Leopold, Aldo (1887–1948), conservation scientist, writer, and philosopher.Following graduation from Yale University's Forest School in 1909, Leopold joined the U.S. Forest Service, where he became a leading innovator in soil conservation, range management, recreation planning, game management, and wilderness protection. Concerned by the accelerating loss of the nation's wild lands, he led efforts that in 1924 resulted in the designation of the nation's first wilderness area within the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. After 1928, Leopold devoted himself to the development of wildlife management as a distinct field, first as an independent researcher (1928–1933), then as professor at the University of Wisconsin (1933–1948). His fundamental contribution in these years was to apply concepts from the science of ecology to the management of wildlife populations and habitats. His text
Game Management (1933) was the first in the field.
Through his many nontechnical writings, including policy statements, editorials, and nature essays, Leopold defined a new approach to conservation, one that sought to blend elements of older utilitarian and preservationist traditions within the broader context of contemporary ecological understanding. In the final years of his life, Leopold compiled many of his essays into a collection published posthumously as
A Sand County Almanac (1949).
Sand County became, along with Rachel
Carson's
Silent Spring (1962), a basic text for the later environmental movement. Especially influential was its capstone essay,
The Land Ethic, in which Leopold argued for an expansion of the sphere of human ethical concern to include the natural world. Leopold's writings provided important foundations for such emerging interdisciplinary fields as environmental history, ecological economics, environmental ethics, restoration ecology, and conservation biology.
See also
Conservation Movement;
Environmentalism;
Forests and Forestry;
Muir, John.
Bibliography
Susan Flader , Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude toward Deer, Wolves, and Forest, 1974.
Curt Meine , Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work, 1988.
Curt Meine
