A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)
by Aldo Leopold
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Book Summary Information
Author: Aldo LeopoldBrand: Leopold
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1986-12-12
ISBN: 0345345053
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780345345059
- Condition: New
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Book Reviews of A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)
Book Review: Learn of Environmental Ethics
Summary: 5 Stars
An American classic, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold extolls the highest virtues attainable in nature when Homo sapiens adopt a land ethic, which recognizes that, regardless of economic considerations, the preservation of the natural environment is an obligation. Leopold introduces the reader to wildlife and the land on a personal level, while stressing the fact that a communal relationship exists between human beings and the earth. Instead of presenting people as domineering conquerors over the environment, Leopold explains that humans are interdependent members of an energy circuit called the biota, which consists of all living animals and plants. [...] Leopold became one of the first to understand history from more than a human perspective. The author recognizes humanity's potential to disrupt the natural flow of energy within an ecosystem, which is a self-regulating, self-sustaining community of organisms in relationship to each other. However, this book challenges the reader to pursue a state of harmony with the environment, by encouraging an internal intellectual change within one's mind, away from economic self-interest and toward a preservation of nature for its own sake.
The text is extremely well written in four parts and lures the reader into later chapters of ponderous discourse by first presenting observations about Leopold's sand farm in Wisconsin. Like an exquisite, delicate wildflower attracts the honey bee with scent, sight, and content, the author unveils a bounteous repast of intimate details concerning history in tree rings, the woodcock's sky dance, natural flora, the range of animals, pine cone reproduction, and how pine needles have terms similar to politicians. In part two, Leopold summarizes forty years of his experiences with the natural world around him and allows the reader into his thoughts. Sometimes the vastness of these chapters in the book overwhelms the reader with feelings of sadness and loss. The author realistically assesses the consequences of humans who think of nature as a commodity by describing the disappearance of marsh land and birds, the farmer's judgement concerning which animals should survive, and the extinct passenger pigeon. The author's literary skill absorbs the reader through the odyssey of X and Y atoms as they tour the biota, the changed Flambeau river, and an especially moving experience-when a wild wolf that Leopold shot dies while staring into the face of his assailant. During part three, the reader, consciously or unconsciously, makes some personal choices about the land ethic. The author is extremely influenced by two types of trees growing on a mountain in Germany, considering one half of the mountain was preserved and the other half was disturbed by farming. Unfortunately, the soil on one side has never recovered and will grow only Scotch pine, while the other side is world famous for its Spessart oak trees. People did not intend to permanently damage the soil, but they did. "The Upshot," part four of this "Bible" of conservation, gets to the heart of the matter by detailing how a land ethic can be decided upon by a society, instituted by those who care, and realized by a change in each person from within.
It is easy to see why this book, A Sand County Almanac, is still quoted today. Has the United States or the world considered instituting a land ethic? Are major decisions involving mining, farming, manufacturing, hydroelectric power, housing construction, waste disposal, recreation, and nuclear energy utilizing a universal land ethic? Why not? Has the scientific world given modern society the answers concerning land and water renewal or how to prevent animal extinction? All of the basic philosophical arguments presented in Leopold's book are still being pondered by conservationists today. Besides explaining why a land ethic is needed, this book is an indictment upon each generation that reads it and yet does nothing. Not only is Leopold's text a good read, but it is also an essential one. These basic principles, written in "The Upshot," should be adopted as the ethical environmental doctrine for the twenty-first century.
1. Land is not merely soil.
2. Certain native plants and animals keep the land healthy. Others may not.
3. Man-made changes are of a different order than evolutionary changes, and have effects more comprehensive than is intended or foreseen. (255)
Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. 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. (262)
Marilyn Glaser, Student
Great Basin College
Elko, NV
Summary of A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)
"We can place this book on the shelf that holds the writings of Thoreau and John Muir." San Francisco ChronicleThese astonishing portraits of the natural world explore the breathtaking diversity of the unspoiled American landscape -- the mountains and the prairies, the deserts and the coastlines. A stunning tribute to our land and a bold challenge to protect the world we love.
Published in 1949, shortly after the author's death, A Sand County Almanac is a classic of nature writing, widely cited as one of the most influential nature books ever published. Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages. In one famous episode, he writes of killing a female wolf early in his career as a forest ranger, coming upon his victim just as she was dying, "in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.... I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view." Leopold's road-to-Damascus change of view would find its fruit some years later in his so-called land ethic, in which he held that nothing that disturbs the balance of nature is right. Much of Almanac elaborates on this basic premise, as well as on Leopold's view that it is something of a human duty to preserve as much wild land as possible, as a kind of bank for the biological future of all species. Beautifully written, quiet, and elegant, Leopold's book deserves continued study and discussion today. --Gregory McNamee
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