The Legacy of Aldo Leopold
The Hanover Conservancy has launched a year-long celebration of the legacy of Aldo Leopold. Leopold’s gift to the world was to articulate that “community” is a concept that must include not only humans and the habitat they construct for themselves, but also the natural surroundings – woods, waters, wildlife – that provide the context for human life. Later conservationists have referred to these essential as “green infrastructure.”
When we celebrated our 50th anniversary on the summit of Balch Hill in September, 2011, we recognized two key partners (Vicki Smith, Hanover’s Senior Planner and Jeanie McIntyre, Upper Valley Land Trust President) with gifts of benches originally designed by Aldo Leopold for his farm in Sand County, Wisconsin. (Plans for this bench will be posted shortly here).
In February and March, we are hosting a series of screenings of Green Fire, a documentary about Leopold’s life and legacy. In our e-newsletters throughout the rest of the year, look for seasonal excerpts from Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac.
Leopold on February: “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from a furnace.
To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue. To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons…and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the weekend in town astride a radiator.” – A Sand County Almanac
Considered by many as the father of wildlife management and of the United States’ wilderness system, Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast.
Born in 1887 and raised in Burlington, Iowa, Aldo Leopold developed an interest in the natural world at an early age, spending hours observing, journaling, and sketching his surroundings. Graduating from the Yale Forest School in 1909, he eagerly pursued a career with the newly established U.S. Forest Service in Arizona and New Mexico. By the age of 24, he had been promoted to the post of Supervisor for the Carson National Forest in New Mexico. In 1922, he was instrumental in developing the proposal to manage the Gila National Forest as a wilderness area, which became the first such official designation in 1924.
Following a transfer to Madison, Wisconsin in 1924, Leopold continued his investigations into ecology and the philosophy of conservation, and in 1933 published the first textbook in the field of wildlife management. Later that year he accepted a new chair in game management – a first for the University of Wisconsin and the nation.
In 1935, he and his family initiated their own ecological restoration experiment on a worn-out farm along the Wisconsin River outside of Baraboo, Wisconsin. Planting thousands of pine trees, restoring prairies, and documenting the ensuing changes in the flora and fauna further informed and inspired Leopold.
A prolific writer, authoring articles for professional journals and popular magazines, Leopold conceived of a book geared for general audiences examining humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Unfortunately, just one week after receiving word that his manuscript would be published, Leopold experienced a heart attack and died on April 21, 1948 while fighting a neighbor’s grass fire that escaped and threatened the Leopold farm and surrounding properties. A little more than a year after his death Leopold’s collection of essays A Sand County Almanac was published. With over two million copies sold, it is one of the most respected books about the environment ever published, and Leopold has come to be regarded by many as the most influential conservation thinker of the twentieth century.
Leopold’s legacy continues to inform and inspire us to see the natural world “as a community to which we belong.”
Learn more about Aldo Leopold and how the Aldo Leopold Foundation continues to carry on his work.
Celebrating Dartmouth’s Conservation Partnership
Dartmouth College is Hanover’s largest landowner and most significant local conservation partner, whether we look at acres or number of parcels preserved, neighbors benefited, or miles of trail protected.
The College’s major contributions to Hanover Conservancy properties have been to the Balch Hill Natural Area, where Dartmouth owns undeveloped land east of the summit and welcomes public access, and especially to the Mink Brook Nature Preserve. Dartmouth’s role at Mink Brook was not known to the public until recently. It was Dartmouth’s (then anonymous) substantial financial gift that made the conservation of the 112 acre Mink Brook parcel possible.
At our 50th Annual Meeting in December, 2011, President Nancy Collier presented retiring Dartmouth Director of Real Estate Paul Olsen, and Director of Campus Planning Joanna Whitcomb, with a framed photograph of Mink Brook embellished with a chronology of Dartmouth’s conservation achievements since 1960. The list includes conservation easements, donations, support for protective re-zoning, and property transfers, affecting over 2800 acres.
An article about the Hanover Conservancy’s relationship with the College appeared in Dartmouth>Now shortly afterward.
