The Power of Words to Save the World - A Look at Aldo Leopold's Conservation Novel: "A Sand County Almanac"

Aldo Leopold pioneered the conservation movement through his avid support of the environment; furthermore, his novel A Sand County Almanac (1949) has inspired generations of conservationists and environmentalists alike.  According to a 1990 poll of members of the American Nature Study Society, it, along with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, are the “two most venerated and impactful environmental books of the 20^th Century.”  Leopold masterfully describes the land where he lived, Sauk County, Wisconsin, and used this description, as well as sketches of wildlife, to create and shape what he called his “land ethic.”  

            The novel is separated into three distinct sections: “Sand County Almanac,” “Sketches Here and There,” and “The Upshot.”  “Sand County Almanac” is a collection of twelve essays, one for each month of the year.  Primarily, these essays focus on the cyclical changes that took place in the environment surrounding Leopold’s home. The penultimate section of the novel, “Sketches Here and There,” shifts the focus from “time to place;” instead of describing one area over the course of a year, Leopold described many different environments with no linear chronology.  Often, the essays he wrote were autobiographical, telling anecdotes from his childhood.  Perhaps his most famous of these essays, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” recalls a hunting experience in his boyhood, which later had a profound impact upon his “land ethic.”  In it, Leopold describes the killing of a female wolf at the hands of his hunting party.  During that period, conservationists assumed that the elimination of predators would allow more primary and secondary consumers to flourish; however, Leopold realized that the killing of a species has severe effects upon the rest of the surrounding ecosystem.  This idea evolved into the “trophic cascade,” which he develops throughout “Thinking Like a Mountain.”  The concluding section of A Sand County Almanac is “The Upshot.”  It is rightfully named in that in it, Leopold explores his ideas in depth, delving into the ironies of conservation and then, creates a superior approach to conservation, the upshot of his life’s work.  These final essays were vastly different from the rest, in that they focused on environmental philosophy.  Leopold, for instance, argued that the preeminent wildlife trophy is not the head of a prodigious animal mounted upon the wall; instead, it is the experiences one gains from being in the wilderness.  In the final essay of the novel, “A Land Ethic,” Leopold describes the conclusion he has come to in regards to land ethics: “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.”

            Leopold succeeded so greatly because he used rhetorical and philosophical diction and syntax to convey viewpoints non-aggressively, as opposed to many environmentalists who use drastic measures of aggression in an attempt to sway you. As Leopold states, “Conservation is a state of harmony between man and land;” therefore it is obvious that to achieve this, we must come together in harmony, rather than through strife.

While all analysis and writing are mine, I do not claim to have written any of the quotes, and my research is from the following:

A Sand County Almanac. 31 March 2010 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/A_Sand_County_Almanac>.

Callicott, J. Baird. Companion to A Sand County Almanac. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949.

Vance, Sherri. A Classic, Ever New. 31 March 2010 <http://www.treelink.org/woodnotes/vol2/no1/sandcnty.htm>.

Wolves and Deforestation: Thinking like a Mountain. 31 March 2010 <http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html>.