Leopold Readings and summaries

"Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land."

The Coral Copse- Copse: A small group of trees. The coral copse is a reference to the grouping of pine trees that Leopold is viewing.

A bird song is one of mystery and beauty to him and he talks about how these songs change with the seasons in this section.

Smoky Gold- The color of tamaracks in the fall months leads to the title of this section; in which Leopold is speaking about a hunt that he went on for ruffed Grouse. He also talks about the ways that the birds become confused by the environment around them.Too Early- In contrast with the title of the section, too early talks about the amazing sights and sounds a person can experience when waking before daybreak.Red Lanterns- The red lanterns which are being talked about are the leaves of the blackberry bush. These red lanterns are guiding points for the hunter of ground birds when in a berry patch.

Leopold also talks about the feelings that surface during a pheasant hunt in fall.

If I Were the Wind- Just as in the way that the geese return in March, they leave in November. This section talks about the views of landscape in the late fall months. The big factor the Leopold uses to bring in a mental image is the cold wind of fall.Axe-In-Hand- This section is about the use of tools and the way that humans view trees.

One of the major threads of this chapter is the idea of the shovel being a giver, and the axe being a taker. Plant selection is also used to demonstrate our unwillingness to change from tradition.A Mighty Fortress- The fortress that Leopold is talking about in this section in the tangle of fallen trees in woodland. He discuss the way that these dead trees eventually become part of living animals and the way that humans clear dead trees to the detriment of woodland creatures.

Home Range- Within this section the use of a home range for both humans and animals is discussed. The way that animals use their homeland and their actions inside and outside of that area tell a lot about the species.

Pines Above The Snow- This section is about the likeness of pines to sacred objects. Leopold suggests that anyone who plants a pine can be put on the same level as gods. He also touches upon the way that pines tell different stories throughout the seasons.65290- This section is about Leopold's love of birds and the way that chickadees are banded and released.

The number refers to the only chickadee banded to ever survive five winters.

Thinking like a mountain is a term coined by Aldo Leopold in his book A Sand County Almanac. In the section entitled "Sketches Here and There" Leopold discusses the thought process as a holistic view on where one stands in the entire ecosystem. To think like a mountain means to have a complete appreciation for the profound interconnectedness of the elements in the ecosystems. It is an ecological exercise using the intricate web of the natural environment rather than thinking as an isolated individual.

Within "Escudilla" he describes the death of the last known grizzly bear in Arizona ("Old Bigfoot"), who made the mountain his home, at the hands of a predator control agent.

Somehow it seems that the spirit of the bear is still there, prowling the huge meadows, lurking in the thick stands of aspen and spruce, wandering the steep slopes that looking down from is like looking out of the window of an airplane.

The essay, penned on the occasion of the dedication of the monument, is widely regarded as the most poignant ever written about extinction.

Cheat Takes Over accounts the invasion of "uninvited ecological guests" such as the inedible cheat grass, favored by overgrazing, and its inconveniences, most notable being the occurrence of destructive fires and the starving of deer.

The third essay is a plea for the preservation of wilderness samples, a wilderness whose diversity gave birth to the diversity of cultures, both kinds bound to be affected by exhaustion,respectively hybridization.The Remnants speaks about the disappearance or fast shrinking of natural habitats such a stall grass prairie, coastal prairies, virgin pineries, coastlines and about their threats.

Wilderness for Recreation talks about the outdoors sports which perpetuate the primitive skills of pioneering travel and subsistence, arguing that the value of recreation is qualitative,"not a matter of cyphers".Wilderness for Science advocates for an ecological approach to curing "land sickness" which is treated mostly symptomatically ("local alleviations of biotic pain"), calling for preserving "abase datum of normality" as norms to a future "science of land health".Wilderness for Wildlife argues that the national parks system does not suffice for the preservation of large carnivores such as grizzlies.Defenders of Wildlife calls for wilderness-minded individuals scattered through all conservation bureaus, in addition to organizations such as The Wilderness Society,concluding that, in the end, "only the scholar understands why the raw wilderness gives definition and meaning to the human enterprise".

The final essay notes the extension of ethical criteria to more and more fields of conduct through human historyThe Ethical Sequence views ethic in ecological as well as philosophical terms, arguing that in spite of accretions to the ethics from individuals to society, there is no land ethic yet, since there are no obligations formulated towards it - land is still viewed as mere property.

The Community Concept proposes the enlargement of the boundaries of community to include the land, changing the role of the human from conqueror to plain member of this community.The Ecological Conscience advocates for a qualitative change in the content of conservation education and its philosophy of values, including obligations to land above those dictated by self-interest.