(Photo of the Black Range Mountains in New Mexico, the mountain range that houses the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, the nation's first designated wilderness area. Photo courtesy of Joseph j7uy5 @ flickr. Used under the Creative Commons lisence.)

Yesterday marked the birthday of Aldo Leopold, celebrated teacher, forester, writer and environmentalist. His most famous book, A Sand County Alamanac, collected and published posthumously by his children in 1949, was seminal to the American conservation movement.

In reading Leopold, one finds his writing to be not descriptive of the land around Saulk County, Wisconsin, but relevant to larger, contemporary conversations about environment, energy, conservation and even sustainable investing. His great feat was his simplicity. He wrote with clarity of precise moments in time. For him, through years of observation in the field, they unwound into a series of all but hidden connections. For us, from our bedside reading in cities and towns and schools, he made these observations plain to us -- observations few of us have the time, or the insight, to make ourselves.  
 
For the manner in which his observations are specific but their lessons general, his writing both poetic and prosaic, Leopold remains relevant far beyond his death.

More personally, I return to Leopold often in my thoughts of salmon -- a species I love, and have chased up and down river banks the world round. Their numbers are declining, their presence ever more scarce. In an earlier post about Chinook salmon, I recalled this quotation by Leopold:

"Men still live who, in their youth remember pigeons; tress still live that, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a few decades hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know."

Now, as the United States stands ready to move into a new Administration, one that promises to embrace science, and to tackle climate change, and as the US Senate just voted overwhelmingly to expand US wilderness areas, we might do well to revisit Leopold. In another work of his, Round River, he speaks to the struggle of living sustainably.

"We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive."

There hardly seems better advice than this. The fight to protect the vitality of our natural world will come to an imperfect end. It is by nature dirty. And that is the challenge, that the fun.

And so, join me in saying: Happy Birthday, Aldo Leopold. Until next year, when we will read him once again.

What are your favorite Leopold quotations?

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For those unfamiliar with Leopold's work here are a few helpful websites.

A list of quotations and a short bio here.

The Aldo Leopold Foundation.

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

Or simply order a copy of one of his books here.