# Aldo Leopold



## Nicodemus (Apr 12, 2012)

How many of you have read the writins` of this man?


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## NCHillbilly (Apr 12, 2012)

I have, keep most of his books on my shelf. He was a voice of reason, and way ahead of his time, IMO. I think a copy of Sand County Almanac should be issued with every property deed.


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## Mechanicaldawg (Apr 12, 2012)

I've read most of his work with the exception of some his technical manuals concerning hydraulics.

Not that I didn't try to read those, but found them to be over my unedukated head!

"Round River" is one of my favorites.


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## Nicodemus (Apr 12, 2012)

A Sand County Almanac, and Round River. A lot can be learned from them if some of this younger generation would read em.


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## Mechanicaldawg (Apr 12, 2012)

Nicodemus said:


> A lot can be learned from them if some of this younger generation would read em.



Absolutely!

BTW, you can get "Sand County" in audio now. I have it on my Ipod and subject my grandchildren to portions of it every chance I get!


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## NCHillbilly (Apr 12, 2012)

I sure would have liked to have been along on some of those trips in his journal entries.


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## miles58 (Apr 12, 2012)

Nicodemus said:


> How many of you have read the writins` of this man?



I read them every couple of years just to keep me balanced.  I've been to the place and it's a worthwhile trip.  Don't know if they still hold classes there anymore but I would think so.

Dave


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## LKennamer (Apr 12, 2012)

*Read pretty much everything I can find*

His book Game Management is basically the first textbook for wildlife management.  Some of the topics have changed over time as research has progressed, but it is still relevant.  I carry Sand County Almanac with me in my hunting pack.  Seems right to read it in the woods. Note my sig line.


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## Lukikus2 (Apr 12, 2012)

Not I. But I will now.


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## Hooked On Quack (Apr 12, 2012)

Nic can read ???


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## Jake Allen (Apr 12, 2012)

Hooked On Quack said:


> Nic can read ???



IMO, one will do well to never under estimate Nick. 

Thanks for the reading tip sir. I now have Sand County Almanac on the way to the house.


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## Kawaliga (Apr 12, 2012)

I've read them, and learned a lot. He really loved his little farm, and died of a heart attack trying to put out a controlled burn that got away.


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## hogana (Apr 15, 2012)

In college,  I took an environmental science class in which  Sand County Almanac was a required reading.  Good class...and a great book.  I still have that copy and take it out every so often to review.


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## chehawknapper (Apr 22, 2012)

Required reading for Wildlife students at ABAC during my time. My originals are so worn out I bought new ones to loan out to folks.


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## Timberman (Apr 23, 2012)

required reading at my house...


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## walkinboss01 (Apr 23, 2012)

I picked a copy up on Ebay the other day for $1.95. No joke. I can't wait to start reading it. Thx-


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## Coastie (Apr 28, 2012)

Yes, great books. Maybe they should be required reading along with hunter education courses for getting a hunting license.


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## shakey gizzard (Apr 29, 2012)

Coastie said:


> Yes, great books. Maybe they should be required reading along with hunter education courses for getting a hunting license.



Great idea!


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## weathermantrey (Apr 29, 2012)

It was required reading in a class I took at Clemson University. It should definitely be required reading before you can get a hunting license.

“Thinking like a mountain” is probably my favorite work by Leopold.


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## weathermantrey (Apr 29, 2012)

Thinking Like a Mountain 
By Aldo Leopold

A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world. Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet. Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.
Those unable to decipher the hidden meaning know nevertheless that it is there, for it is felt in all wolf country, and distinguishes that country from all other land. It tingles in the spine of all who hear wolves by night, or who scan their tracks by day. Even without sight or sound of wolf, it is implicit in a hundred small events: the midnight whinny of a pack horse, the rattle of rolling rocks, the bound of a fleeing deer, the way shadows lie under the spruces. Only the ineducable tyro can fail to sense the presence or absence of wolves, or the fact that mountains have a secret opinion about them.

My own conviction on this score dates from the day I saw a wolf die. We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the foot of which a turbulent river elbowed its way. We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water. When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings. What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock.

In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy: how to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide-rocks.

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes - something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that 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.

Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers.

I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades. So also with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea.

We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world. Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.


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## rip18 (Apr 29, 2012)

Yep, a wise man far ahead of his time.  

I've been privileged enough to meet his late daughter and visit the "shack" at his farm.


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## Studawg170 (Apr 29, 2012)

Every outdoorsman should read A Sand County Almanac at the very least.....

nad I feel the same way about Ruark's Old Man and the Boy


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## Etter2 (Apr 29, 2012)

From the way people on here talk about coyotes, I doubt many have read any of it.


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## T.P. (Apr 30, 2012)

Etter2 said:


> From the way people on here talk about coyotes, I doubt many have read any of it.



Yup...


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## redlevel (Apr 30, 2012)

rip18 said:


> Yep, a wise man far ahead of his time.



You are talkin' 'bout Nick, ain't'cha?


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## shakey gizzard (Apr 30, 2012)

redlevel said:


> You are talkin' 'bout Nick, ain't'cha?



He is a wise man!


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## buckslayer09 (Feb 26, 2013)

He writes some good stuff


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## Oddball (Mar 6, 2013)

Never heard of him, but I will check out Sand County. I googled the book and found a Wikipedia entry about it with the following quote from the book: "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." Seems to me this applies to a whole lot more than just wildlife conservation these days with the big food corporations and their dangerous genetically altered and chemical laden crop seeds and foods. Sounds like Aldo Leopold was a wise man.


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## BornToHuntAndFish (Mar 8, 2013)

Unfortunately, I do not know much about him but I sure do like & use hunting scopes with the same last name.  


I browsed a bit of his background at the web link below:  


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold 

Aldo Leopold

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

"Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold more than two million copies." 



Hope ya'll will post more brief wise quotes or summary highlights of his wisdom we can all learn from.  


Here's a quote from him that I saw on the B&C Facebook web page below:  


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...7.187519.211465339777&type=1&relevant_count=1


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## Oddball (Mar 9, 2013)

BornToHuntAndFish said:


> Unfortunately, I do not know much about him but I sure do like & use hunting scopes with the same last name.



Those scopes are Leupold, not Leopold. No relation I'm sure.


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## Killdee (Mar 9, 2013)

Speaking of this anyone have a Leupold Bench at deer camp. We have built a few over the years and they are quite comfy!!

https://www.google.com/search?q=leo...ATDq4DYDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=653


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## 308-MIKE (Mar 19, 2013)

weathermantrey said:


> Thinking Like a Mountain
> By Aldo Leopold
> 
> A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world. Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet. Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.
> ...



thanks for posting this. it had me in awe.
 lately, due to health issues, i've been reading a lot of books and stories about hunting and the outdoors. they're not hunting stories, like you see those people on tv live, but they're stories where the kill isn't the end of the hunt, but more of a spiritual transport into the ways and means of nature. where, instead of yipping and hollering, like a fool, at the kill, there's a sense of grace, thankfulness, and responsibility to the animal. i'm currently reading a book called "A Hunter's Heart- Honest essays on blood sport" stories collected by David Petersen. there's an essay i just finished called "before the echo" by Peter Dunne. the opening paragraph:
"When I was young I was a hunter, walking wooded hillsides with confident steps, and a gun in my hands. I knew the blur of wings, the rocketing form, and the Great Moment that only hunters know, when all existence draws down to two points and a single line. And the universe holds it's breath. And what may be and what will be meet, and become one-before the echo returns to its source". although, i detest the mans policies and politics, there is a great essay in there by jimmy carter .
i guess my point is with my age, and circumstance, the seemingly confusing issues in the world around us, i find myself looking more and more to nature. for answers, signs of stability, and peace. i have already looked to buy a couple books by Aldo on amazon.
nic, thanks for starting this thread.


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## Nicodemus (Mar 19, 2013)

308-MIKE said:


> thanks for posting this. it had me in awe.
> lately, due to health issues, i've been reading a lot of books and stories about hunting and the outdoors. they're not hunting stories, like you see those people on tv live, but they're stories where the kill isn't the end of the hunt, but more of a spiritual transport into the ways and means of nature. where, instead of yipping and hollering, like a fool, at the kill, there's a sense of grace, thankfulness, and responsibility to the animal. i'm currently reading a book called "A Hunter's Heart- Honest essays on blood sport" stories collected by David Petersen. there's an essay i just finished called "before the echo" by Peter Dunne. the opening paragraph:
> "When I was young I was a hunter, walking wooded hillsides with confident steps, and a gun in my hands. I knew the blur of wings, the rocketing form, and the Great Moment that only hunters know, when all existence draws down to two points and a single line. And the universe holds it's breath. And what may be and what will be meet, and become one-before the echo returns to its source". although, i detest the mans policies and politics, there is a great essay in there by jimmy carter .
> i guess my point is with my age, and circumstance, the seemingly confusing issues in the world around us, i find myself looking more and more to nature. for answers, signs of stability, and peace. i have already looked to buy a couple books by Aldo on amazon.
> nic, thanks for starting this thread.





Your welcome, and a very good post you made. You went right to the heart of what is good. Another good book by David Peterson is ON THE WILD EDGE        In Search Of A Natural Life.

I highly recommend it too.

http://books.google.com/books/about/On_the_Wild_Edge.html?id=otSYBMy2JMoC


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## joedublin (Mar 22, 2013)

Nic...just finished reading Sand County Almanac....great book, and it brought back a lot of old memories of learning to hunt and fish  with my Dad and my Uncle Charlie in North and South Carolina back in the real early 1950's.


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## biggdogg (Mar 22, 2013)

just got a copy of Sand County Almanac. So far it's a great read.


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## RIGSBN8R (Mar 26, 2013)

I just ordered a copy as well.  I am looking forward to it!


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## Mechanicaldawg (Mar 28, 2013)

I know I mentioned "Round River" previously, but you really should try it. It is basically Aldo's journal entries from his hunting adventures out west in the days when things weren't as easy as they are today.

His hunting trips were adventures.


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## crackerdave (Apr 10, 2013)

Nicodemus said:


> A Sand County Almanac, and Round River. A lot can be learned from them if some of this younger generation would read em.




It's a sorry situation, but I think the majority of kids don't read any more than they have to.


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## dixiecutter (Apr 13, 2013)

got the book. read half of it so far. thanks for the heads up. next trip to the woods might be a little different.


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## BornToHuntAndFish (Apr 25, 2013)

Last night I saw parts of a TV show or documentary on public television or PBS about Aldo Leopold.  

After some quick web research about it, here's a bit of what I found below. 



http://www.aldoleopold.org/ 

OR 

http://www.aldoleopold.org/greenfire/PR.shtml 

OR 

http://www.aldoleopold.org/greenfire/

OR 

https://www.aldoleopold.org/greenfire/publictv.shtml 


Public Television : Stations and Dates 

Georgia	Atlanta	Public Braodcasting Atlanta	 Wednesday	4/24/2013	12:00 AM

Georgia	Statewide	Georgia Public Broadcasting	Saturday	4/27/2013	1:00 AM 








Leopold Film to air on PBS Nationwide for Earth Day 

Baraboo, Wisconsin

April 9, 2013 












Green Fire trailer 2:15min

 

Published on Apr 19, 2012

"The first full-length documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, Green Fire highlights Leopold's extraordinary career, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement. Leopold remains relevant today, inspiring projects all over the country that connect people and land."


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