Departing from the usual article analysis format of this blog, I want to reflect upon my experience in June at an immersive program centered on the work of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold. Organized by Dr. Laubach, an environmental science teacher at my school, the Leopold Scholars program involves research with staff from the Stroud Water Research Center, a leading national organization in freshwater ecology. Days spent recording data on stream health and macro-invertebrate activity were complemented by assigned readings from Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac.  These readings never felt burdensome; rather, they made me feel like I was undergoing a genuine transformation. While I have always held the philosophy that the natural world deserves my respect and care, Leopold’s writings call for a far more dramatic conflation of self and environment. In the foreword of A Sand County Almanac, Leopold articulates his belief that the land around us should not be treated as a commodity, but rather as a community of which humans are indissociably a part. He advocates for a universal ethic of love for the natural world that all people respect, regardless of whether they “can live without wild things” or not (xxi).

Leopold’s “Land Ethic” argues that instead of treating the land as purely a resource or property, we extend our ethical framework to include ecosystems as well. As a consequence, when we make decisions that benefit ecological health, we understand that to be in the interest of our own health as well. When ethics expand to account for ecosystems, humans begin to see themselves as members of a broader community that includes all biotic beings and systems and consequently work to protect the stability of the Earth. I have always felt responsible for the stewardship of the land and waters around me, but prior to this experience, I didn’t feel compelled to reach out to the Earth as a neighbor. I cared for the land, but I had not extended the full scope of my moral compass to include it.

Many indigenous cultures around the world have long envisioned themselves as interconnected with the land in the same way Leopold idealizes. American society took steps in keeping with Leopold’s Land Ethic when we enacted environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Currently, however, the United States seems poised to regress to treating land once again as an easily exploitable commodity.  As individuals and corporations continue to pursue profit incentives, it may seem unrealistic to expect a grand cultural shift, but I believe we have no other choice than to continue to push for it, especially in light of the Trump administration’s stated goal of selling millions of acres of public land for logging, drilling, and development.