Wilderness is a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two weeks' pack trip, and kept devoid of roads, artificial trails, cottages, or other works of man. Aldo Leopold More Quotes by Aldo Leopold More Quotes From Aldo Leopold A river or stream is a cycle of energy from sun to plants to insects to fish. It is a continuum broken only by humans. Aldo Leopold broken sun rivers Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however, has not yet affirmed their belief. Aldo Leopold ezekiel land belief I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land. Aldo Leopold writing men thinking Then came the gadgeteer, otherwise known as the sporting-goods dealer. He has draped the American outdoorsman with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them. Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle from neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto-trunk and also the trailer. Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the aggregate poundage becomes tonnage. Aldo Leopold gadgets pockets self We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive. Aldo Leopold nature land people When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: He could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants. Aldo Leopold creating land tree Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. Aldo Leopold nature land men Once you learn to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you. Aldo Leopold pleasant no-fear land Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. Aldo Leopold nature beautiful art Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest. Aldo Leopold public-interest conservation interest We face the question whether a still higher "standard of living" is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. Aldo Leopold wild-and-free cost faces The road to conservation is paved with good intentions that often prove futile, or even dangerous, due to a lack of understanding of either land or economic land use. Aldo Leopold understanding land use We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view. Aldo Leopold hunting eye mean One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring. Aldo Leopold summer doe spring It must be poor life that achieves freedom from fear. Aldo Leopold poor-life achieve poor Tell me of what plant-birthday a man takes notice, and I shall tell you a good deal about his vocation, his hobbies, his hay fever, and the general level of his ecological education. Aldo Leopold hay-fever hobbies men For unnumbered centuries of human history the wilderness has given way. The priority of industry has become dogma. Are we as yet sufficiently enlightened to realize that we must now challenge that dogma, or do without our wilderness? Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master? Aldo Leopold priorities challenges might Our children are our signature to the roster of history; our land is merely the place our money was made. There is as yet no social stigma in the possession of a gullied farm, a wrecked forest, or a polluted stream, provided the dividends suffice to send the youngsters to college. Whatever ails the land, the government will fix it. Aldo Leopold government college children In that year [1865] John Muir offered to buy from his brother ... a sanctuary for the wildflowers that had gladdened his youth. His brother declined to part with the land, but he could not suppress the idea: 1865 still stands in Wisconsin history as the birth-year of mercy for things natural, wild, and free. Aldo Leopold brother years ideas How would you like to have a thousand brilliantly colored cliff swallows keeping house in the eaves of your barn, and gobbling up insects over your farm at the rate of 100,000 per day? There are many Wisconsin farmsteads where such a swallow-show is a distinct possibility. Aldo Leopold wisconsin over-you house
