Nixon?
(69-74) 37 5
Ford?
(74-77) 38 3
Carter?
(77-81) 39 4
Regan?
(81-89) 40 8
GW Bush?
(89-93) 41 4
Clinton?
(93-01) 41 8
20
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
Nixon?
(69-74) 37 5
Ford?
(74-77) 38 3
Carter?
(77-81) 39 4
Regan?
(81-89) 40 8
GHW Bush?
(89-93) 41 4
Clinton?
(93-01) 41 8
21
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 34 8
Kennedy?
(61-63) 35 2
Johnson?
(63-69) 36 6
Nixon?
(69-74) 37 5
Ford?
(74-77) 38 3
Carter?
(77-81) 39 4
Regan?
(81-89) 40 8
GHW Bush?
(89-93) 41 4
Clinton?
(93-01) 41 8
22
Who is holding a slip that says:
Eisenhower?
(53-61) 8 34
Kennedy?
(61-63) 2 35
Johnson?
(63-69) 6 36
Nixon?
(69-74) 7 37
Ford?
(74-77) 3 38
Carter?
(77-81) 4 39
Regan?
(81-89) 8 40
GW Bush?
(89-93) 4 41
Clinton?
(93-01) 8 41
23
Lesson three:
There is a fine line
between Stellar and
Stupid.
24
Lessons four and five:
Familiarity Does not
Breed Contempt & the
Difference Between an
OK Man and a Great
Man is a Notebook.
25
http://edison.mpls.k12.mn.us/uploads/na_blank_map.gif
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Woodlore
Science knows little about
home range: how big it is at
various seasons, what food
and cover it must include,
when and how it is defended
against trespass, and whether
ownership is an individual,
family, or group affair. These
are the fundamentals of
animal economics, or ecology.
Every farm is a textbook on
animal ecology;
woodsmanship is the
translation of the book.
27
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
To band a bird is to hold a
ticket in a great lottery. Most
of us hold tickets on our own
survival, but we buy them
from the insurance company,
which knows too much to sell
us a really sporting chance. It
is an exercise in objectivity to
hold a ticket on the banded
sparrow that falleth, or on the
banded chickadee that may
some day re-enter your trap,
and thus prove that he is still
alive.
28
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
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. Of what avail are
forty freedoms without
a blank spot on the
map?
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Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
It is the part of wisdom never
to revisit a wilderness, for the
more golden the lily, the more
certain that someone has
gilded it. To return not only
spoils a trip, but tarnishes a
memory. It is only in the mind
that shining adventure
remains forever bright. For
this reason, I have never
gone back to the Delta of the
Colorado since my brother
and I explored it, by canoe, in
1922.
30
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Plant Study
He who hopes for spring
with upturned eye never
sees so small a thing as
Draba. He who despairs of
spring with downcast eye
steps on it, unknowing. He
who searches for spring
with his knees in the mud
finds it, in abundance.
…Sand too poor and sun
too weak for bigger, better
blooms are good enough
for Draba. After all it is no
spring flower, but only a
postscript to a hope.
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We found the main stream so low
Woodlore
…and so warm that we could duck
Wildlife Study in its deepest pool without a
Camping
shout…. We asked that stream for
Canoeing
trout, and it gave us a chub. … Two
Back Packing hundred miles of hot, dusty road we
Fishing
had come, to feel again the
impetuous tug of a disillusioned
brook or rainbow. There were no
trout. But this, we now remembered,
was a stream of parts. High up near
the headwaters we had once seen a
fork, narrow, deep, and fed by cold
springs …. What would a selfrespecting trout do in such
weather? Just what we did: go up.
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Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Back Packing
Fishing
Hunting
There are two kinds of hunting:
ordinary hunting, and ruffedgrouse hunting. There are two
places to hunt grouse: ordinary
places, and Adams County.
There are two times to hunt in
Adams: ordinary times, and when
the tamaracks are smoky gold.
This is written for those luckless
ones who have never stood, gun
empty and mouth agape, to
watch the golden needles come
sifting down, while the feathery
rocket that knocked them off sails
unscathed into the jackpines.
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Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Back Packing
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
The most glamorous
hobby I know today is
the revival of falconry.
It has a few addicts in
America….For two and
a half cents one can
buy and shoot a
cartridge that will kill the
heron whose capture
by hawking requires
months or years of
laborious training of
both the hawk and
hawker.
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Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Back Packing
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
It is evident that our plant
biases are in part
traditional. If your
grandfather liked hickory
nuts, you will like the
hickory tree because your
father told you to. If, on the
other hand, your
grandfather burned a log
carrying a poison ivy vine
and recklessly stood in the
smoke, you will dislike the
species, no matter with
what crimson glories it
warms your eyes each fall.
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Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Back Packing
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
Farming
The wielder of an axe has
as many biases as there are
species of trees on his farm.
In the course of the years
he imputes to each species,
from his responses to their
beauty or utility, and their
responses to his labors for
or against them, a series of
attributes that constitute a
character. I am amazed to
learn what diverse
characters different men
impute to one and the same
tree.
36
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Back Packing
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
Farming
Teaching
The present educational
marathon in memorizing the
geography of bones is the
aftermath of this perfectly
logical process of
competition. It has, of
course, other justifications.
Medical students need it;
zoology teachers need it.
But I contend that the
average citizen does not
need it so badly as he needs
some understanding of the
living world.
37
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Back Packing
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
Farming
Teaching
Note taking*
38
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Plant Study
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
Farming
Teaching
Note taking*
39
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Plant Study
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
Farming
Teaching
Woodlore
Wildlife Study
Camping
Canoeing
Plant Study
Fishing
Hunting
Falconry
Foraging
Farming
Teaching
Note taking*
Note taking+
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Falconry
Falconry
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Lesson four:
Familiarity Does not
Breed Contempt.
42
Note taking*
Note taking+
Profusely
Very little
Published > 500
articles, essays and
reports and his
papers contain at
least 500 more
unpublished essays,
reports, and
memoranda of
significance.
Published > 10
articles, essays
and reports and
his papers contain
at least 25 more
unpublished
essays, reports,
and memoranda
of significance.
43
Lesson four:
Lesson five:
the Difference Between
an OK Man and a
Great Man is a
Notebook.
44
Lesson Six:
Scientists and CitizenScientists can write
beautiful prose.
45
Odyssey, pp 111-114
46
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One way we seek to understand the relationship between
deterministic and stochastic processes is to run our models
many times for the same set of prescribed external climate
forcings such as solar variability and changing greenhouse
gas concentrations. We can then look at the multiple runs to
identify which aspects are similar (or deterministic) and which
are dissimilar (due to stochastic processes). What we find
is that deterministic processes generally have long timescales
on the order of a decade or more, while stochastic variability
occurs on shorter timescales. --Ackerman, PSCF, 66(4), p 244
48
One way we seek to understand the relationship between
deterministic and stochastic processes is to run our models
many times for the same set of prescribed external climate
forcings such as solar variability and changing greenhouse
gas concentrations. We can then look at the multiple runs to
identify which aspects are similar (or deterministic) and which
are dissimilar (due to stochastic processes). What we find
is that deterministic processes generally have long timescales
on the order of a decade or more, while stochastic variability
occurs on shorter timescales. --Ackerman, PSCF, 66(4), p 244
Our models show us that from day-to-day or even year-to-year,
our weather is variable because of random processes. But
more forceful processes, working over longer periods of time,
override the short-term, random fluctuations to give us
confident predictions from decade-to-decade or longer.
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Student (Associate) Membership
Student: Premier membership available at $20/year to
anyone enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate
program or advanced high school students; Print
copies of PSCF are offered as well as electronic;
eligible for annual meeting free registration and
scholarship.
Student Basic: Available free of charge to anyone
enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program or
advanced high school students; Electronic publications
only; not eligible for annual meeting free registration or
scholarship.
51
Lesson Six:
Scientists and CitizenScientists can write
beautiful prose.
52
Lesson Seven:
God is calling all of us
to develop an
environmental ethic!
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Goose Music, pp 228-232
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http://www.lloydspitalnikphotos.com/v/warblers/c
erulean_warbler/cerulean_warbler_R2D2354.jp
g.html
Woodthrush song
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“God blessed them and said to them,
‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.’” Gen 1:28
Global Population
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“God blessed them and said to them,
‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.’” Gen 1:28
57
“God blessed them and said to them,
‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.’” Gen 1:28
“The LORD God took the man and put
him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it.” Gen 2:15
58
“God blessed them and said to them,
‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.’” Gen 1:28
“The LORD God took the man and put
him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it.” Gen 2:15
“Each of you should use whatever gift
you have received to serve others, as
faithful stewards of God’s grace in its
various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10
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7000 species out of
every 1000 will go extinct
every 1000 yrs!!!!
90 species out of every
1000 goes extinct
every 1000 yrs.
0.5 species out of
every 1000 went
extinct every 1000 yrs.
Lect 10
60
7000 species out of
every 1000 will go extinct
every 1000 yrs!!!!
Lect 10
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Lesson Seven:
God is calling all of us
to develop an
environmental ethic!
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Thank You!
Questions?
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