Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is well-known for his book A Sand County Almanac and for his land ethic. Leopold’s often frustrating experiences in single resource management; his belief in democratic values of public outdoor recreation; his concern for protection of native species and ecological systems; his skills as an ecologist (he served as vice president and president of the ESA); his confrontations with what he termed “an economic mindset” toward land prevalent in American society; and still accelerating transformations wrought on nature by human land uses contributed to the clarity of his later work’s purpose. He came to see that the “real objective” of his efforts both as a scientist and a citizen was the “task of bridging the gap” between the workings of nature—a job for science--and human culture, which stepped beyond positivist knowledge
Results/Conclusions
Aldo Leopold’s land ethic reached toward a new, positive conservation goal, which he termed land health. Land health was a conceptual and applied work-in-progress intended to help bridge the gap between ecological realities and human attitudes and sustainable land-use practices. It was based on an up-to-date, graspable, and scientific mental image of the workings of land—drawing on Leopold's own research and that of many other ecologists, including Victor Shelford and Charles Elton. It also incorporated a constellation of utilitarian and moral valuations of nature. Leopold died suddenly leaving behind several unpublished drafts related to land health. He had planned to write a new textbook promoting the idea with a new kind of science to go along with it. The work remains unfinished, still holding significant potential for the task of finding constructive ways to respond to the enduring question: How can modern people prosper and, at the same time, keep nature in thriving condition now and for the future?
