"A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold was
first published in 1949. I have the Oxford University Press paperback edition
(the one with the honkers at the cover). As far as I understand, this edition
contains all of the original work. Other editions leave out parts of sections
II and III. The OUP edition is beautifully illustrated by Charles W. Schwartz.
Although less known than Carson's "Silent Spring", Leopold's "A
Sand County Almanac" is considered a classic by the conservationist and
environmentalist movements. Leopold was a leading conservationist himself and a
co-founder of the Wilderness Society, an organization devoted to the expansion
and protection of wilderness areas. Deep ecologists consider "A Sound
County Almanac" a precursor to their own philosophy, because of Leopold's
attempt to formulate a "land ethic" which takes into consideration
the entire "biotic community", not just humans. Said Leopold: "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."
Most of the almanac consists of short descriptions and reflections on wildlife,
most of them based on observations around Leopold's backwoods farm in
Wisconsin. He seems to have deliberately obtained a small and run down piece of
property. Occasionally, the area was so flooded that Leopold couldn't make it
to his job (he was professor at the university of Wisconsin-Madison).
Often, Leopold's sketches simply deal with the beauties of trees, flowering
plants and animals (such as honkers). The author also writes about his hunting
trips - in contrast to animal rights activists, Leopold was no vegan. However,
he seems to have given up killing large mammal predators, preferring instead to
hunt birds strictly for food. Still, this part of the book will definitely be
objectionable to animal liberationists, as when Leopold glowingly retells a
childhood memory of his first (and succesful) duck hunt.
At other times, Leopold's descriptions of nature and wildlife have a more
political or philosophical tinge. A recurrent theme is the interdependence of
living organisms, as when Leopold muses that his refusal to deal with various
forms of tree sickness around his farm has made the environment more diverse. A
nostalgic encounter with a Silphium plant becomes an opportunity to bemoan the
disappearence of the original prairie landscape. The author admits to like
aspens, tamaracks and cottonwood, three species of trees heartily hated by his
neighbours, not to mention foresters. The message is clear: the trees are good
in themselves, they are aesthetically pleasing and make the environment more
diverse and interesting. That they are economically unviable or a nuisance to
humans should be irrelevant. Leopold's panegyric to the extinct passanger
pigeon is my favourite piece. The fact that humans can mourn the loss of the pigeon,
while the pigeon cannot mourn the loss of humans, is to Leopold what really
makes us higher than the brutes.
In the third section of the book, called "The Upshot", Leopold
presents his philosophical views. He wants to extend ethics to all of creation:
animals, plants and the land itself. He attacks the massive tourism in
wildnerness areas, and in general opposes human encroachments on wild nature.
He doesn't idealize farmers as somehow being closer to the land. Quite the
contrary: there are plenty of sharp attacks on farmers in this book, farmers
who farm for profit only, and take conservationist measures only if given
handouts from the public treasury. It seems that Leopold is calling for more
government regulation. National parks should be made much larger by buying out
farms or compensating the farmers for livestock lost to predation. Obviously,
this can only be done by state or federal authorities.
"A Sand County Almanac" criticizes the utilitarian and economic ethos
of modern civilization, where animals and plants are saved only to the extent
they are believed to be useful to humans. The author believes that only about
5% of the species of "higher" animals and plants found in Wisconsin
have economic value for humans. Yet, all species have the right to exist, since
the stability of the environment or "biotic community" as a whole
depends on it. (Presumably, this principle also applies to environments that
aren't economically useful to humans.) I get the impression that Leopold was
somewhat pessimistic about the prospects of saving nature from the
encroachments of modern civilization. The situation has hardly improved since
his death in 1948.
Despite its descriptions of animals and plants, "A Sand County
Almanac" isn't a natural history. Nor is it a stringent philosophical
work. The chapter on the land ethic isn't argued at great length. "A Sand
County Almanac" is rather a series of short meditations on nature,
wildlife and the human predicament. If you like it or not probably depends on your
mood or personal attitude.
People who feel nothing when walking in a park or visiting a duckpond won't
like the "real" nature sketches in this book. Those who admire the
steelworks of Hank Rearden or railways of Dagny Taggart will reel! As already
noted, animal rights activists will (ironically) be horrified by the author
shooting grouse, partridges and ducks. Even more ironically, the almanac might
strike avid hunters and outdoorsmen as too boring. Most of the time, Leopold
doesn't stray far from his small farmstead and the beloved tamaracks. He is no
Bernd Heinrich, hot on the trail of wolves in Yellowstone and fascinated by
their blood-curling hunts. Nor is he ready to throw geese to caged, hungry
ravens just to see some action!
"A Sand County Almanac" is a book for those who like solitude, peace
and quiet, and don't necessarily identify wilderness with Alaska or the
Rockies. A bit of nostalgia about what has been lost will also help you grasp
the deep ecology of Aldo Leopold.
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