A Sand County Almanac

Rating:
Summary: Nature Lovers Only
Review: "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot."
A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold, is a book written by a man who cannot. A collection of nature-related essays fill this book in hopes of getting others to feel as enthusiastic about the environment as the author does. It is not your stereotypical science novel. It doesn't include any of the things that you would relate to a book dealing with science in any way shape or form. In many ways, it doesn't meet the guidelines for a well-written science book.
The first piece of criteria for a scientific book is scientific terms should be explained thoroughly so that no scientific background is necessary to understand it. This book meets this criterion due to the fact that there are no scientific terms throughout the entire book. There are no confusing words that scientists use to describe anything that is in this book. Therefore, it is easy to understand for all audiences, regardless of scientific background.
The relevance and human value of the book is the next guideline that science writers must follow. This book fails terribly in this category. This book has no value to the everyday person. Most people who read this book will not gain anything from the time that they spend reading it.
Another criterion is that the book should appeal to a wide audience. Again, this book fails to do so. The only person who would read this book would be someone who is a diehard nature lover. Anyone else who picks up this book will surely put it down after reading the first few pages. It was all I could do not to put the book down and take a nap every time I tried to sit down and read it. Most people don't care to read about nature from the viewpoint of someone who mourns for a tree when it dies and associates the end of winter by spotting skunk tracks.
The fourth guideline is that it should be organized logically with a connection of ideas. A Sand County Almanac also fails to accomplish this aspect of scientific writing. Not only does the book jump around from topic to topic at the change of every chapter, the topics aren't even in the least bit related. It skips from skunk tracks to his tree dying and from life in the bog to plant life in Sand County.
The final guideline is that when compared to other scientific works, it has merit. I fail to find anyway at all that this book may be of more value than a book which talks about cures to deadly diseases or scientific discoveries. This book is scientifically pointless. It will never be linked to any great accomplishment that was achieved through reading this book.
After literally forcing myself to read this book, I have made my own scientific discovery-this book is not a well-written scientific work at all. It lacks in the main areas that a scientific book must include to be considered well-written. The only value that I can see this book having is as a fire-starter if you were outside in the freezing cold. I do not recommend reading this book unless you are suffering from insomnia or are truly interested in some nature-obsessed man's recollection of the environment.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating and Timeless...
Review: A book which echos in any environmentalist's heart, pictures of prose which tug at any true conservationist's soul... I first began this book the first weekend of July, 1991, and have read and re-read bits and pieces of it many times since... The words delighted me so, the style was so endearing, I read some of this book aloud on the phone at midnight to a dear friend who was a night-owl and had the patience to hear me out, the kindness to listen, and the good appreciation of fine writing to like what he heard. It will always be a special book, and always, one of my favorites...

Rating:
Summary: A whole different world existing so near & yet so far.
Review: A fine work in which Aldo Leopold personifies all the creatures & flora living in the forest. He knew even then, in the 1940's that their world was at risk, from us & they would lose. As a learning exercise it works & I recommend it espcially to high school students.
The division of the tape into 12 months serving as chapters is also effective as is continiuing story of the felling of a great tree. As they cut deeper we are taken back in time.
A good tape to relax with. Stewart Udalls narration is just right.

Rating:
Summary: Conservation Gospel
Review: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. It is a dull title, but it represents Leopold's modest outlook and his appreciation of the "minor" facets of nature. Leopold's passion is not for some monstrous whale, but instead for the common pine tree and the small and dingy draba plant. Leopold's concepts are right out of any environmental science textbook, but the ideas, the images, the life and the vigor, rudeness, beauty; these are things and ideas that one might expect from Emerson, from Thoreau, and from Muir. It would be more fitting, in fact, to say that the entire course of environmental science, and not to mention the sustenance of conservation and outdoorsmanship, are based upon the unassuming passion presented in A Sand County Almanac. Leopold appreciates and questions and learns from all things wild, and through presentation of and argument for his outlook, Leopold establishes the desperate need to instill in Americans an appreciation of nature.
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There is divided into three defined sections. The first section, A Sand County Almanac, makes few blunt demands but instead develops an example of what treasures can be culled and truths learned from a simple life in nature. One powerful example is Leopold's description of his early morning walks wherein sleep has quelled social boundaries and thus allowed him free reign and exploration across all to which he can walk. The second section, Sketches Here and There, journeys to wilderness across America to show, as Leopold writes in his introduction, "how the company as got out of step." In each case the magnificence of the wilderness is contrasted with tales or prophesies of the inevitable taming influences of business, agriculture, and tourism. Leopold here writes that the natural wilderness of Illinois has been diluted and killed in order to "make Illinois safe for soybeans." The Sketches illustrate a dynamic jump in eloquence from the Almanac, and, as seen in the sardonic soybeans line, show a new level of pugnacity and modest impudence. The Upshot is the final section of the book, and it continues the upward trend of bluntness and eloquence. Leopold himself writes that "only sympathetic readers will wish to wrestle with the philosophical questions of Part III [The Upshot]." This section explains how "the company may get back in step."
One read through this book has caused me to realize that I must read it again. This is because points in the third section give new appreciation of the first. The key way for America to get back into step, The Upshot claims, is to encourage humble appreciation of nature. Because of this, the Almanac becomes no more a simple build up to the Upshot, but instead a necessary example of how one can co-exist with nature.
Leopold argues that nature is not simply a pretty thing and certainly not an empty thing, but that nature is an integral facet of human and global culture. Nature has always been the fuel of American development, allowing the trapping industry, traders, explorers, frontiersmen, miners, farmers, and then cities. The wild frontier presents a difficult paradox in that it cannot be enjoyed without being tamed, it cannot be tamed without being destroyed, and if it is destroyed in cannot be enjoyed. Leopold thus struggles to define what consumption of nature is good and what bad. Sports like fishing and hunting re-enact age-old interactions with nature, yet they also cause the depletion of natural resources (like trees and wilderness and wolves). Perhaps the good hunting and fishing is the kind that is done in quiet and done with love for animals. There is no sin in killing a deer with one shot or an arrow if the deer is killed for food. Camping in nature is admirable unless the camper is overcome by gadgets and civilizing features.
What is needed, of course, is a balance between civilizing comfort and wilderness. Balances require give and take from both sides, yet the wild has given more than enough. Leopold argues that nine tenths of outdoorsmen are fakers that refuse to embrace wilderness but instead cling to their gadgets and their motors and campers and trophies. The final tenth is those who engage in primitive recreation. A canoe trip, if done correctly, can have minimal impact on the environment yet still allow total natural immersion. In respect to the one tenth minority, the government must protect the few remaining wildernesses.
"This is the last call." American wilderness is shrinking and any more encroachment would cause it to collapse. The Great Prairie and the Redwood Forests are already gone. Little is left but there is enough left to save. There are still Redwoods and there is still a unsettled South-West and there is still untouched Alaska and there is still the Superior Forest lands in Minnesota. Nature is the basis of our entire culture, and men must be allowed some untouched museums of wilderness. Industry and tourism have plowed across America and now they must be stopped. "This is the last call."
Sadly, Leopold's last call came in the 1940s. Not enough people heard his call and the wilderness has continued to shrink. But it is still there and it still must be saved in the name of all that is holy. A Sand County Almanac made it clear to me that nature is holy. We fight for God in politics, and we fight for money. But God comes from the mountains and if money can't buy happiness it certainly cannot re-establish the American Buffalo. The great corporations are grand on the scale of the World, but the Great Blue Heron is an epic on another level. What is New York City in comparison to the life in a simple Illinois swamp? The situation is urgent.

Rating:
Summary: Conservation Gospel
Review: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. It is a dull title, but it represents Leopold's modest outlook and his appreciation of the "minor" facets of nature. Leopold's passion is not for some monstrous whale, but instead for the common pine tree and the small and dingy draba plant. Leopold's concepts are right out of any environmental science textbook, but the ideas, the images, the life and the vigor, rudeness, beauty; these are things and ideas that one might expect from Emerson, from Thoreau, and from Muir. It would be more fitting, in fact, to say that the entire course of environmental science, and not to mention the sustenance of conservation and outdoorsmanship, are based upon the unassuming passion presented in A Sand County Almanac. Leopold appreciates and questions and learns from all things wild, and through presentation of and argument for his outlook, Leopold establishes the desperate need to instill in Americans an appreciation of nature.
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There is divided into three defined sections. The first section, A Sand County Almanac, makes few blunt demands but instead develops an example of what treasures can be culled and truths learned from a simple life in nature. One powerful example is Leopold's description of his early morning walks wherein sleep has quelled social boundaries and thus allowed him free reign and exploration across all to which he can walk. The second section, Sketches Here and There, journeys to wilderness across America to show, as Leopold writes in his introduction, "how the company as got out of step." In each case the magnificence of the wilderness is contrasted with tales or prophesies of the inevitable taming influences of business, agriculture, and tourism. Leopold here writes that the natural wilderness of Illinois has been diluted and killed in order to "make Illinois safe for soybeans." The Sketches illustrate a dynamic jump in eloquence from the Almanac, and, as seen in the sardonic soybeans line, show a new level of pugnacity and modest impudence. The Upshot is the final section of the book, and it continues the upward trend of bluntness and eloquence. Leopold himself writes that "only sympathetic readers will wish to wrestle with the philosophical questions of Part III [The Upshot]." This section explains how "the company may get back in step."
One read through this book has caused me to realize that I must read it again. This is because points in the third section give new appreciation of the first. The key way for America to get back into step, The Upshot claims, is to encourage humble appreciation of nature. Because of this, the Almanac becomes no more a simple build up to the Upshot, but instead a necessary example of how one can co-exist with nature.
Leopold argues that nature is not simply a pretty thing and certainly not an empty thing, but that nature is an integral facet of human and global culture. Nature has always been the fuel of American development, allowing the trapping industry, traders, explorers, frontiersmen, miners, farmers, and then cities. The wild frontier presents a difficult paradox in that it cannot be enjoyed without being tamed, it cannot be tamed without being destroyed, and if it is destroyed in cannot be enjoyed. Leopold thus struggles to define what consumption of nature is good and what bad. Sports like fishing and hunting re-enact age-old interactions with nature, yet they also cause the depletion of natural resources (like trees and wilderness and wolves). Perhaps the good hunting and fishing is the kind that is done in quiet and done with love for animals. There is no sin in killing a deer with one shot or an arrow if the deer is killed for food. Camping in nature is admirable unless the camper is overcome by gadgets and civilizing features.
What is needed, of course, is a balance between civilizing comfort and wilderness. Balances require give and take from both sides, yet the wild has given more than enough. Leopold argues that nine tenths of outdoorsmen are fakers that refuse to embrace wilderness but instead cling to their gadgets and their motors and campers and trophies. The final tenth is those who engage in primitive recreation. A canoe trip, if done correctly, can have minimal impact on the environment yet still allow total natural immersion. In respect to the one tenth minority, the government must protect the few remaining wildernesses.
"This is the last call." American wilderness is shrinking and any more encroachment would cause it to collapse. The Great Prairie and the Redwood Forests are already gone. Little is left but there is enough left to save. There are still Redwoods and there is still a unsettled South-West and there is still untouched Alaska and there is still the Superior Forest lands in Minnesota. Nature is the basis of our entire culture, and men must be allowed some untouched museums of wilderness. Industry and tourism have plowed across America and now they must be stopped. "This is the last call."
Sadly, Leopold's last call came in the 1940s. Not enough people heard his call and the wilderness has continued to shrink. But it is still there and it still must be saved in the name of all that is holy. A Sand County Almanac made it clear to me that nature is holy. We fight for God in politics, and we fight for money. But God comes from the mountains and if money can't buy happiness it certainly cannot re-establish the American Buffalo. The great corporations are grand on the scale of the World, but the Great Blue Heron is an epic on another level. What is New York City in comparison to the life in a simple Illinois swamp? The situation is urgent.

Rating:
Summary: Details the magic and mystery in every day nature
Review: A Sand County Almanac is a collection of naturalist writings, where detail and emotional highlights take the reader through an eye opening experience. The author looks at every day natural events, phenomena, and lives...and points out the often missed treasures, magic, and mystery of what surrounds us. While a naturalistic narrative might sound mundane, it is a page turner. Having one's eyes opened to the often ignored beauty that surrounds us is as tantalizing and refreshing as an action or romance novel. The book is magnificently crafted and even naturalist readers are sure to realize new experiences, and even those without past nature experience will be fascinated with these perspectives

Rating:
Summary: Truly brings out the essence of nature
Review: A Sand County Almanac is truly a book which brings ot the essence of nature. To those who love and are conscious of nature, the Sand County Almanac is a spiritually compelling book. Aldo Leopold brings out the wonders of natures four seasons, highlights the joy of the animal kingdom, and futhermore, he stresses the importance of preserving natural resources. A Sand County Almanac looks at conservation in a truly enlightened aspect

Rating:
Summary: Social scientists take note...
Review: A wildlife ecologist friend recommended this to me, and being in the social sciences, I couldn't figure why until I actually read it. Sociologists, economists, psychologists, anthropologists and political scientists have a great deal to learn about our connections with nature and what it really means to be a part of a community. This is the best place to start.

Rating:
Summary: An eloquent portrait of Sand County, nature in our lives
Review: A wonderful read--Leopold teaches us how to be more attuned to our environment and how to be a realistic conservationist. The essays are wonderful, and Leopold's tricks (such as narrating the history of Wisconsin through the cutting down of a tree, description in living color and surround sound) make the reader feel as if s/he is actually sitting with him as he tracks deer, watches geese, and recalls his youth and conservation ethic. A must read for anyone interested in the environment and the world around them!

Rating:
Summary: An Environmental Classic
Review: Aldo Leopold summarizes many environmental movements within this compilation of essays. The Sand County Almanac was one of those university-assigned books that I could not part with and still have today. A must read if you are interesed in the mind of the Wisconsin borne man who set aside the first designated wilderness in New Mexico.