A Sand County Almanac

Rating:
Summary: An Environmental Classic
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: What Do You Value?
Review: 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.

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.

Marilyn Glaser, Student
Great Basin College

Rating:
Summary: A poetic journey for the diehard environmentalist
Review: Are you one of those people who actually likes to read Thoreau? Well then you're missing out! Aldo Leopold is sooooo much better. Leopold's writing is poetic yet it also calls the common person to action. Likewise Leopold walks the walk when it comes to protecting the environment. While this book isn't exactly page turning, if you like authors like Thoreau, then you should definitely check out The Sand County Almanac, which is the bible to environmentalists. Random Excerpts:: There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot...the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech. ___Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers.:: If you are a die hard environmentalist (or you just like to read poetic stuff) this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Superb and thoughtful writing by a noted conservationist
Review: If you have ever loved a wild place, or a secret place, or a place which calmed and sheltered you from the hustle of modern life, you must read Aldo Leopold's classic "A Sand County Almanac." Leopold, a noted conservationist, puts forth a sort of collection of musings, essays, arguments, and general thoughts on anything and everything having to do with nature. He covers water conservation, the migration of seeds and spores, hunting, the crumbling of a tree into loam from which another tree will eventually grow. At his very best, Leopold raises both the level of discourse and the level of writing to something that can stand with the finest literature:

"Within a few weeks now, Draba, the smallest flower that blows, will sprinkle every sandy place with small blooms. He who hopes for spring with upturned eye will never see so small a thing as Draba. He who despairs of spring with downcast eye steps on it, unknowing. He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance. Draba asks, and gets, but scant allowance of warmth and comfort; it subsists on the leavings of unwanted time and space. Botany books give it two or three lines, but never a plate or portrait. Sand too poor and sun too weak for bigger, better blooms are good enough for Draba. After all, it is no spring flower, but only a postscript to a hope."

When Leopold can describe a tiny nothing of a plant with such delicacy, beauty, and restraint, you know that you are reading the work of a rare and informed writer. I could quote from the book forever, as the gorgeous passages are many, but I urge you to read it yourself instead and discover an enduring voice in defense of the American wilderness.

Rating:
Summary: A World Classic - Required Reading
Review: Long considered the first book on conservation, this should be read by everyone. The author's love of land, wildlife and nature are fully expressed. Those thoughts are followed by philosophizing on conservation - ethics, practice, economics, etc. Written in the nascent stages of conservation in this country, a time when it was more thought than practice, the issues still resonate today. One sees the difficulties both in expanding environmental conservation as well as the pitfalls and errors made in the area (with all good intent) since the forties when Leopald wrote.
Portions of this were assigned when I was in college. Now, 28 years later, the entirety means much more. It should be required reading for everyone, especially lovers of the outdoors.

Rating:
Summary: This book is horrible.
Review: The short essays in this subtly powerful environmental classic are filled with poetic images and personal perspectives, some of which have become mantras for the ecologically-minded: Thinking Like A Mountain; The Ecological Conscience; and Defenders of Wilderness.

"When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect," Leopold wrote....

May we all see, belong, and love.

Rating:
Summary: This book may change your life
Review: This book is as original as its author. The format is one that follows the seasons of a year, and is driven by a collection of essays that implore the reader to look within for that deep connection to the land that shaped us as a species.

Aldo Leopold may have influenced the modern environmental movement, but what he really gave birth to was the common man conservation movement. An avid hunter and student of the land, he believed that the key to any successful conservation movement depended on the cooperation of the small landowner.

His "land ethic" philosophy branched out to many other relevant topics; such as his argument that wilderness was a valuable cultural resource, as well as being vital to scientific study. At one point, he asks, "Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"

The most striking thing about Aldo Leopold to me is that his words only become more relevant and more pressing as time goes on. This man has some important things to say. Please listen.

Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: This is a profoundly insightful and important book that ranks among the most significant American books of the Twentieth Century. It would be a mistake to describe this book as "nature writing" per se, or of that genre. It is a series of essays in wonderful prose in which nature, outdoor settings or situations provide the backdrop. But it is not written as a naturalist droning about the wonders of some aspect of nature. It is an inspired and deeply insightful description, by a man who clearly has a deep understanding of how nature works, about the ethical dimensions of our relationship with the land and our environment generally. Despite the simple elegance of the writing style, it can be seen (and I know from biographical information) the author draws from a vast experience and knowledge far outside the confines of the wildlife management, which was his professon. The ideas expressed, and the many quotable passages are a treasure trove for anyone interested in broad ideas, not to mention readers whose professions involve recreation, wildlife, natural resources management, the environment, and the teaching of these disciplines as well as ethics, philosophy, and english literature. In sum, this is a must read for virtually anyone who wishes to be familar with important American literature, as well as those with a particular interest in the environment, environmental ethics and philosophy.