Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold wrote in a way that inspired and promoted the conservation of natural ecosystems on this earth. Take the following excerpt for example: 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 (Leopold).
This was one of the few writings Aldo Leopold

Cited: "Aldo Leopold." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.,(2013). Web. 25 Mar. 2013. "Leopold, Aldo." American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present. (2008). Web. 25 Mar. 2013. "Leopold, Aldo." Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. (2010). Web. 25 Mar. 2013. Leopold, Aldo. “Thinking Like a Mountain.” Eco-action.org. Web. 25 Mar. 2013 Young, Gerald R. "Leopold, Aldo." Environmental Encyclopedia. 4.2. (2011) 999-1001. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.