A Sand County Almanac

FirstFreedom

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Reading this book right now on the recommendation of a friend. Apparently this author - Aldo Leopold - was the *original* wildlife conservationist. He was a hunter too, and has quite a few thoughts on hunting.

http://www.aldoleopold.org/about/almanac.htm

http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/chrisj/leopold-quotes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sand_County_Almanac

http://www.treelink.org/woodnotes/vol2/no1/sandcnty.htm

http://www.amazon.com/County-Almanac-Outdoor-Essays-Reflections/dp/0345345053

Anyone read this book before?
 
I took a whole course on it in college. The professor was the world's foremost authority on Leopold. He had read everything that Leopold had ever written, interviewed his children and his widow and visited the locations in the book. There are some interesting back stories to a lot of the essays. For instance, Leopold wrote "Thinking like a Mountain" after being criticized for being too "preachy". He wanted to confess that he had not always held such enlightened views and it serves as one of the essays that humanizes him. His son, Luna, gathered the essays and had them published after Leopold died of a heart-attack fighting a grass fire on his farm.

It's probably my favorite book... ever. I love taking a copy with me to read in the deer-stand or getting up to watch the sunrise and reading some over a cup of coffee. I often read essays from it to my classes. My signature line is a quote from it.

Leopold is widely regarded as the father of wildlife management in this country, and with good reason.
 
Aldo Leopold was a man ahead of his time....a must read for anyone interested in the outdoors and hunting.

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If you ever get the chance, drive north from Silver City, NM, toward Reserve. That's some of Leopold's country. the Gila Wilderness. I disremember the exact location, but there's a pullover-place with an historical marker about him and his involvement there...

Art
 
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