The Land Ethic, By Aldo Leopold

One of my favorite quotes by Aldo Leopold is, “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may use it with love and respect.” Aldo Leopold is considered to be many to be the father of wildlife management and as a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast I can see why. Aldo Leopold touched the lives of people not only while he was living but decades after his death he still continues to touch and inspire people. Reading about Aldo Leopold is fascinating; he is very knowledgeable about how to be one with the land and not just conquer it. What I find most intriguing and perplexing about Aldo Leopold is his essay on “The Land Ethic”,
“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” When I see this statement from A Sand County Almanac I think about how we as a people look at the land and say that this is ours and we will do whatever we want with it but in all reality we are not in charge of the environment; we coexist and are neighbors. We do not rule the land and we need to start thinking this way. Another statement that Leopold makes is, “In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.” I never really thought about land ethic. Now that I have read some of Leopold’s writings on “The Land Ethic,” it makes me want to be in a community with the land and watch it
Leopold explains that humans are being unethical to the land. He states that “We can be ethical only in relations to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.” Leopold illustrates this mechanism as a pyramid. On the bottom layer, is soil. Next is the plant layer, then insects rest on top of that, a bird and rodent layer come after that, and so on until you reach the highest layer. The highest layer is made up of the large carnivores. The top layers rely on the bottom layers for food and other services. And what do you know, land is at the very bottom; meaning that every other layer that rests on top of land relies on land to survive. This pyramid helps to understand how land is a vast energy source that makes all life possible. Without stable and nutrient rich land, there can be no life. I took away from this that Leopold wants us to have a fundamental understanding and love for land. This pyramid gives me a better understanding at what land does for us. I believe that Leopold wants people to promote policies that minimize damage to land because without it, we will have