For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings [Hardcover]

Aldo Leopold (Author), J. Baird Callicott (Editor), Eric T. Freyfogle (Editor), Scott Russell Sanders (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1559637633 | ISBN-13: 978-1559637633 | Publication Date: September 1, 1999 | Edition: 1

A collection of previously unavailable essays by environmentalist Aldo Leopold, building on the tradition of ethical land use and developing the concept of "land health" and the practical measures landowners can take to sustain it. Containing over 40 short pieces arranged in a seasonal "almanac" form along with longer essays arranged chronologically, each piece is introduced and set in context by the editors.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After helping to establish several federally protected wilderness areas and wildlife preserves in the American Southwest, the famed conservationist Aldo Leopold moved to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1924. There he worked for the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory, studying ways in which to make logging both more productive and less damaging. While in Madison, he also took time to write short articles for a newspaper, The Wisconsin Agriculturalist and Farmer. Many of them are gathered in this collection of previously uncollected prose pieces. Those who worked the land, Leopold believed, were best equipped to protect it; his essays touch on such matters as providing safe havens for migratory waterfowl and predatory birds, weighing the merits of artificially planted windbreaks against those of natural fencerows, and arguing that farmers should take care not to plow over plants that provide food for wildlife. Always he urges that his readers think ahead to consider the natural implications of both feast and famine. "Conservation," he notes,

is keeping the resource in working order, as well as preventing overuse. Resources may get out of order before they are exhausted, sometimes while they are still abundant. Conservation, therefore, is a positive exercise of skill and insight, not merely a negative exercise of abstinence or caution.

Admirers of Leopold's work will find much of value--but little that will be wholly new--in these pages. --Gregory McNamee

From Scientific American

Leopold (1886-1948) was an ecologist before ecology gained much recognition. As professor of game management (now called wildlife ecology) at the University of Wisconsin, he produced many essays on the management of land--particularly farmland--in such a way as to achieve a "harmony between men and land." The 53 essays that the editors present in this book amount to a manual on conservation. They also trace the development of modern ideas on ecology. "Doesn't conservation," Leopold wrote, "imply a certain interspersion of land-uses, a certain pepper-and-salt pattern in the warp and woof of the land-use fabric? If so, can government alone do the weaving? I think not. It is the individual farmer who must weave the greater part of the rug on which America stands." Exquisite drawings by Abigail Rorer of the wild plants and animals that were Leopold's chief concern add savor to the book.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559637633
• ISBN-13: 978-1559637633
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read, reflect, and act, February 16, 2008

By 

Daniel F. Styer (Wakeman, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings (Paperback)

Aldo Leopold is the only dead author I know of whose oeuvre keeps getting better.

I first encountered Leopold's work in 1970 when I read his "Sand County Almanac". (I remember that I wrote a book report on "Sand County Almanac" in my Junior year of High School.) I loved this book for its beautiful writing, its strong reasoning, and its clear thinking. On the other hand I found the tone too pessimistic: by the end of the essay "Cheat Takes Over", for example, I was in despair that the environmental situation was so bad and there was no apparent way to improve it.

Many years later Leopold scholars J. Baird Callicott and Susan Flader collected a number of Leopold's essays -- obscure or unpublished -- in "The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays". This fascinating work shows the development of Leopold's thought over most of his life. I liked it even better than "Sand County Almanac".

And now we have also "For the Health of the Land", another collection of out-of-the-way Leopold essays edited by J. Baird Callicott (again) and Eric T. Freyfogle. And I like this collection even better than "The River of the Mother of God". The essays in this collection have the same beautiful writing, strong reasoning, and clear thinking of "Sand County Almanac", but it's basically an optimistic book. Leopold never minimizes difficulties, but this book is full of solutions as well as problems. The core of the book is a set of forty essays intended for farmers who want to live with the land rather than on the land. Each one is short, bright, eloquent, and practical. Each one shows us how to improve our environment, and hence our lives, by a quick small step. Each step is easy, but together they build into substantive and substantial phalanx of conservation protection.

An afterword by Stanley Temple (who holds the University of Wisconsin chair that was established for Leopold) talks about the present in light of Leopold's thinking: Which of the many movements launched by Leopold are making progress? Which are losing ground?

I need to add a special note on Abigail Rorer's illustrations. Curt Meine's biography of Leopold describes (pages 417, 486, 512) how he searched for an illustrator who would combine scientific accuracy with artistic sensibility. After considerable effort, Leopold found Charles Schwartz to do the illustrations, and everyone agrees that they're excellent. Abigail Rorer's work reaches or exceeds Schwartz's high standard of beauty and accuracy. I was going to list my favorite of the many illustrations, but I find that I can't: there are too many vying for the title of best.

Read this book. Ponder its wisdom. But don't just sit and think: go out and follow its advice. Turn your land -- be it a farm, a backyard, or a window flower box -- into an artwork that reflects your personality.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS A CORRECTION NOT A REVIEW, October 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings (Hardcover)

To Whom It May Concern:

This is NOT a review, but a correction to the Kirkus Review article. Sand County Almanac was published in 1949, a year after Leopold's untimely death (he was helping a neighbor fight a fire). Kirkus has the book's pub date as 1968 -- which might have been a reissue. 1999 is the 50th anniversary of SCA, which is a rather big deal in Leopold circles. Kirkus is on the money with everything else :)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Land Doctor, August 21, 2004

By 

MZ (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays And Other Writings (Paperback)

If you liked Sand County Almanac, you will enjoy this volume of essays as well. As far as I can tell, Aldo Leopold's essays fall into two broad categories: those fit for scientific journals or public policy statements, and those that celebrate the philosophical or aesthetic appreciation of nature. This book contains a healthy dose of both types. It is full of rich, lyrical essays on the variety and inherent enjoyment of being surrounded by wildland and wildlife. This is not to say the essays are impractical. As was often the case, these words were written for the common man; the common landowner. But Aldo Leopold was a brilliant wordsmith. He didn't see why a lesson in practical land management couldn't also be poetic. As such, his words were often profound and prophetic, but also gleaned from what should be common sense. The final essay in this book (The Land-Health Concept and Conservation)is perhaps the most important and most relevant argument for land sustainability that you will ever read.