Aldo Leopold inventories specimens for his natural-history collection.Corbis/Getty Images
Posted on 09/21/2020 7:52:51 AM PDT by SJackson
Our most revered naturalist’s five essential components are as relevant today as they were in Sand County days
Aldo Leopold inventories specimens for his natural-history collection.Corbis/Getty Images
When Aldo Leopold wrote about land management a century ago, his intention wasn’t to grow bigger deer racks or design a “kill plot” under a treestand. Instead, it was to restore health and vitality to land that had been depleted by overgrazing, overlogging, overfarming, and underappreciation.
Best known for his collection of essays, published posthumously as A Sand County Almanac, Leopold was one of our first professional wildlife biologists. His classic book Game Management, published in 1933, laid the foundation for the discipline of scientific wildlife management. Published during the depths of the Great Depression, in it, Leopold asked his readers to mull the purpose of humans’ dominion over nature.
“The central thesis of game management is this,” Leopold wrote. “Game can be restored by the creative use of the same tools which have destroyed it—axe, plow, cow, fire, and gun.”
His was one of the first calls to invest in habitat, and to set aside and improve landscapes mainly for the use of wildlife. By ensuring that we have abundant water, healthy soils, and clean air, he stressed, we’ll also care for our human communities.
When we talk about managing land for wildlife these days, we’re more likely to borrow tactics and language from production agriculture. We plant specially formulated food-plot mixes. We spray to control weeds and pesky insects. We provide supplemental feed for wildlife, and we mow, plow, and thin to make the places we own or lease more habitable for the animals we intend to harvest there.
A lot has changed in a hundred years. The scale of agriculture is increasing exponentially. Climate change is altering vegetation and migration patterns. America’s human population has more than doubled in the last century. But Leopold’s toolbox, with a few tweaks and updates, is more relevant than ever.
Ax
In Leopold’s day, the ax represented indiscriminate logging of his beloved North Woods. But the ax can be a habitat tool to remove decadent vegetation and woody debris. When woodlands are opened with the ax and its cousins (chainsaw, brush hog, weed wacker), light enters the canopy and promotes growth of early successional vegetation, including browse for deer, brood-rearing cover for birds, and plots for pollinators.
Plow
Leopold blamed homesteading—and the sod-busting that went with Westward expansion—for the depletion of game habitat. But we can use the plow (as well as shovels, harrows, and bulldozers) to manipulate the land and vegetation to benefit wildlife. We can plant seed mixes that benefit many species. The plow also grows cereal grains that provide abundant food and cover for wildlife across North America.
Cow
Prairie-bird conservationists say, “What’s good for the herd is good for the bird.” They’re talking about the positive effect of livestock grazing on large expanses of bird habitat. While overgrazing can remove cover and cause erosion, limited grazing can supercharge habitat. Livestock that graze intensively and then move on reduce rank forage, improve soil permeability, and can often control invasive species.
Fire
Our continent was shaped by flame. Not only our forests, but rangelands, savannas, and sloughs were enhanced by periodic burns that removed dense thatch and promoted a mosaic of vegetation. Periodic fire can reduce dense “ladder” fuels that often create catastrophic blazes. Modern land managers judiciously apply fire to control invasive plants and to promote the growth of both annual and perennial plants.
Gun
Leopold was abundantly familiar with the negative impact of firearms used by unregulated market hunters to further exploit alreadydepleted wildlife. But we now use guns as one of our leading wildlife-management tools. Regulated hunting keeps wildlife populations in balance with habitat, and allows licensed hunters to turn wildlife into food for their communities, and to convert healthy habitat into healthy meals.
Our continent was shaped by flame
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I thought fires were new, caused by Global Warming. And guns, very politically incorrect guy.
Thinning the tree stand to allow light to the under story boosts habitat. Interesting,
Born in Iowa, but long-time Wisconsin resident! Taught at the University of Wisconsin before it was over-run with Socialist Democrats.
His ‘Sand County Almanac’ is required reading for any conservationist/nature lover. :) My grandparents retired to the area he talks about in his book, so I’ve been hanging out there since I was a kid.
I’m learning a LOT about land management on my ‘new to me’ 160 acres. We are in two county conservation programs (one to grow Big Bucks, the other to fight erosion here in Hill Country) and Beau represents our county on The Wisconsin County Conservation Board. We also signed up for a program that helps feed our Monarch Butterfly population. We have more Milkweed growing around here than probably anything else, LOL!
I LOVE being a ‘Conserve’-ative! We’re not all smelly, unwashed Hippies! ;)
I understand you are being sarcastic but I have run into people who actively believe that.
They do not understand that a controlled burn every ten or so years along with clearing some areas completely is healthy for the forest. They also have no idea that this was policy until the late seventies.
And the natives were doing burns for thousands of years before we arrived. Facts don’t go far with global warming zealots, it’s a religion.
Decades earlier, but John Muir’s boyhood home near Portage was about 20 miles from Leopold’s cabin.
“I’m learning a LOT about land management on my ‘new to me’ 160 acres.”
Oh, fortunate people.
Now I have to go try and find a faithful priest so I can be absolved.
OR, you can put on your Big Boy/Girl Boots and WORK for it for 40 years like I did! ;)
I grew up in inner-city Milwaukeestan.
Plan the work, then work the plan. Works every time it’s tried.
No absolution needed. Just hard work. :)
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