An essential work (first published in 1933) on the principles of wildlife conservation and game management, which still is a must not only for all field researchers, game wardens and rangers, but for all environmentalists, conservationists, etc.
I would admit that it is not an entertaining reading, and it might be partly out of time, but I would insist that this is the best one ever written and it has a universal meaning - the same or similar rules apply to bobwhite in America, grey partridge in Russia, or chukar in Cyprus...
Apart from that, this is the first truly revolutionary study which rejects strictly utilitarian approach and treats man not as a master of the living world, but merely an element of it.
It's not an easy reading, but it's full of ideas and thoughts, please read the quote below:
"A little analogue with humans may add reality to the concept of properties. Man thinks of himself as not subject to any density limit. Industrialism, imperialism, and that whole array of population behaviors associated with the "bigger and better" ideology are direct ramifications of the Mosaic injunction for the species to go the limit of its potential, i.e., to go and replenish the earth. But slums, wars, birth-controls, and depressions may be construed as ecological symptoms that our assumption about human density limits is unwarranted; that we may yet learn a lesson in sociology from the lowry bobwhite, which, as about to be pointed out in this dry chapter, "refuses" to live in slums, and concentrates his racial effort on quality, not ciphers" (page 49).
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is the founder of contemporary ecology and wildlife conservation, who is not just a writer and a scholar - he is a real visionary and a philosopher, whose other book, "A Sand County Almanac"
A Sand County Almanac; with essays on conservation from Round River must be considered as a gospel of ecology (forgive my involuntary sacrilege), and a great reading it is! Leopold is the first to write about land ethics and progress versus wilderness, which we try hard to forget, or to substitute with dangerous and totally false heresy of "sustainable development". We managed to build a totally artificial civilization, based on worshipping unnecessary gadgets and irrelevant gimmicks. The children today can manage all the features of iPod or Smartphone, but they have to clue of the names of wild flowers and butterflies. The real values suggested by Leopold are almost unknown - the quality of life might (and should) be measured in how many species of wild birds are living in the neighbourhood, and how many bushes and herbs grow next to your house...
So-called Earth Summit in Rio brought together 45.000 self-styled environmentalists, heads of states, politicians etc (plus 15.000 policemen and soldiers to protect them), most have never read a word of Leopold, and mainly they admired themselves as saviours of nature, while dining, wining and sunbathing. They caused huge stress to the environment and sewage, they wasted water and energy. For a fraction of the costs the books of Leopold should have been translated into other languages and made available for free (or at low cost) to universities and colleges.
Since I was a young boy I greatly admired wilderness, and I acquired some knowledge, but I had no understanding. I had eyes, but I couldn't see. Aldo Leopold gave me the key equal to the wisdom of King Solomon.
P.S. Get also
The River of the Mother of God: and other Essays by Aldo Leopold