BACKGROUND: Aldo Leopold is known as the "Father of Conservationism" but likely you have never heard of him, his life, or his accomplishments. Sadly, so many American icons of accomplishment (Leopold, Rockwell, Oches) are overshadowed by other "larger than life" figures like Lincoln, Edison, Martin Luther King and Dylan who are foundational iconic figures. The Leopold's of the world, although known in their own spheres of influence, can disappear unless we awaken them and study their own greatness.
A new graduate of Yale with a degree in Forestry at the age of 24, Aldo Leopold was assigned to the newly created US Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona. His career in those newly emerging wilderness areas of the US changed the way we look at land, wilderness and our delicate balance as guardians of the Earth forever.
As a young forester, Leopold only knew what he had been taught in college: Forests, and the trees therein, were not much more than lumber to be harvested, processed and sold for an expanding and growing America. Predators like mountain lions and wolves were to be exterminated (to protect cows, elk and deer).
Through careful observation and experience, his thinking began to change however. He witnessed first hand the effects of unregulated, overgrazing on sensitive areas. He saw how this overgrazing could lead to severe erosion as plantroots disappeared. He was saddened by the effects of deer and elk population explosions in a predator free environment as food became scarce and the populations became weakened by starvation. His thinking changed.
He began to "think like a mountain" (in his own words). He infered from the evidence before him that everything must be interconnected in the intricate web of life and that natural systems work in a delicate balance arranged over millions of years. He also concluded this web was easily disrupted by the innovations and interuptions of mankind.
"Just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of wolves, so does a mountain live in fear of its deer," he wrote.
This simple sentence recognizes that unchecked populations of herbivores can wreak havoc on an ecosystem by overgrazing. When deer or elk or cows for that matter, mow down the young cottonwood shoots along a stream bank there is less shade and the banks are less stable. The river water heats up and the stream banks erode. Hotter water and heavier silt loads make the streams uninhabitable for native fish like trout. Extinction ensues.
In 1921, Aldo Leopold wrote a plan for the management of the headwaters of the Gila River creating the Gila River Forest Reserve. In 1924, this area became the Gila Wilderness; the first officially designated wilderness area in the US. Leopold had the foresight to recognize that large tracts of land had to be preserved to keep ecosystems intact and they had to be managed to limit human activities. Hunting and fishing are allowed along with hiking and horseback trips, but no motorized vehicles and no roads.
Leopold's vision lead to the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964. Today, we are fortunate to have 756 designated wilderness areas encompassing over 109 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico. These are places where we can go today to escape the hectic pace of the modern world but also preserve the delicate integrity of a wilderness in balance. It gives us a chance to step back and see the natural world in a more natural state, the way our ancestors may have seen it.
Although carrying a silent history, the wilderness is a working laboratory where animals, plants, insects, water and soil are undisturbed and functioning as well as can be expected. As a historian, we often focus on the "improvements", "advances" and "moderization" of the world without realizing that sometimes (even often), our improvements are not really improving the Earth at all but damaging it.
Aldo Leopold understood that thought clearer after a particular incident in the wild. One specific moment in his life "humanized" the entire struggle. As a historian, you will examine his writing and comment on this work.
ASSIGNMENT: Read the following passage by Aldo Leopold from "Thinking Like a Mountain" carefully then post a 5 sentence analysis in the COMMENT section. Your comment will be read by your peers and can serve to guide you on your own analysis.
Thinking Like a Mountain
By Aldo Leopold
A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world. Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet. Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.
Those unable to decipher the hidden meaning know nevertheless that it is there, for it is felt in all wolf country, and distinguishes that country from all other land. It tingles in the spine of all who hear wolves by night, or who scan their tracks by day. Even without sight or sound of wolf, it is implicit in a hundred small events: the midnight whinny of a pack horse, the rattle of rolling rocks, the bound of a fleeing deer, the way shadows lie under the spruces. Only the ineducable tyro can fail to sense the presence or absence of wolves, or the fact that mountains have a secret opinion about them.
My own conviction on this score dates from the day I saw a wolf die. We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the foot of which a turbulent river elbowed its way. We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water. When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. 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: how to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide-rocks.
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 anaemic 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 a 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.
I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades. So also with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea.
We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind [Henry David] Thoreau's dictum: "In wildness is the salvation of the world". Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.
ASSIGNMENT: Click on the word "Comment" below and write (or paste in) a thoughtful, punctuated, spell-checked and insightful "response to literature" (using the schoolwide rubric as a guide).
Your comments NEED to be in-depth and not simply wasted space. The more thought and analysis you put in, the more credit you will GAIN. The more space you truly waste (not "use" - I said "waste"), the more credit you will LOSE.
The instructions below will focus you a bit more. Don't forget you can copy/paste, add website links to images, other blogs, websites, pictures. Have fun and make this "blog" a model for future classes to emulate! I look forward to reading your postings!
REQUIREMENTS:
- USE the skills you were taught at the beginning of the class regarding crafting a 5 sentence paragraph. (i.e. an intro sentence, 3 supporting senetences, summary sentence)
- READ the entire passage and do not skim. Also take time to look at the pictures for a few moments.
- HUMANIZE this assignment. Aldo Leopold was a powerful influence on millions of lives (human and non-human alike) but he was also one of us. A single human working against great odds to make a difference.
- AVOID/ELIMINATE "I feel", "I believe", and such in your statements as they are redundant. Banish them from your writing forever!
- REMEMBER to not include your last name in any post.
- LASTLY, be considerate of others, follow all school rules of appropriate behavior, and seek to learn more from others (particularly those with whom you do not agree). This can be a sensitive topic - treat it accordingly.
REMEMBER: Use the pulldown menu to select Name/URL and then type in only your first name and last initial in the "name" space; ignore the URL space).
A new graduate of Yale with a degree in Forestry at the age of 24, Aldo Leopold was assigned to the newly created US Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona. His career in those newly emerging wilderness areas of the US changed the way we look at land, wilderness and our delicate balance as guardians of the Earth forever. 
Through careful observation and experience, his thinking began to change however. He witnessed first hand the effects of unregulated, overgrazing on sensitive areas. He saw how this overgrazing could lead to severe erosion as plantroots disappeared. He was saddened by the effects of deer and elk population explosions in a predator free environment as food became scarce and the populations became weakened by starvation. His thinking changed. 
Although carrying a silent history, the wilderness is a working laboratory where animals, plants, insects, water and soil are undisturbed and functioning as well as can be expected. As a historian, we often focus on the "improvements", "advances" and "moderization" of the world without realizing that sometimes (even often), our improvements are not really improving the Earth at all but damaging it.
Those unable to decipher the hidden meaning know nevertheless that it is there, for it is felt in all wolf country, and distinguishes that country from all other land. It tingles in the spine of all who hear wolves by night, or who scan their tracks by day. Even without sight or sound of wolf, it is implicit in a hundred small events: the midnight whinny of a pack horse, the rattle of rolling rocks, the bound of a fleeing deer, the way shadows lie under the spruces. Only the ineducable tyro can fail to sense the presence or absence of wolves, or the fact that mountains have a secret opinion about them.
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