Aldo Leopold's Southwest

by Neil B. Carmony

First published in 1990 and now available only from University of New Mexico Press, this volume collects twenty-six of Aldo Leopold's little-known essays and articles published between 1915 and 1948. Leopold worked for the United States Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona from 1909 to 1924. While employed as a forester in the Southwest, he developed his ecological ideas in articles written for newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and journals. Hitherto unavailable to the general public, these pieces show that Leopold was not born an ecologist. On a daily basis, the young forester grappled with concrete ecological problems and groped for practical solutions. He made mistakes and learned hard lessons from them. The sum of his experience is the ecological wisdom of his classic A Sand County Almanac , first published in 1949. The volume editors have arranged this collection to show Leopold evolving from a naive forester to a mature professional and finally to a passionate environmental advocate. They follow each article with useful commentaries on its significance to the development of Leopold's philosophy.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Environment, Travel, Natural History, Essays

260 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent treatment of many of Leopold's less known writing. Many of these either appear in various periodicals or were, in a few cases toward the end of the book, strong book reviews that he had done. The book is made substantially better by the commentary following each piece by the two Editors regarding the writing. As they made strong argument of, Leopold was well out in front of virtually every one of his peers in seeing the true ecology of what was happening in degredated habitats and with declining species. Many of the problem and possible solutions he suggested in these writing were ultimately adopted by organizations and agencies but not for another 30 years and often when it was simply too late. This is a must read for any Leopold fan.

[Todd Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got to love Aldo! Good stuff

[JACOB JARZABEK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great editor’s notes at the end of every selection.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

My workplace (an institute studying wildlife management) wouldn't exist if it weren't for the writings and scholarship of Aldo Leopold, who formed the basics of wildlife and land management while working the National Forest Service in the teens and 1920s. This assortment of essays about ecosystems in the Southwest did a lot to help me understand the sort of work my coworkers and graduate students do, and how ahead of his time Leopold was in assessing ecosystem health.