Leopold, Aldo

Leopold, Aldo, 1886–1948, American ecologist, b. Burlington, Iowa. He was an advocate for a “land ethic,” in which humans see themselves as part of a natural community. After work in the U.S. Forest Service, he taught wildlife management at the Univ. of Wisconsin and helped found the Wilderness Society. In 1924, he succeeded in having the Gila National Forest in N.Mex. designated as the first extensive wilderness area in the United States. He wrote A Sand County Almanac (1949), which helped provide the impetus to the environmental movement.

See studies by C. Meine (1989) and T. Tanner, ed. (1989).

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