"Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to perserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." — Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold: In Burlington and beyond.

By Jerry Rigdon – co-founder, Leopold Heritage Group 
  
Much has been written about Aldo Leopold’s youth in Burlington, Iowa. The influence of his father Carl, an avid hunter, on Aldo’s developmental years in regard to the wild and the natural world — the influence his grandfather, Charles Starker had on young Aldo in regard to how the human mind can interact with nature — and the influence his mother, Clara Starker Leopold, had on developing his writing skills. The young Leopold became an astute observer, a recorder of the natural world. He kept a journal, a bird list, drew maps of his “tramps” in and around Burlington. His later writings were much influenced by these early disciplines. (keep reading)

Bringing up Aldo

— By Bob Hansen, for The Hawk Eye, April 17, 2010

It would be difficult to underestimate Aldo Leopold's contribution to our present relationship with the wild or to add to the extensive examination of his work as an environmentalist, but our ability to know the man himself always seems slightly out of our grasp. Perhaps one solution to understanding the forces that shaped the man would be to examine his childhood as the oldest and favorite child of a prominent and wealthy Burlington family. (keep reading)

Leopold's Land Ethic and Christian Stewardship

By Jerry Rigdon — co-founder, Leopold Heritage Group

Several places in "A Sand County Almanac" have idiomatic phraseology that are inspired by Bible passages. Little additions in the poetry of Leopold’s writing colored by, most likely, a first-hand knowledge of scripture “the sparrow that falleth,” in the first paragraph of “65290.” This along with “I suspect what the chickadee learns in Sunday school: thou shalt not wander into windy places in winter, and thou shalt not get wet before a blizzard;” allusions to King James language. (read the complete essay)