A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.

4/5 rating. 212 pages.

Book #12 of 2021. Read February 3, 2021.

This is an absolute classic in the conservationist and environmental movement.

Aldo is unlike nearly any other writer that I have read. Written in 1949, this book combines a reverence and love for nature and realization that conservation is necessary but failing miserably. Unlike so many in the movement, though, Aldo could be a hunting buddy, fellow fisherman, or just a friend with some acres out in the country. His unassuming attitude is great to hear; especially all while describing the flora and fauna of his acreage with awe and love.

This book is split into three sections: the first the almanac, looking at his land; the second, stories from different natural areas he had visited; and lastly, some thoughts on where to go and how to improve the conservation ethic.

It is amazing to say, but this almanac seems at least as poignant today as it was when it was written. As Aldo points out:

“Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

His views on making a land ethic that involves much more than just economics is something I absolutely love. I also enjoyed a few pithy quotes about travel and enjoying nature:

• “It is only in the mind that shining adventure remains forever bright.”
• “Like the river, we were free to wander.”
• “The life of every river sings its own song, but in most the song is long since marred by the discords of misuse.”
• “Recreation, however, is not the outdoors, but our reaction to it.”

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys nature or is a conservationist of any kind.

Quotes:

“For one to cycle back through again, it has to smack me with such artistry and revelation, I’m forced to accept it as unfinished on the first pass. Returning to it later, finding treasures the younger me missed, feels like contacting a revered teacher from school days and finding an adult friend.” – Barbara Kingsolver

“First of all, salvation begins with love.” – BK

“As long as we live in entirely separate worlds, without comprehension of the others’ language or daily grinds, the door between us is sealed. Not a word will pass from one side to the other.” – BK

“Nothing could be more salutary at this stage than a little healthy contempt for a plethora of material blessings.”

“Such faith, I suppose, is the kind that moves mountains.”

“It did not occur to the Governor that there might be more than one definition of what is good, and even of what is business.”

“Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”

“How like fish we are: ready, nay eager, to seize upon whatever new thing some wind of circumstance shakes down upon the river of time!”

“We know now what was unknown to all the preceding caravan of generations: that men are only fellow-voyagers with other creatures in the odyssey of evolution. This new knowledge should have given us, by this time, a sense of kinship with fellow-creatures; a wish to live and let live; a sense of wonder over the magnitude and duration of the biotic enterprise.”

“It must be poor life that achieves freedom from fear.”

“It did not occur to us that we, too, were the captains of an invasion too sure of its own righteousness.”

“Perception, in short, cannot be purchased with either learned degrees or dollars; it grows at home as well as abroad, and he who has a little may use it to as good advantage as he who has much.”

“To those devoid of imagination, a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.”

“The practices we now call conservation are, to a large extent, local alleviations of biotic pain. They are necessary, but they must not be confused with cures.”

“There seems to be a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me. The Alaskan bears are a distinct species. Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there.”

“In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo Sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”

“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.”

“Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.”

“[Q]uit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem.”

“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.”

#aldoleopold #asandcountyalmanac #nature #conservation #savetheearth #gooutside

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