ALDO LEOPOLD
The Legacy of an
American Naturalist
Jan. 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948
Bryan Bates
With assistance from:
The Leopold Foundation, Baraboo WI
Colleen Hyde, Museum Specialist, GCNP
Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold: His Life & Work
•
•
•
•
•
Father: Carl Leopold, grew up in
Missouri, hunted food as kid.
Originally bookkeeper. Worked
for his Uncle, whose daughter was
Clara Starker, so cousin marriage.
Uncle appt’d him manager at
furniture factory, made Leopold
roll-top desks.
Taught children use nature for
only what you need.
Consistently took boys hunting ,
fishing. camping
• Mother: Clara Starker
• Her father ran mercantile and
grocery in Burlington.
• Father planted trees and
garden around home,
attracted birds.
• Carl & Clara planted tree in
yard for each child when born.
• Clockwise, Top left: Aldo,
Marie, Frederic, Carl, Jr.
Aldo’s Childhood:
Learns nature from parents
• Used parent’s yard to learn birds,
plants. 11 yr old monitoring 13 wren
nests.
• After school hiked local woods.
• Mother taught him to write
observations, thoughts, pattern
continued through life.
• Summer camp in WI, loved time there
•
•
•
•
Aldo wanted career outdoors,
forestry best fit, Yale best school.
Burlington High not preparatory
for Yale .
Parent’s reluctantly send to
Lawrenceville School, NJ. Aldo
was 17. Made easy adjustment to
academic rigor.
Took daily “tramps” , wrote
parents every day about nature
observations and class.
Descriptors always nature.
Enchanted by Darwin’s voyage
on Beagle.
Yale Forestry School
•
•
•
•
•
•
Accepted @ Yale Forestry w/
Pinchot scholarship.
Less time in woods, enjoyed
science. Graduated 1909.
Read numerous naturalist
Darwin, Thoreau, Marsh, Muir,
Seton & The Bible (don’t
underestimate)
Muir effect strong, saw
preservation. Leopold saw
wilderness as social and
ecologic value.
Economic lessons @ Yale
influenced by Pinchot (funder
of Yale)
Pinchot’s sustainable use was
economic, Leopold would grow
beyond.
Notice all the dark suits?
Which person is Leopold?
A Growing Nation:
Historic context of Leopold’s Life
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1891 Forest Reserve Act, Pres.
Harrison 13M acres; Pres.
Cleveland 21M acre.
1897 Organic Act creating
National Forest Service
1900 Lacy Act prohibits take/
sell plants, fish, wildlife. 2009
Gibson guitar.
Pres Roosevelt 1901
Antiquities Act 1903
1905, Father proposes 1st game
manage law in Iowa.
1934 Taylor Grazing Act
protects govt. grassland
1937 Pittman Roberts act, tax
on sport equip pays wildlife
protect.
1898 Timber cut in Wisconsin.
Over- extraction of resources
common practice. Wisconsin Historical
Society, 1898 photo lumber harvest.
Context of Leopold’s generation
• Westward expansion had
been achieved.
• Economic growth based
on converting natural
resources to money.
• Transition to oil
economy.
• Perception: resources/
nature inexhaustible.
• “God will provide”.
• Time that land was
converted to fields, rivers
dammed and market
hunting was accepted ,
•
Wisconsin Historical Society,
1938 photo lumber harvest.
Theodore Roosevelt
Oct 27, 1858 –
Jan 6, 1919
26th US President
• His father founded American Museum
Natural History
• Harvard: natural history = lab science;
switch major to political economics.
• Hunting in Dakotas, buys ranch , sees
wilderness loss, forms Boone & Crocket
Club (B&C) to help preserve habitat
• B&C convinced Congress to block
railroad into / commercialization of
Yellowstone
• Adds > 150M acres to Forest Service.
• 1903 1st wildlife refuge Pelican Island
• 1st President to activity advocate for
preservation of wild lands
 150 National Forest
 51 Federal Bird Reservations
 4 National Game Preserves
 5 National Parks
 18 National Monuments
 24 Reclamation Projects
• Leopold was 14 when Roosevelt Pres.
Gifford Pinchot
August 11, 1865
-- Oct 4, 1946
1st Director US Forest
Service
America's first
professional forester
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Graduated Yale 1889. Studied German
forestry learning to manage forest for
sustained yield (economics).
Convinces father start Yale Forestry School,
best forestry school in US. Leopold gets
scholarship.
Joined Nat’l Acad. Science survey leader,
forest from Montana to Arizona. His report
led Pres. Cleveland to sign 21 Million acre
forest preserve.
1898 Dept. Agriculture Pinchot named head
Forestry Division, advised state and private
forests.
1905 organizes American Forest Congress,
convinces resource users forest need scientific
management. Congress creates US Forest
Service in Dept. Agriculture.
1908 Governors Conservation Conference,
scientific management for state forests.
Pinchot kept preservationist like Muir out of
conference.
Choose Greeley as Chief of FS. 1910 fire (NW
US) led Greeley to turn FS into a fire
department, becomes policy fire suppression.
Roosevelt &
Pinchot,
TR advisor on
natural resource
issues.
• Pinchot’s view of nature was
economic.
• Advocated forestry as “the art of
producing from the forest whatever
it can yield for the service of man."
“Use resource for the greatest good
of humans.”
• “Sustainable management” how to
manage forest for consistent
resource production, i.e. money.
• Leopold learned this philosophy at
Yale, in SW recognizes land health of
greater value.
• Pinchot supported Hetch Hetchy
dam, Muir strongly opposed,
Roosevelt was silent. Roosevelt
didn’t sign but past onto Pres. Taft.
John Muir: Key life points
April 21, 1838 – Dec 24,1914
• Mother instills sense of nature and
fairness. All siblings were
River Valley
naturalists in their own right. Muir • John Muir in Kern
• Sierra Club’s 1st President
reads at night. Impressed with
writings of Emerson & Thoreau.
• Studies botany in Wisconsin, goes
to Canada to avoid draft into Civil
War.
• Walks from Canada to Florida,
boards steamship, arrives San
Francisco and immediately leaves
walking to Yosemite Valley.
• Stays in Yosemite for 10 years,
explores extensively, 1st to
hypothesize Yosemite created by
glaciers as opposed to accepted
logic of earthquakes.
John Muir’s
political & social
awareness efforts
Muir guiding Teddy
Roosevelt on 4 day
Yosemite exploration in
1903
• Notices region increasingly
commercialized, writes articles
advocating preservation.
• Univ. California professors begin
Sierra Club, Muir named 1st
President
• Roosevelt reads Muir’s articles.
Takes tour of western lands to see
what needs protection and
spends 4 days with Muir.
• Muir meets with several other
politicians to convince land needs
preservation. He becomes
recognized as visionary leader for
nature preservation.
• On Harriman expedition to
Alaska, he advocates all of Alaska
should be preserved.
Aldo’s early years in SW.
nearly loses job year 1
• After Yale Forestry school equipped
with “forestry knowledge”, arrives
Holbrook 1909 and rides to
Springerville, Arizona.
• Job title “Forest Examiner”, crew
boss to measure tree density, DBH,
etc.; but overplays his authority and
angers workers. His report was
“inaccurate”.
• Has tough conversation with regional
forester Hall who sees Leopold’s
potential; given 2nd chance learns to
work with people. His reports &
ethics greatly improved.
Brief personal history in SW
• 1909 joins Forest Service,
assigned Apache N.F.
• 1911 Transfers Carson N.F.
Deputy Supervisor
• 1912 Marries Estella
• 1913 Acute nephritis, home to
Burlington, Ia.
• 1914 Returns Dist HQ, ABQ on
grazing, then recreational &
game management.
• 1919 Asst Director Operations,
doesn’t like. Submits proposal
to create wilderness areas
w/in forest service
• 1922 formal proposal Gila
Wilderness, signed June 3,
1924, 40 yrs before Wilderness
Act of 1964 ,later named
Leopold Wilderness
Leopold w/ For Asst Yarnell, For Supe Hall;
Below “Mia Casita” Carson Nat'l Forest
Maria Alvira Estella Bergere:
Marries into sheep grazing, landed family
•
•
•
Born 1890, 5th of 12 children of
Eloisa Luna, of royal Spanish
heritage. Manuel Otero
(husband) dies, his family
claiming 1,000’s of acres grazing
sheep. Eloisa returns to family
home, Los Lunas, who control
100,000 acres grazing land.
Eloisa marries Bergere 1886. he
a wealthy New Mexico
politician.
Leopold meets Estella at dance.
Sends daily letters, proposes via
mail after learning his friend
had also proposed . His eloquent
letters help convince Estella, and
Aldo takes time off to travel to
Los Lunas to formally propose.
Leopold’s Iowa family
graciously accept an inter-racial
marriage.
Above, the Bergere family: Estella 2nd from right.
Below: Aldo visiting Estella
Photos from Green Fire, Leopold Foundation.
Connects Livestock with Soil
Erosion
• Overgrazing forests reduces
vegetation that holds soil.
• “The destruction of soil is the
most fundamental economic
loss we can suffer.”
• Fundamentals of Conservation in
the Southwest 1923.“The
overgrazing of our ranges is
chiefly responsible for the
erosion that is tearing out our
smaller valleys and dumping
them into our reservoirs. …the
cessation of overgrazing
[alone] will usually not check
this erosion.”
• 1st to ask if climate change
drives problem. Tree rings no
great change in 3,000 yrs.,
periodic drought ea11yr
• Concept of carrying capacity
Conservation as a Moral Issue
1923 Fundamentals of Conservation in the
Southwest.
One of Leopold’s first serious moral arguments
• “…the privilege of
possessing the earth entails
the responsibility of passing
it on not only to immediate
posterity, but to the
Unknown Future.”
• “we realize the indivisibility
of the earth-its soil,
mountains, rivers, forest,
climate, plants and animalsand respect it collectively
not only as a useful servant
but as a living being.”
The oldest challenge in human
history is to live on the land
without despoiling it. Unpublished
letter.
Fire Prevention or Fuel
Reduction
• Pinchot’s “sustainable
yield” = produce more.
• Fire seen as loss of product.
• 1920 Piute Forestry “It is
probably a safe prediction to
state that should light burning
continue…, our existing forest
would be curtailed to a very
considerable extent. …
prevention of light burning by
National Forest has brought in
growth on large areas where
[tree] reproduction was
hitherto largely lacking.”
• 1919/1920 El Nino large seed
crop seen as good; however,
creates doghair thickets.
• 1924, Grass, Brush, Timber
and Fire in Southern Arizona
observes fire scars stop;
erosion began; PJ forests
begin encroaching grass
parks; where burnt tree
stump, mature seedlings –
~40yr same time
settlement.
• “grass is a much more
effective conserver of
watersheds than foresters were
first willing to admit, and that
grazing is the prime factor in
destroying watershed values.”
• Ties fire suppression to
increased erosion
Hunting & Game Management
• Grows up hunting , fishing,
“taking” food to eat.
• Thought “fewer carnivores
meant hunter’s paradise.”
• Eliminating predators
meant healthier game.
• Wrote mother saying
“killed a wolf and few other
game” Didn’t think of
consequences until grad
student in Madison pushes
subject.
• Hunting licenses method to
limit take and create moral
self-responsibility. Link to
Father 1905
The “Land Ethic” grows out of his
childhood experiences of camping
fishing and hunting with his
father. J. Baird Callicott
Key Points of Life in SW
• Balances what learned at Yale
w/ what works on land.
• Keen observer as kid
continues as adult; willing to
change perspective via
observation and experience
• Recognizes land as a
community. Works on
ecological level, though never
used word.
• Writes good science reports
that often have moral
conclusion; and writes articles
and letters that help him refine
his philosophy.
• Advocates restraint as
opposed to enforcement.
Influence on National Parks
Role of Aldo Leopold on shaping
policy and development of
Grand Canyon
Leopold’s Report on Grand Canyon, 1917
Grand Canyon = Forest Service game preserve
A comprehensive document that covers
everything from regulating businesses
(particularly Ralph Cameron) to
architecture; railroads to road
construction and cost sharing for
maintenance; water usage to camping
and sanitation; game management to
stocking region with game.
Quote, “The Grand Canyon is the most
important single point of contact
between the average American and the
Forest Service. From the standpoint of
disseminating an understanding of
Forest Service work, it is, therefore, the
most important single administrative
unit within the Forest Service.”
Conditions noted in Leopold Report about Concessioners
photo credits: Grand Canyon Railway
and National Park Service public
domain photo archives.
Leopold’s list of visitor concerns
•
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
In the past visitors here, in varying
degrees, have been subjected to:
Discourteous treatment by business
permittees.
Local atmosphere of unrest; visitors
forced to listen to bickering gossip.
Offensive sights and sounds, such as
electric advertising, megaphone
soliciting, etc.
Unsanitary conditions, such as heaps of
stable refuse, accumulated lunch boxes,
etc.
Inconvenient facilities; no information
office; lack of proper trails, toilets, etc.
Non-dependable services, such as rate
cutting by permittees and failure to keep
bookings.
Danger of bodily injury, by reason of
inferior equipment, unattended beast,
and rolling of stones over the rim.
Leopold’s view of Canyon
Village development
• Canyon Rim: For viewing
canyon, hiking and
personal enjoyment.
• Accommodations: Near
Rim but set back, likely
more than current hotels.
• Residence: employee
• Commercial: stores,
concessionaires
• Seasonal Camping:
primarily summer.
• Note affect of vision on
current South Rim.
Advocates Regulating Businesses via
permits
• Advocate publicprivate partnerships
where a permit would
be granted at reduced
(or deferred) rate if the
business improved
roads, trails, safety
(such as perimeter
walls along cliffs),
increased quality of
service, provided
public rest areas and
restrooms.
• Leopold proposes that
the Forest Service
maintain control over
businesses through use
of permitting, and the
authority to investigate
service providers who
maybe manipulating
prices or creating unfair
business practices to
gain an economic
benefit.
Bases public policy on use of
data
Wildlife Management
Grand Canyon National Game
Preserve, USFS, June 1904 per
President Teddy Roosevelt
•
•
•
Stock Hermit Creek & Indian
Gardens with rainbow trout.
Indian Gardens to have quail
and pheasant controlled by
Arizona hunting laws.
Wild burros nuisance to hikers
and threat to food supply for
mountain sheep. Though Az.
law prohibits killing and citizens
may object, “ the killing must
therefore be handled carefully”.
Killing should be done by
Biological Survey (under USGS).
Moves to Wisconsin
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1924 Assist Dir US Forest
Products Lab, leaves 1928
industrial focus lab.
1925-27 Researches wildlife
populations for gun & ammo
makers.
1926ff Teach Game Management,
UWM
1929 Depression hits
1930 Chair Wisconsin Game
Policy Committee, forms
management recommends
1933 Returns SW, CCC manager
on soil erosion. Then full-time
UWM. Begins Arboretum at
UWM.
1935: Founding member
Wilderness Society, buys
dilapidated farm “Shack”,
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fall ’35 Germany, visits managed
forest.
Fall ‘36 trip to Rio Gavilan,
Mexico 2nd trip Fall ‘37.
1939 Chair new Dept. Wildlife
Management, studies deer
populations several years.
1943. WI Gov appts to Wisconsin
Conservation Commission
1944: Assembles 1st articles of
SCA. Rejected by MacMillan 1946,
Knopf 1947; accepted by Oxford
April 14, 1948.
1944; Appointed to International
Scientific Conference on
Conservation of Resources (a U.N.
Conference)by US Sec Interior
Krug
Dies via heart attack when
fighting forest fire started by
neighbor, April 21, 1948
Shack was the
Leopold resort home
Pivotal life change
• Inspired by Arboretum to
restore poorly managed farm,
experiment in what worked.
• Family spent innumerable
weekends, truly bonded.
• Convert chicken coop to home
• Where corn crop extracted soil
nutrients, planted 48,000 trees.
• Restored biodiversity; in 1960’s
Sand Hill Cranes return to
marshland.
Shack = Writings on Land Health
• “There are two things
that interest me: the
relationship of people to
each other and the
relationship between
people and the land.”
1946
• “Conservation will boil
down to the private
landowner acting in the
public interests.”
• “ For one species to morn
the death of another is a
new thing under the
sun.”
Travels to Europe & Mexico
Pivotal life change
• Germany, 1935,
scientific managed
forest lacks healthy
trees and game.
• 1936 & 37 Rio Gavilan,
sees healthy forest, no
human interference
• “It was here that I first
realized that land was
an organism.”
• Land health becomes
major theme of life.
Famous quotes by Leopold
• “The greatest danger in not
owning a farm is believing that
heat comes from a furnace and
food comes from a grocery
store.”
• “Conservation is a state of
harmony between men and
land.”
• “To keep every cog and wheel is
the first precaution of intelligent
tinkering” (when referring to
endangered species) .
• “To those devoid of imagination,
a blank spot on a map is useless,
to others it is the most valuable
part.”
• A thing is right when
it tends to preserve
the integrity, stability
and beauty of the
biotic community. It
is wrong when it
tends otherwise.
“I have intentionally
written this [The Land
Ethic] as a social
treatise. Nothing so
important as a land
ethic is ever written, It
evolves in the mind of
the community.”
• “There are some who can live
without wild things and
some who cannot. These
essays are the delights and
dilemmas of one who
cannot.”
• “We abuse land because we
regard it as a commodity
belonging to us. When we see
the land as a community to
which we belong, we may
begin to use it with love and
respect.”
• “We can be ethical only in
relation to something we can
see, feel, understand, love, or
otherwise have faith in.”
Founding of the Wilderness Society:
Leads to passage of Wilderness Act 1964
Leopold was an “advocate
of restraint”, as opposed
to control. Understood
role & limitations of
government.
“All ethics so far evolved
have one thing in
common, that the
individual is a member
of interdependent parts.
The land ethic simply
enlarges the boundaries
of the community to
include soils, waters,
plants, and animals, or
collectively: the land.”
Leopold’s
Legacy
• Leopold’s influence is huge. He saw
self as a common man, trying to get
humans to look at the community of
nature . Avoided, but influenced
politics.
• His students 1st cadre of naturalist
working to protect nature from
mechanization via economics.
Movement to protect wilderness
comes through him.
• Very involved in creating local
groups to protect and restore nature.
• Asked to be on UN committee for
land health, but died prior to
meeting.
• 4 of 5 children earn PhD in natural
science and 3 serve on National
Academy of Science, only family to
ever have such representation in
science.
The Leopold Family
A Legacy of continuous science
research, conservation , and the
founding of the Leopold Institute.
The Leopold Family
at the “Shack”:
A family of Science
and Commitment
Back row: Aldo, Estella Sr.,
Luna, Starker
Front: Nina, Estella, Gus (dog);
Photo by Carl
Much information for the
following section taken
from Barakat, Cynthia and
Maier, Craig, "Aldo
Leopold's Children". In:
Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds.
Cutler J. Cleveland
(Washington, D.C.:
Environmental Information
Coalition, National Council
for Science and the
Environment).
Starker Leopold 1913-1983
• Berkeley 1946 Assistant Professor of
Zoology and Conservation, 1957 full
Professor & Vice-Chancellor
• Director Sagehen Field Station1965
• Appointed to National Park Service
Special Advisory Board on Wildlife
Management (1962) Sec. Interior
Stewart Udall.
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/onl
ine_books/leopold/leopold3.htm
• Didn’t limit to elk pop but (like
father) addressed management of
wildlife in terms of “community”.
• Elected National Academy of
Sciences 1970.
• Member: Nature Conservancy,
Wilderness Society, Sierra Club
• Greatest contribution =Education
photo from NPS files.
1. Management is defined as any activity directed toward achieving or maintaining a
given condition in plant and/or animal populations and/or habitats in accordance with
the conservation plan for the area.
2. Few world parks are large enough to be self- regulatory ecological units; rather, most
are ecological islands subject to direct or indirect modification by activities and
conditions in the surrounding areas.
3. There is no need for active modification to maintain large examples of the relatively
stable "climax" communities which under protection perpetuate themselves indefinitely.
4. …most biotic communities are in a constant state of change due to natural or mancaused processes of ecological succession. In these "successional" communities it is
necessary to manage the habitat to achieve or stabilize it at a desired stage.
5. Where animal populations get out of balance with their habitat and threaten the
continued existence of a desired environment, population control becomes essential.
This principle applies, for example, in situations where ungulate populations have
exceeded the carrying capacity of their habitat through loss of predators, immigration
from surrounding areas, or compression of normal migratory patterns.
6. The need for management, the feasibility of management methods, and evaluation of
results must be based upon current and continuing scientific research. Both the research
and management itself should be undertaken only by qualified personnel. Research,
management planning, and execution must take into account, and if necessary regulate,
the human uses for which the park is intended.
7. Management based on scientific research is, therefore, not only desirable but often
essential to maintain some biotic communities in accordance with the conservation plan
of a national park or equivalent area."
Luna Leopold, 1915-2006
• Studies hydrology @ Harvard w/
Dr. Bryan who dissuaded Aldo that
humans (as opposed to geology/
climate) were accelerating erosion.
• Dissertation shows how humans
treat land affect rates of erosion.
Advocating science as opposed to
economic manage of water.
• Engineer U.S Soil Conservation
Service (1937-40) then Army
• Completes edit of Sand County
Almanac after Aldo’s death.
• USGS Hydraulic Engineer (1950–
56), Chief Hydrologist (1956–66),
Senior Research Hydrologist (1966–
72).
• 1969 report w/ Marjorie Stoneman
Douglas on potential effects of
development /airport in Everglades
blocked its construction.
• National Academy of Science.
Nina Leopold Bradley, 1917 2011
Driving force behind Leopold
Foundation. Continued to
teach Land ethics and
conservation biology via
Foundation and UW. Often
interviewed and filmed for
Leopold Foundation, ex. Green
Fire.
• BS Geography then studied
Lead poisoning in waterfowl
(1940), Hawaiian Nene
geese,(1950) waterbucks in
Botswana (1960).
• 1999 senior author of National
Academy of Sciences study
evaluating phenological
records (seasonal & climatic
life cycle changes) showing
climate change affecting
Wisconsin ecosystems.
Carl Leopold, 1919-2009
Stayed home longer than
brothers, hunted w/ Aldo,
suggested Aldo record
phenology of “Shack”, took
photos at “Shack”
Planted innumerable trees at “Shack” as
child. 1992 , he & wife restore trees on
highly disturbed 350 acres in Costa Rica.
Tropical Forest Institute still provide trees
restoration w/ carbon offset program.
1941 BS Botany UW; USMC captain WWII
in Pacific; MS & PhD Plant Physiology,
Harvard.
Wrote primary text in Plant Physiology,
over 200 science articles.
1949 Purdue Univ. faculty
1970 NSF Science and Technology Policy
Office , Agriculture.
1975, Nebraska U, Dean Graduate College
& Asst. V-P Research. 1978 Boyce
Thompson Institute for Plant Research
Soluble carbohydrate membranes used to
protect proteins like insulin; then
developed inhalable insulin that delays
onset of Alzheimer's
Estella Leopold, 1927 - present
• 1948 BS UW, 1950 MS UC
Berkley,1955 Ph.D. Yale (all
Botany) studied pollen on
adviser dare.
• USGS study rock cores for
pollen finds Miocene evidence
tropical rainforest Eniwetok
and Bikini Atoll Pacific Ocean.
• Fossil analysis led to Florissant
Fossil Bed Nat'l Mon.
• Opposed dams in Grand
Canyon, oil shale mining CO,
nuclear shipping in WA
• 1967 National Academy of
Science
• 2010 International Cosmos
Prize for contributions to
conservation.
• Photos from Leopold
Foundation
Key Points in Leopold’s Life
• Family values wildlife.
• Consistently writes about
wildlife (child to adult).
• Marries Estella, learns to
work with different
perceptions.
• UW & Shack provide time
to reflect and write about
human interaction with
nature.
• Germany’s ultra managed
forest = lack of ecointegrity.
• Rio Gavilin = eco-stable
forest
• Key characteristic: A
vigilant observer of nature,
• The courage to question
what he had learned in
school/ career,
• The continual synthesizing
of new information, trying
to understand the land as a
community.
• The fortitude to challenge
previously accepted “facts”,
such as “all fires are bad”.
“Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal.
Conservation is an effort to understand and preserve this
capacity.”
Role of Wildlife in Liberal Education, 1942
“ The
most important intellectual of our time was Aldo
Leopold. “ Thomas Merton