A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings. What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock. In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf.
In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes-something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise.
But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view. Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves.
I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers.
On June 3, , three-quarters of a million acres of mountains, rivers and desert in New Mexico was administratively rather than Congressionally designated as the Gila Wilderness, the first area in the world to be managed as a wilderness area. That same year, Leopold left the southwest and accepted a transfer to the U. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, where he served as associate director and began teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Leopold's cornerstone book Game Management defined the fundamental skills and techniques for managing and restoring wildlife populations.
This landmark work created a new science that intertwined forestry, agriculture, biology, zoology, ecology, education and communication. Soon after its publication, the University of Wisconsin created a new department, the Department of Game Management, and appointed Leopold as its first chair. Leopold's unique gift for communicating scientific concepts was only equal to his fervor for putting theories into practice.
He published over articles, papers, newsletters, and letters, but his articles on wilderness, wrote his biographer Curt Meine, established him "as the nation's foremost spokesman for the preservation of wild country, and sparked a national debate over what became known as 'the wilderness ideal.
It is here Leopold put into action his beliefs that the same tools people used to disrupt the landscape could also be used to rebuild it. We have a wide variety of tools to help introduce Leopold and the land ethic idea to students of all ages. Download our our free teaching tools today! Aldo Leopold. Leopold in Wisconsin Following a transfer to Madison, WI, in , Leopold continued to investigate ecology and the philosophy of conservation, and in published the first textbook in the field of wildlife management.
Share this page. Michelle Nijhuis is a contributing editor to High Country News. Top photo of a prairie restoration project by Flickr user Dan Bergstrom. Creative Commons. Republish Like Tweet Email Print. Comments A NASA mission to harvest Hatch green chiles in space just might help farmers on earth adapt their growing methods. When Earth MRI began surveying, residents grew concerned about the prospect of mining. As the climate crisis worsens, what will happen to snow? Location: Helena, Montana Type: Permanent, full time after 1-year probationary period.
Reports to: Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs. Travel: Some overnight travel, both in-state Affordable, flexible and accurate data visualization and analysis for any sized project. Restore Hetch Hetchy, a c 3 nonprofit organization, seeks experienced development professional to identify and engage individuals and institutions who are inspired to help underwrite The successful candidate will be the organization's lead counsel on public lands issues, including reviewing federal administrative actions and proposed policy and helping to shape
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