WEBVTT

1
00:00:08.275 --> 00:00:14.281
[chilling music]

2
00:00:23.457 --> 00:00:26.226
- \"We abuse land
because we regard it

3
00:00:26.226 --> 00:00:31.765
\"as a commodity
belonging to us.

4
00:00:31.765 --> 00:00:36.036
\"When we see land as
a community to which we belong,

5
00:00:36.036 --> 00:00:41.175
we may begin to use it
with love and respect.\"

6
00:00:41.175 --> 00:00:44.344
-Aldo Leopold.

7
00:00:51.852 --> 00:00:54.755
\"I do not imply
that this philosophy of land

8
00:00:54.755 --> 00:00:57.724
\"was always clear to me.

9
00:00:57.724 --> 00:01:02.129
It is rather the end result
of a life journey.\"

10
00:01:02.129 --> 00:01:05.065
[stirring orchestral music]

11
00:01:05.065 --> 00:01:12.072
♪ ♪

12
00:01:14.141 --> 00:01:15.909
- Aldo Leopold is considered

13
00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:18.145
the most influential
conservationist

14
00:01:18.145 --> 00:01:20.080
of the 20th century.

15
00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:23.250
His work revolutionized
our view of the natural world

16
00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:24.651
and our understanding

17
00:01:24.651 --> 00:01:26.353
of the ever-changing
relationship

18
00:01:26.353 --> 00:01:28.589
between people and the Earth.

19
00:01:32.125 --> 00:01:33.827
For more than three decades,

20
00:01:33.827 --> 00:01:36.230
I\'ve been on a journey
in search of Leopold

21
00:01:36.230 --> 00:01:38.465
and his legacy in our own time.

22
00:01:40.601 --> 00:01:42.336
As Leopold\'s biographer,

23
00:01:42.336 --> 00:01:45.339
I\'ve found that Leopold
connects people and places

24
00:01:45.339 --> 00:01:46.807
across the landscape,

25
00:01:46.807 --> 00:01:50.777
from cities and suburbs to
farms and forests and ranches

26
00:01:50.777 --> 00:01:53.080
to our most remote wildlands.

27
00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:56.850
I\'ve explored the people,
places, and events

28
00:01:56.850 --> 00:01:58.685
that shaped his thinking

29
00:01:58.685 --> 00:02:02.956
and that led to his greatest
idea, the land ethic.

30
00:02:06.460 --> 00:02:11.632
- \"All ethics so far evolved
rest upon a single premise,

31
00:02:11.632 --> 00:02:14.801
\"that the individual
is a member of a community

32
00:02:14.801 --> 00:02:18.739
\"of interdependent parts.

33
00:02:18.739 --> 00:02:23.377
\"The land ethic simply enlarges
the boundaries of the community

34
00:02:23.377 --> 00:02:27.447
\"to include soils, waters,
plants, and animals,

35
00:02:27.447 --> 00:02:31.018
or collectively,
the land.\"

36
00:02:36.990 --> 00:02:39.526
- The land ethic
is a result

37
00:02:39.526 --> 00:02:42.596
of understanding
the interrelationships

38
00:02:42.596 --> 00:02:44.231
of the natural system.

39
00:02:44.231 --> 00:02:47.401
It\'s not something that Dad
all of a sudden realized.

40
00:02:47.401 --> 00:02:50.604
It took him a lifetime
to understand

41
00:02:50.604 --> 00:02:54.575
how interrelated we are
with the natural system.

42
00:02:54.575 --> 00:02:58.445
And never did we have
perspective on this until we-

43
00:02:58.445 --> 00:03:00.848
we all finally grew up.

44
00:03:00.848 --> 00:03:04.451
- Here, on a once-abandoned
farm in the sand counties

45
00:03:04.451 --> 00:03:06.119
of central Wisconsin,

46
00:03:06.119 --> 00:03:10.057
the Leopold family made their
own connection to the land.

47
00:03:10.057 --> 00:03:12.092
Since the publication
of Leopold\'s book

48
00:03:12.092 --> 00:03:13.627
A Sand County Almanac,

49
00:03:13.627 --> 00:03:15.896
this place has come
to symbolize the effort

50
00:03:15.896 --> 00:03:17.698
to build a healthier
relationship

51
00:03:17.698 --> 00:03:19.700
between people and nature.

52
00:03:19.700 --> 00:03:22.536
And now, all these years later,
you get to see

53
00:03:22.536 --> 00:03:26.807
people coming from
all over the world to visit.

54
00:03:26.807 --> 00:03:28.408
- Welcome.

55
00:03:28.408 --> 00:03:30.611
Glad to see you.

56
00:03:30.611 --> 00:03:32.346
Good to meet all of you.

57
00:03:32.346 --> 00:03:34.147
- \"Not all trees are created
free and equal.

58
00:03:34.147 --> 00:03:35.983
\"Where a white pine
and a red birch

59
00:03:35.983 --> 00:03:37.384
are crowding each other\"-

60
00:03:37.384 --> 00:03:39.453
- \"I love all trees,
but I am in love with pines.\"

61
00:03:39.453 --> 00:03:42.122
- \"Scarce
and becoming scarcer.\"

62
00:03:42.122 --> 00:03:45.826
- [reading from Chinese
translation]

63
00:03:45.826 --> 00:03:48.495
- \"...respected is an extension
of ethics.\"

64
00:03:48.495 --> 00:03:52.966
- It\'s astonishing to me
and exciting to see

65
00:03:52.966 --> 00:03:55.335
how the shack
has attracted people.

66
00:03:55.335 --> 00:03:58.639
My father would be
absolutely amazed.

67
00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:00.574
- And the amazing thing is,
after all these years,

68
00:04:00.574 --> 00:04:03.177
the interest in Leopold
just continues to grow.

69
00:04:03.177 --> 00:04:06.246
Here this fellow who died
in 1948-

70
00:04:06.246 --> 00:04:07.414
60 years ago-

71
00:04:07.414 --> 00:04:10.050
and yet he is still read
as a contemporary,

72
00:04:10.050 --> 00:04:12.386
because his ideas are still
not only so current;

73
00:04:12.386 --> 00:04:14.555
they\'re still
so far ahead of us.

74
00:04:14.555 --> 00:04:17.891
- It has taken you know,
40, 50, or 60 years

75
00:04:17.891 --> 00:04:19.760
for us to catch up

76
00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:21.895
with the very clear meanings
of the words

77
00:04:21.895 --> 00:04:23.564
that he was writing,
in some cases,

78
00:04:23.564 --> 00:04:24.898
in the late \'20s,

79
00:04:24.898 --> 00:04:27.100
certainly through the \'30s
and the \'40s.

80
00:04:27.100 --> 00:04:30.137
- What I now refer to
as the \"holy trinity\"

81
00:04:30.137 --> 00:04:36.043
are Henry David Thoreau,
John Muir, and Aldo Leopold,

82
00:04:36.043 --> 00:04:40.948
as the giants
on whose shoulders we stand.

83
00:04:40.948 --> 00:04:46.086
- We have lost sight
of so much magic in the land,

84
00:04:46.086 --> 00:04:48.055
spiritual values.

85
00:04:48.055 --> 00:04:53.026
So it is time, certainly,
to construct

86
00:04:53.026 --> 00:04:55.229
or reconstruct an ethic.

87
00:04:55.229 --> 00:04:58.665
- And even though he used
the language, \"land ethic,\"

88
00:04:58.665 --> 00:05:01.869
he was really talking
about an Earth ethic.

89
00:05:01.869 --> 00:05:06.607
And that Earth ethic
is as relevant today-

90
00:05:06.607 --> 00:05:10.077
more relevant today
than it has ever been before.

91
00:05:15.048 --> 00:05:17.651
- Leopold was a forester
and a scientist,

92
00:05:17.651 --> 00:05:19.686
a teacher and a writer.

93
00:05:19.686 --> 00:05:21.321
But above all,
he was a careful

94
00:05:21.321 --> 00:05:24.825
and deeply curious observer
of the natural world.

95
00:05:24.825 --> 00:05:27.995
- Dad took
phenological records.

96
00:05:27.995 --> 00:05:31.298
He was recording the natural
events of the season:

97
00:05:31.298 --> 00:05:33.500
the first blooming of plants,

98
00:05:33.500 --> 00:05:35.602
the arrival of birds,
and so forth.

99
00:05:35.602 --> 00:05:39.406
And so, here am I,
age 91.

100
00:05:39.406 --> 00:05:40.507
Guess what I\'m doing.

101
00:05:40.507 --> 00:05:43.143
I\'m keeping
phenological records.

102
00:05:43.143 --> 00:05:47.881
I keep track
of about 350 items,

103
00:05:47.881 --> 00:05:53.720
which really is one way
of monitoring climate change.

104
00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:56.023
It\'s a very,
very critical time.

105
00:05:56.023 --> 00:05:59.092
And keeping
phenological records

106
00:05:59.092 --> 00:06:01.628
is not only a great sport,

107
00:06:01.628 --> 00:06:04.498
but it does give us an idea

108
00:06:04.498 --> 00:06:10.103
of monitoring the changes
in the climate.

109
00:06:10.103 --> 00:06:12.673
- Leopold did not know
about climate change

110
00:06:12.673 --> 00:06:14.808
or the other pressing
conservation issues

111
00:06:14.808 --> 00:06:17.444
we now face
on a global scale.

112
00:06:17.444 --> 00:06:19.446
He did, however,
observe firsthand

113
00:06:19.446 --> 00:06:21.548
the fundamental changes
taking place

114
00:06:21.548 --> 00:06:23.217
on the American landscape

115
00:06:23.217 --> 00:06:27.187
during his boyhood
in the late 1800s.

116
00:06:27.187 --> 00:06:29.857
Railroads were opening
the West.

117
00:06:29.857 --> 00:06:32.993
The prairies of the Midwest
were being plowed up.

118
00:06:32.993 --> 00:06:34.895
The pine forests
of the Lake States

119
00:06:34.895 --> 00:06:36.263
were being cut over

120
00:06:36.263 --> 00:06:37.831
with the timber
floated downriver

121
00:06:37.831 --> 00:06:42.703
and carried by rail
to build the country.

122
00:06:42.703 --> 00:06:46.240
- \"Man always kills
the thing he loves.

123
00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:50.644
\"And so we the pioneers
have killed our wilderness.

124
00:06:50.644 --> 00:06:53.347
\"Some say we had to.

125
00:06:53.347 --> 00:06:54.915
\"Be that as it may,

126
00:06:54.915 --> 00:06:57.484
\"I am glad I shall
never be young

127
00:06:57.484 --> 00:07:00.921
without wild country
to be young in.\"

128
00:07:00.921 --> 00:07:02.823
[train whistle blowing]

129
00:07:02.823 --> 00:07:05.325
- Leopold was born in 1887,

130
00:07:05.325 --> 00:07:08.428
here along the Mississippi
River in Burlington, Iowa,

131
00:07:08.428 --> 00:07:10.531
where the railroad
and the river,

132
00:07:10.531 --> 00:07:12.933
the two great axes
of American development,

133
00:07:12.933 --> 00:07:15.002
came together.

134
00:07:15.002 --> 00:07:18.071
- Aldo was raised
in this environment here,

135
00:07:18.071 --> 00:07:19.706
where there was plenty
of opportunity

136
00:07:19.706 --> 00:07:22.676
for wandering around
and experiencing things

137
00:07:22.676 --> 00:07:24.378
and in discovering things.

138
00:07:24.378 --> 00:07:26.580
But that was just half of it.

139
00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:29.116
The other half
was that he had parents

140
00:07:29.116 --> 00:07:31.351
that pushed him out there,

141
00:07:31.351 --> 00:07:32.853
encouraged him to go out there

142
00:07:32.853 --> 00:07:35.222
and use that youthful
imagination.

143
00:07:35.222 --> 00:07:36.690
- Aldo Leopold\'s mother, Clara,

144
00:07:36.690 --> 00:07:39.159
encouraged
his observational skills,

145
00:07:39.159 --> 00:07:41.495
his writing,
and his aesthetic sense.

146
00:07:41.495 --> 00:07:44.097
She was a great appreciator
of the opera.

147
00:07:44.097 --> 00:07:45.899
It was one of her passions
in life.

148
00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:48.302
And because binoculars
were not so easily available

149
00:07:48.302 --> 00:07:50.337
for bird-watching
at that point in history,

150
00:07:50.337 --> 00:07:52.372
Aldo borrowed
her opera glasses.

151
00:07:52.372 --> 00:07:55.042
That was his first
set of binoculars.

152
00:07:55.042 --> 00:07:56.677
- At a very early age,

153
00:07:56.677 --> 00:07:59.580
Aldo was out here in the yard
monitoring in his journals,

154
00:07:59.580 --> 00:08:02.482
13 different wren nests
in this yard,

155
00:08:02.482 --> 00:08:05.085
which is a remarkable thing
for an 11-year-old.

156
00:08:05.085 --> 00:08:07.487
- He must have really
picked that up from his father,

157
00:08:07.487 --> 00:08:09.790
others in the family.

158
00:08:09.790 --> 00:08:11.158
Aldo\'s father, Carl,

159
00:08:11.158 --> 00:08:13.894
he was a conservationist
before there was such a thing

160
00:08:13.894 --> 00:08:15.829
as the conservation movement.

161
00:08:15.829 --> 00:08:17.464
Carl loved the outdoors.

162
00:08:17.464 --> 00:08:18.465
He loved to hunt.

163
00:08:18.465 --> 00:08:20.000
He loved to fish.

164
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:23.170
He loved bringing his children
into contact with that world.

165
00:08:23.170 --> 00:08:25.606
And as Aldo grew up as
the oldest son in the family,

166
00:08:25.606 --> 00:08:27.808
Carl was the one who really
taught him

167
00:08:27.808 --> 00:08:30.143
that what you do
in the outdoors

168
00:08:30.143 --> 00:08:32.212
reflects your set of ethics,

169
00:08:32.212 --> 00:08:33.981
your sense of responsibility

170
00:08:33.981 --> 00:08:36.550
for the world
that you exist in.

171
00:08:36.550 --> 00:08:39.586
It was Carl who helped to imbue
his son with this ethic

172
00:08:39.586 --> 00:08:41.355
that would grow
over decades

173
00:08:41.355 --> 00:08:44.558
into what we now call
the land ethic.

174
00:08:51.632 --> 00:08:54.434
- Well, you guys are gonna be
in charge someday,

175
00:08:54.434 --> 00:08:56.370
so it\'s our jobs here
to teach you guys

176
00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:59.873
why this is so important.

177
00:08:59.873 --> 00:09:02.843
- Our goal is
to help children develop

178
00:09:02.843 --> 00:09:04.511
firsthand experiences
with nature

179
00:09:04.511 --> 00:09:06.513
and a long-term appreciation
of nature.

180
00:09:06.513 --> 00:09:08.115
So we hope to have students

181
00:09:08.115 --> 00:09:10.083
inspired by Leopold\'s
land ethic

182
00:09:10.083 --> 00:09:11.919
the way that he was inspired.

183
00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:13.820
- It can seem like
a long way

184
00:09:13.820 --> 00:09:15.322
from A Sand County Almanac,

185
00:09:15.322 --> 00:09:18.358
published back in 1949,
to the work you\'re doing here.

186
00:09:18.358 --> 00:09:19.593
But there really is

187
00:09:19.593 --> 00:09:21.528
an important connection,
isn\'t there?

188
00:09:21.528 --> 00:09:24.331
- The land ethic is alive
and well in South Chicago.

189
00:09:27.601 --> 00:09:29.403
- Welcome
to University of the Air.

190
00:09:29.403 --> 00:09:31.238
- Our guest is Curt Meine.

191
00:09:31.238 --> 00:09:33.040
- Thank you so much
for having me.

192
00:09:33.040 --> 00:09:37.110
- You know, I saw Aldo
Leopold\'s birth date of 1887,

193
00:09:37.110 --> 00:09:39.179
and it came as sort
of a shock,

194
00:09:39.179 --> 00:09:41.849
just because he seems
such a modern figure.

195
00:09:41.849 --> 00:09:44.418
Tell us about your sense
of Leopold

196
00:09:44.418 --> 00:09:45.686
and his place in history.

197
00:09:45.686 --> 00:09:47.654
- The aspect of Leopold

198
00:09:47.654 --> 00:09:49.356
that makes him unique
in our history

199
00:09:49.356 --> 00:09:52.359
is how he connects us
across those generations.

200
00:09:52.359 --> 00:09:53.894
Leopold came of age

201
00:09:53.894 --> 00:09:56.029
during the first wave
of conservation

202
00:09:56.029 --> 00:09:57.965
in the early 1900s.

203
00:09:57.965 --> 00:10:00.200
In his career,
he broadened conservation

204
00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:03.370
to embrace new fields
of wildland protection,

205
00:10:03.370 --> 00:10:06.573
wildlife management,
watershed restoration.

206
00:10:06.573 --> 00:10:09.510
His writings were to inspire
the environmental movement.

207
00:10:09.510 --> 00:10:11.979
And now we\'re moving
into a new phase.

208
00:10:11.979 --> 00:10:14.781
We don\'t know
what this next

209
00:10:14.781 --> 00:10:17.351
maybe post-environmentalism
phase is going to be

210
00:10:17.351 --> 00:10:18.652
or what it\'s becoming,

211
00:10:18.652 --> 00:10:20.587
but Leopold is still
right there in the middle.

212
00:10:22.923 --> 00:10:23.924
- I think Aldo Leopold

213
00:10:23.924 --> 00:10:27.327
is the philosopher
who stands

214
00:10:27.327 --> 00:10:28.762
between conservation

215
00:10:28.762 --> 00:10:31.365
and the modern
environmental movement.

216
00:10:31.365 --> 00:10:37.070
- I think he is perhaps
the fundamental guiding light

217
00:10:37.070 --> 00:10:40.240
in development of modern
conservation biology.

218
00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.709
- One of the influences for me
of Aldo Leopold

219
00:10:42.709 --> 00:10:45.879
was realizing that I wanted
a life in conservation

220
00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.916
more than I was interested
in a career in conservation.

221
00:10:48.916 --> 00:10:52.019
So the way it looks for me
is living on a piece of land

222
00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:57.858
and caring for that land as
best that I and my family can.

223
00:10:57.858 --> 00:11:02.863
- People who say that they\'re
students of Leopold

224
00:11:02.863 --> 00:11:07.434
or disciples of Leopold
or influenced by Leopold,

225
00:11:07.434 --> 00:11:13.140
maybe it\'s our responsibility
to look at the whole Leopold.

226
00:11:17.911 --> 00:11:19.813
- As Leopold was growing up,

227
00:11:19.813 --> 00:11:23.584
the Midwestern landscape
was changing dramatically.

228
00:11:23.584 --> 00:11:25.719
Its prairies
were being plowed under,

229
00:11:25.719 --> 00:11:27.654
its forests cut,

230
00:11:27.654 --> 00:11:29.156
and its rivers
and wetlands

231
00:11:29.156 --> 00:11:33.961
transformed by dams,
dikes, and dredges.

232
00:11:33.961 --> 00:11:36.730
- \"Perhaps no one but a hunter
can understand

233
00:11:36.730 --> 00:11:38.498
\"how intense an affection

234
00:11:38.498 --> 00:11:42.636
\"a boy can feel
for a piece of marsh.

235
00:11:42.636 --> 00:11:46.340
\"I came home one Christmas
to find that land promoters,

236
00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:48.976
\"with the help
of the Corps of Engineers,

237
00:11:48.976 --> 00:11:52.312
\"had diked and drained
my boyhood hunting grounds

238
00:11:52.312 --> 00:11:55.315
\"on the Mississippi
river bottoms.

239
00:11:55.315 --> 00:11:58.151
\"My hometown thought
the community enriched

240
00:11:58.151 --> 00:12:00.087
\"by this change.

241
00:12:00.087 --> 00:12:04.057
I thought it impoverished.\"

242
00:12:09.997 --> 00:12:12.032
- They lived at a time
when the waterfowl

243
00:12:12.032 --> 00:12:16.470
along the Mississippi flyway
were being depleted.

244
00:12:16.470 --> 00:12:19.173
Market hunting was still
an important force,

245
00:12:19.173 --> 00:12:22.609
and there was minimal concern
about the decline of wildlife

246
00:12:22.609 --> 00:12:25.279
such as the bison
and the passenger pigeon,

247
00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:26.847
which were headed
toward extinction

248
00:12:26.847 --> 00:12:31.919
when Leopold was a boy.

249
00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:36.023
- \"For one species
to mourn the death of another

250
00:12:36.023 --> 00:12:39.526
is a new thing under the sun.\"

251
00:12:39.526 --> 00:12:42.429
[birds chirping]

252
00:12:50.737 --> 00:12:53.307
- When Aldo Leopold
was 14 years old,

253
00:12:53.307 --> 00:12:55.843
Theodore Roosevelt,
already a leader

254
00:12:55.843 --> 00:12:57.644
in the emerging
conservation movement,

255
00:12:57.644 --> 00:12:59.446
became president.

256
00:12:59.446 --> 00:13:00.948
Along with his friends

257
00:13:00.948 --> 00:13:04.718
the forester Gifford Pinchot
and the naturalist John Muir,

258
00:13:04.718 --> 00:13:06.253
President Roosevelt made

259
00:13:06.253 --> 00:13:08.488
the conservation of natural
resources

260
00:13:08.488 --> 00:13:10.824
and the preservation
of wildlands

261
00:13:10.824 --> 00:13:13.961
a national priority.

262
00:13:13.961 --> 00:13:15.863
Back then, if you were
a young person

263
00:13:15.863 --> 00:13:17.831
interested in conservation,

264
00:13:17.831 --> 00:13:20.501
there was really only
one profession you could enter,

265
00:13:20.501 --> 00:13:22.202
and that was forestry,

266
00:13:22.202 --> 00:13:23.971
a field established
in large measure

267
00:13:23.971 --> 00:13:27.508
by Gifford Pinchot.

268
00:13:27.508 --> 00:13:28.742
And so Aldo Leopold
was part

269
00:13:28.742 --> 00:13:32.045
of that first generation
of American foresters.

270
00:13:32.045 --> 00:13:34.147
Many trained at Yale
and then went off

271
00:13:34.147 --> 00:13:36.216
to work
for the U.S. Forest Service,

272
00:13:36.216 --> 00:13:39.686
going to places that most of
them had never even heard of.

273
00:13:39.686 --> 00:13:41.655
After graduating in 1909,

274
00:13:41.655 --> 00:13:42.890
Leopold\'s assignment
was to go

275
00:13:42.890 --> 00:13:45.859
to the brand-new
Apache National Forest,

276
00:13:45.859 --> 00:13:47.628
in what was then
not even a state.

277
00:13:47.628 --> 00:13:49.897
It was still
the Arizona Territory.

278
00:13:55.736 --> 00:13:58.805
Well, he takes the railroad
out to the Painted Desert

279
00:13:58.805 --> 00:14:02.009
in northeastern Arizona,
gets off at Holbrook,

280
00:14:02.009 --> 00:14:03.877
one of the stops
along the line,

281
00:14:03.877 --> 00:14:07.281
and looks south across
the vast expanse of the desert.

282
00:14:07.281 --> 00:14:10.017
He could see a distant line
of green on the horizon,

283
00:14:10.017 --> 00:14:12.252
and that was
the Apache National Forest,

284
00:14:12.252 --> 00:14:13.387
created just recently

285
00:14:13.387 --> 00:14:16.957
by the signature
of Teddy Roosevelt.

286
00:14:16.957 --> 00:14:18.091
Like other foresters,

287
00:14:18.091 --> 00:14:20.093
he was starting
from the beginning.

288
00:14:20.093 --> 00:14:22.362
And so he got
his proper ranger outfit,

289
00:14:22.362 --> 00:14:24.665
and he did have to go
buy his own horse.

290
00:14:24.665 --> 00:14:27.768
ad Aldo Leopold\'s first real
job in the Forest Service

291
00:14:27.768 --> 00:14:32.272
was to go out and measure
the Apache National Forest.

292
00:14:35.108 --> 00:14:37.878
One of the best-known passages
of Leopold\'s writing

293
00:14:37.878 --> 00:14:39.847
describes an event
that occurred

294
00:14:39.847 --> 00:14:42.382
at the very start of his career

295
00:14:42.382 --> 00:14:44.451
when he saw a fierce,
green fire

296
00:14:44.451 --> 00:14:46.954
in the eyes of a dying wolf.

297
00:14:46.954 --> 00:14:49.356
Yet the full meaning
of that experience

298
00:14:49.356 --> 00:14:51.525
eluded him for many years.

299
00:14:51.525 --> 00:14:52.960
Imagine this.

300
00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:54.294
Aldo\'s-
how old is he?

301
00:14:54.294 --> 00:14:56.396
He\'s 20-
22.

302
00:14:56.396 --> 00:14:57.397
- 22.

303
00:14:57.397 --> 00:14:58.699
- 22 years old.

304
00:14:58.699 --> 00:15:00.100
Less than two weeks on the job,

305
00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:03.403
his first or second
free Sunday, he comes out here.

306
00:15:03.403 --> 00:15:06.473
And here\'s where
the green fire started.

307
00:15:06.473 --> 00:15:08.609
It\'s always struck me
as entirely fitting

308
00:15:08.609 --> 00:15:11.311
that he started his career
in the Forest Service

309
00:15:11.311 --> 00:15:13.614
with a moment that he didn\'t
even fully understand.

310
00:15:13.614 --> 00:15:20.287
It would take 35 years
for that moment to emerge

311
00:15:20.287 --> 00:15:22.589
in his own writing fully.

312
00:15:25.692 --> 00:15:28.629
- \"Only the mountain has lived
long enough

313
00:15:28.629 --> 00:15:33.867
\"to listen objectively
to the howl of a wolf.

314
00:15:33.867 --> 00:15:36.136
\"My own conviction
on this score

315
00:15:36.136 --> 00:15:40.507
\"dates from the day
I saw a wolf die.

316
00:15:40.507 --> 00:15:43.443
\"We were eating lunch
on the high rimrock,

317
00:15:43.443 --> 00:15:44.545
\"at the foot of which

318
00:15:44.545 --> 00:15:48.148
\"a turbulent river
elbowed its way.

319
00:15:48.148 --> 00:15:51.685
\"We saw what we thought
was a doe fording the torrent,

320
00:15:51.685 --> 00:15:54.788
\"her breast awash
in white water.

321
00:15:54.788 --> 00:15:56.823
\"When she climbed the bank
toward us

322
00:15:56.823 --> 00:16:01.628
\"and shook out her tail,
we realized our error.

323
00:16:01.628 --> 00:16:04.464
It was a wolf.\"

324
00:16:10.704 --> 00:16:12.739
- Leopold rose quickly
through the ranks

325
00:16:12.739 --> 00:16:15.409
of the young Forest Service.

326
00:16:15.409 --> 00:16:18.846
There was minimal hierarchy
at that time in the agency.

327
00:16:18.846 --> 00:16:22.749
All of these young foresters
had a lot of responsibility.

328
00:16:22.749 --> 00:16:24.551
It\'s really quite extraordinary

329
00:16:24.551 --> 00:16:27.988
that just three or four years
into his Forest Service career,

330
00:16:27.988 --> 00:16:30.324
this young guy from Iowa
becomes supervisor

331
00:16:30.324 --> 00:16:31.725
of the Carson National Forest

332
00:16:31.725 --> 00:16:33.560
at the tender age 25.

333
00:16:33.560 --> 00:16:36.263
- This is, you know, the house
that Aldo Leopold built

334
00:16:36.263 --> 00:16:38.265
back in 1912.

335
00:16:38.265 --> 00:16:40.033
And coming from Yale
to northern New Mexico

336
00:16:40.033 --> 00:16:41.969
and just kind of seeing
what you have here,

337
00:16:41.969 --> 00:16:45.305
that had to be a challenge
for him as well.

338
00:16:45.305 --> 00:16:47.374
The cultural diversity here
in northern New Mexico,

339
00:16:47.374 --> 00:16:48.976
I mean, rural communities
and you know,

340
00:16:48.976 --> 00:16:52.112
the land use was,
you know, all about grazing

341
00:16:52.112 --> 00:16:54.781
and all about the sheep
and cattle,

342
00:16:54.781 --> 00:17:00.053
and so he had his hands full.

343
00:17:00.053 --> 00:17:01.388
- As a young forester,

344
00:17:01.388 --> 00:17:04.057
Leopold was
in a precarious position.

345
00:17:04.057 --> 00:17:06.527
He had to enforce
new grazing regulations

346
00:17:06.527 --> 00:17:09.329
in communities that had
long had unrestricted use

347
00:17:09.329 --> 00:17:11.565
of the public lands.

348
00:17:11.565 --> 00:17:12.933
Over the next decade,

349
00:17:12.933 --> 00:17:14.902
as Leopold traveled
extensively

350
00:17:14.902 --> 00:17:16.503
throughout the Southwest,

351
00:17:16.503 --> 00:17:18.872
he became deeply interested
in the changes

352
00:17:18.872 --> 00:17:20.941
that had taken place
in the land,

353
00:17:20.941 --> 00:17:25.479
especially the impact
of severe overgrazing.

354
00:17:25.479 --> 00:17:27.514
- The period that was really
the hardest on the land,

355
00:17:27.514 --> 00:17:30.117
I think, was the 1880s,
1890s.

356
00:17:30.117 --> 00:17:31.451
And then after that,

357
00:17:31.451 --> 00:17:34.021
there was still overgrazing
going on.

358
00:17:34.021 --> 00:17:36.290
It took a long time

359
00:17:36.290 --> 00:17:40.694
before people learned
the limits of this landscape.

360
00:17:40.694 --> 00:17:42.796
- They never heard
of ecosystem management;

361
00:17:42.796 --> 00:17:46.166
nor did I,
40 years ago.

362
00:17:46.166 --> 00:17:48.902
I mean, we were out here
to conquer this country,

363
00:17:48.902 --> 00:17:51.171
not to make it better.

364
00:17:53.941 --> 00:17:57.110
I knew nothing
about this country,

365
00:17:57.110 --> 00:18:00.147
but I had a large family
and a small ranch,

366
00:18:00.147 --> 00:18:01.415
and it\'s self-defense.

367
00:18:01.415 --> 00:18:03.817
I had to figure out a way
to grow more grass

368
00:18:03.817 --> 00:18:06.186
for the livestock
and more wildlife habitat

369
00:18:06.186 --> 00:18:07.221
for the wildlife.

370
00:18:07.221 --> 00:18:10.357
I had to figure it out,
so I did.

371
00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:17.364
My wife got a book
about Leopold,

372
00:18:17.364 --> 00:18:21.201
and I began to read about him
and see what he did.

373
00:18:21.201 --> 00:18:22.903
And I thought,

374
00:18:22.903 --> 00:18:25.239
\"Boy if I\'d just read this
30 years ago,

375
00:18:25.239 --> 00:18:28.275
I could have saved
a lot of time and effort,\"

376
00:18:28.275 --> 00:18:32.913
because he already knew all
of the things I was learning.

377
00:18:36.783 --> 00:18:38.919
- Early in his
Forest Service career,

378
00:18:38.919 --> 00:18:41.522
Leopold began to see
the important connections

379
00:18:41.522 --> 00:18:44.324
between his work
and the health of the land.

380
00:18:44.324 --> 00:18:46.460
He would write
to his fellow foresters

381
00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:48.328
that, \"We are responsible
not just

382
00:18:48.328 --> 00:18:50.764
\"for this or that
particular resource.

383
00:18:50.764 --> 00:18:52.866
\"We are responsible
for the well-being

384
00:18:52.866 --> 00:18:54.735
of the forest as a whole.\"

385
00:18:54.735 --> 00:18:59.106
And that shift in perspective
would make all the difference.

386
00:18:59.106 --> 00:19:02.075
- And indeed, Leopold actually
developed a new system

387
00:19:02.075 --> 00:19:04.912
for forest inspection
in the Southwest

388
00:19:04.912 --> 00:19:07.414
in which he tried to track
the changes

389
00:19:07.414 --> 00:19:09.716
that were occurring
on the ground,

390
00:19:09.716 --> 00:19:12.319
the success
of forest management

391
00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:15.923
in actually improving
the quality of the forest.

392
00:19:18.692 --> 00:19:20.694
- He understood
at that early age,

393
00:19:20.694 --> 00:19:22.162
almost intuitively,

394
00:19:22.162 --> 00:19:25.065
that to be successful
as conservationists,

395
00:19:25.065 --> 00:19:27.334
we have to be mindful
of our interactions

396
00:19:27.334 --> 00:19:34.007
with the land and our impacts
on all of its parts.

397
00:19:34.007 --> 00:19:36.977
- \"Our job is to sharpen
our tools

398
00:19:36.977 --> 00:19:40.180
\"and make them cut
the right way.

399
00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:42.749
\"The sole measure
of our success

400
00:19:42.749 --> 00:19:48.956
is the effect which they have
on the forest.\"

401
00:19:48.956 --> 00:19:50.791
- Leopold began to realize

402
00:19:50.791 --> 00:19:55.395
that the forest environment
included soils, waters,

403
00:19:55.395 --> 00:19:57.364
plants, and animals.

404
00:19:57.364 --> 00:19:59.333
They were all part
of the system.

405
00:19:59.333 --> 00:20:02.402
He was one of the first people
to begin

406
00:20:02.402 --> 00:20:06.039
to look at the problem
of soil erosion,

407
00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.109
and he began to realize
the role of fire

408
00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:12.746
to protect those Southwestern
watersheds.

409
00:20:12.746 --> 00:20:16.550
In that sense, he was
what we would think of today

410
00:20:16.550 --> 00:20:21.054
as an early proponent
of ecosystem management.

411
00:20:23.357 --> 00:20:28.462
- The fact that I did burning
and wanted to do more

412
00:20:28.462 --> 00:20:31.798
was a mystery
to all of my neighbors.

413
00:20:31.798 --> 00:20:35.202
And because I was the new kid
on the block,

414
00:20:35.202 --> 00:20:37.137
they thought I was just
too young and dumb

415
00:20:37.137 --> 00:20:38.138
to know any better,

416
00:20:38.138 --> 00:20:39.273
and they were scared

417
00:20:39.273 --> 00:20:41.341
I was going to set
their ranch afire.

418
00:20:41.341 --> 00:20:45.412
My real objective here
would be to get it back

419
00:20:45.412 --> 00:20:50.250
to a open savannah
like it was in 1850.

420
00:20:50.250 --> 00:20:51.418
I just kept burning,

421
00:20:51.418 --> 00:20:55.322
and people begin to see,
that might work.

422
00:20:59.960 --> 00:21:02.462
- Leopold\'s experience
in the ranching communities

423
00:21:02.462 --> 00:21:03.697
of the Southwest

424
00:21:03.697 --> 00:21:05.499
really taught him
that you can\'t solve

425
00:21:05.499 --> 00:21:06.967
any conservation problem

426
00:21:06.967 --> 00:21:09.303
if you don\'t address
human relationships

427
00:21:09.303 --> 00:21:14.208
as well as human-land
relationships.

428
00:21:14.208 --> 00:21:17.344
- \"There are two things
that interest me:

429
00:21:17.344 --> 00:21:20.480
\"The relation of people
to each other

430
00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:23.550
and the relation
of people to land.\"

431
00:21:26.753 --> 00:21:30.757
- He entered a land very
different from the Midwest.

432
00:21:30.757 --> 00:21:33.327
There were, of course,
the many Native tribes,

433
00:21:33.327 --> 00:21:35.562
Anglo ranchers from Texas,

434
00:21:35.562 --> 00:21:37.598
and Hispanic families
that had lived there

435
00:21:37.598 --> 00:21:39.433
for centuries.

436
00:21:41.969 --> 00:21:45.339
- Mother came from a family
from Spain

437
00:21:45.339 --> 00:21:47.641
that came over with Cortez

438
00:21:47.641 --> 00:21:51.445
and came up through Mexico
and settled in New Mexico.

439
00:21:51.445 --> 00:21:53.046
So they were sheep ranchers.

440
00:21:53.046 --> 00:21:55.849
And I\'ve often realized
that Mother\'s family

441
00:21:55.849 --> 00:21:59.419
had a lot to do with
the overgrazing of the West.

442
00:21:59.419 --> 00:22:02.956
And here she went
and married Dad, the forester,

443
00:22:02.956 --> 00:22:06.460
and together,
they blended very well.

444
00:22:10.564 --> 00:22:12.399
Mother was teaching school,

445
00:22:12.399 --> 00:22:14.935
and Dad was the young forester

446
00:22:14.935 --> 00:22:18.539
having just graduated
from Yale.

447
00:22:18.539 --> 00:22:20.774
- He was up in the north part
of the state

448
00:22:20.774 --> 00:22:23.744
being very busy
as a forest supervisor.

449
00:22:23.744 --> 00:22:26.046
She was living down
in Santa Fe.

450
00:22:26.046 --> 00:22:28.248
So he had to write
to her letters,

451
00:22:28.248 --> 00:22:30.884
and he courted her
by mail, basically.

452
00:22:30.884 --> 00:22:34.154
And the letters between them
are really quite touching,

453
00:22:34.154 --> 00:22:39.026
and it was the basis
for a lifelong partnership.

454
00:22:40.894 --> 00:22:43.664
- \"My dear Estella,

455
00:22:43.664 --> 00:22:48.735
\"this night is so wonderful
that it almost hurts.

456
00:22:48.735 --> 00:22:50.804
\"I would like to be out
on our canyon

457
00:22:50.804 --> 00:22:54.274
\"and see the wild clematis
in the moonlight.

458
00:22:54.274 --> 00:22:57.811
Wouldn\'t you?\"

459
00:22:57.811 --> 00:22:59.713
- Aldo married
into one of the preeminent

460
00:22:59.713 --> 00:23:03.617
ranching families in the West.

461
00:23:03.617 --> 00:23:06.320
It gave Leopold
a very different appreciation

462
00:23:06.320 --> 00:23:09.356
of the cultural dimensions
of conservation.

463
00:23:09.356 --> 00:23:11.992
In the long run,
it would feed his understanding

464
00:23:11.992 --> 00:23:13.594
that conservation is not only

465
00:23:13.594 --> 00:23:16.530
about the land\'s ecological
relationships

466
00:23:16.530 --> 00:23:19.533
but also about our own
communities and cultures.

467
00:23:22.102 --> 00:23:24.271
- We think of ourselves
as being so independent,

468
00:23:24.271 --> 00:23:26.440
but we really aren\'t.

469
00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:30.077
And we felt, you know,
the land comes first.

470
00:23:30.077 --> 00:23:31.078
It\'s all
about the land.

471
00:23:31.078 --> 00:23:32.613
It\'s all about the land.

472
00:23:32.613 --> 00:23:36.350
But after awhile we\'d say,
\"It\'s all about the people.\"

473
00:23:36.350 --> 00:23:40.187
It would always come down
to personal relationships

474
00:23:40.187 --> 00:23:43.156
and trying to get folks
to work together

475
00:23:43.156 --> 00:23:47.227
to try to create a future
that includes open space

476
00:23:47.227 --> 00:23:49.830
and healthy,
functioning systems.

477
00:23:49.830 --> 00:23:52.733
[dog barking]

478
00:23:54.501 --> 00:23:57.171
You know, in terms
of the land ethic,

479
00:23:57.171 --> 00:23:59.339
which I think
is a beautiful phrase,

480
00:23:59.339 --> 00:24:01.508
and I think
it\'s a more meaningful phrase

481
00:24:01.508 --> 00:24:04.144
to a land owner than just
\"conservation\"

482
00:24:04.144 --> 00:24:05.979
or \"environmentalism.\"

483
00:24:05.979 --> 00:24:07.481
I think a land ethic
is something

484
00:24:07.481 --> 00:24:14.354
that people can really get
a grasp on and feel good about.

485
00:24:14.354 --> 00:24:21.295
♪ Do you think of the valley
you\'re leaving? ♪

486
00:24:21.295 --> 00:24:28.202
♪ Oh how lonely and dreary
it will be ♪

487
00:24:28.202 --> 00:24:29.903
♪ Do you think ♪

488
00:24:29.903 --> 00:24:33.340
♪ Of the kind hearts
you\'re breaking? ♪

489
00:24:33.340 --> 00:24:34.842
- You have to be encouraged,

490
00:24:34.842 --> 00:24:36.910
I think, by seeing
that these ideas

491
00:24:36.910 --> 00:24:39.813
about land health have begun
to take hold.

492
00:24:39.813 --> 00:24:43.584
- My conservation practices
evolved.

493
00:24:43.584 --> 00:24:45.419
And the things
that I\'ve learned here

494
00:24:45.419 --> 00:24:47.621
is that a real steward
of the land,

495
00:24:47.621 --> 00:24:50.624
he knows the history
of his ecosystem,

496
00:24:50.624 --> 00:24:52.492
he understands his ecosystem,

497
00:24:52.492 --> 00:24:55.062
he manages his ecosystem
holistically,

498
00:24:55.062 --> 00:24:57.531
and he shares that knowledge
with other people.

499
00:24:57.531 --> 00:25:00.434
That\'s a real steward.

500
00:25:04.505 --> 00:25:05.839
- Throughout his life,

501
00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:08.041
Aldo Leopold shared
his understanding of nature

502
00:25:08.041 --> 00:25:12.412
with many people,
especially his family.

503
00:25:12.412 --> 00:25:15.282
Aldo and Estella
had five children.

504
00:25:15.282 --> 00:25:17.651
Each one would become
a prominent scientist

505
00:25:17.651 --> 00:25:20.921
and conservationist.

506
00:25:20.921 --> 00:25:24.358
The family spent much time
together in the outdoors.

507
00:25:24.358 --> 00:25:26.193
The trips were often motivated

508
00:25:26.193 --> 00:25:29.329
by Aldo\'s great love
of hunting.

509
00:25:29.329 --> 00:25:30.697
As a young forester,

510
00:25:30.697 --> 00:25:34.034
Leopold wanted to increase
game populations.

511
00:25:34.034 --> 00:25:36.336
But neither he nor anyone else
understood

512
00:25:36.336 --> 00:25:39.373
the complex relationships
connecting predators,

513
00:25:39.373 --> 00:25:42.309
prey, people, and forests.

514
00:25:42.309 --> 00:25:44.645
Instead, he acted
on the simple premise

515
00:25:44.645 --> 00:25:48.715
that fewer predators
meant more game.

516
00:25:48.715 --> 00:25:50.717
- Leopold actually received
permission

517
00:25:50.717 --> 00:25:52.486
from the Forest Service
to travel

518
00:25:52.486 --> 00:25:53.720
throughout the Southwest

519
00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:56.390
organizing game protective
associations:

520
00:25:56.390 --> 00:26:00.561
sportsmen, ranchers,
forest officers

521
00:26:00.561 --> 00:26:05.132
into organizations that would
work for game protection.

522
00:26:05.132 --> 00:26:08.335
- So he was of his generation
and time.

523
00:26:08.335 --> 00:26:10.904
To kill a predator
was no big deal.

524
00:26:14.541 --> 00:26:16.577
- \"I personally believed,

525
00:26:16.577 --> 00:26:21.415
\"at least in 1914,
when predator control began,

526
00:26:21.415 --> 00:26:25.018
\"that there could not be
too much horned game

527
00:26:25.018 --> 00:26:27.321
\"and that the extirpation
of predators

528
00:26:27.321 --> 00:26:32.059
was a reasonable price to pay
for better big game hunting.\"

529
00:26:35.395 --> 00:26:37.464
- Due in part
to the government\'s campaign

530
00:26:37.464 --> 00:26:39.266
against predators,

531
00:26:39.266 --> 00:26:41.101
wolves would eventually
disappear

532
00:26:41.101 --> 00:26:45.906
from the mountains
of the Southwest.

533
00:26:45.906 --> 00:26:48.475
- \"In those days
we had never heard

534
00:26:48.475 --> 00:26:51.979
\"of passing up a chance
to kill a wolf.

535
00:26:51.979 --> 00:26:55.182
\"In a second, we were
pumping lead into the pack,

536
00:26:55.182 --> 00:27:00.220
\"but with more excitement
than accuracy.

537
00:27:00.220 --> 00:27:04.391
\"When our rifles were empty,
the old wolf was down,

538
00:27:04.391 --> 00:27:10.864
and a pup was dragging a leg
into impassable slide-rocks.\"

539
00:27:10.864 --> 00:27:12.866
- In his essay
Thinking Like a Mountain,

540
00:27:12.866 --> 00:27:15.669
Leopold recalled the encounter
he had with a wolf

541
00:27:15.669 --> 00:27:17.337
early in his career.

542
00:27:17.337 --> 00:27:18.639
But until recently,

543
00:27:18.639 --> 00:27:19.973
there was no direct evidence

544
00:27:19.973 --> 00:27:23.477
that the incident
actually occurred.

545
00:27:23.477 --> 00:27:28.282
- And I thought that if Leopold
had killed a wolf,

546
00:27:28.282 --> 00:27:31.285
that he would have to have
written home about it.

547
00:27:31.285 --> 00:27:35.789
It occurred to me
that sometime, somewhere

548
00:27:35.789 --> 00:27:39.193
there was a missing letter
that might reappear.

549
00:27:39.193 --> 00:27:44.131
And in January,
we learned that this letter

550
00:27:44.131 --> 00:27:45.465
and several others
had been found

551
00:27:45.465 --> 00:27:47.768
in a safe deposit box.

552
00:27:47.768 --> 00:27:49.036
- And I said, \"Oh, my gosh!

553
00:27:49.036 --> 00:27:50.237
\"You found the Holy Grail

554
00:27:50.237 --> 00:27:52.072
of Leopold scholarship
on this incident.\"

555
00:27:52.072 --> 00:27:55.742
But for Leopold, it was almost
not even worth mentioning.

556
00:27:55.742 --> 00:27:56.944
So...

557
00:27:56.944 --> 00:27:58.312
\"By the way, since the 15th,

558
00:27:58.312 --> 00:28:01.081
\"you may guess, my Sundays
have been busy.

559
00:28:01.081 --> 00:28:03.817
\"Wheatley and I have killed
two timber wolves

560
00:28:03.817 --> 00:28:05.552
\"and two turkeys
and a lot of grouse,

561
00:28:05.552 --> 00:28:06.787
but no deer.\"

562
00:28:06.787 --> 00:28:09.823
So it\'s almost an afterthought
for Leopold.

563
00:28:09.823 --> 00:28:11.325
I mean, Susan,
what did you think?

564
00:28:11.325 --> 00:28:15.996
- Later in his career,
Leopold began to realize

565
00:28:15.996 --> 00:28:21.001
that deer could be
very destructive to the forest

566
00:28:21.001 --> 00:28:22.603
if their numbers increased,

567
00:28:22.603 --> 00:28:24.838
so that Leopold himself

568
00:28:24.838 --> 00:28:28.375
recommended the removal
of bounties on wolves.

569
00:28:28.375 --> 00:28:32.145
And one of the most
successful areas

570
00:28:32.145 --> 00:28:34.681
in which he began
to pursue his ideas

571
00:28:34.681 --> 00:28:37.918
was the Gila National Forest.

572
00:28:37.918 --> 00:28:40.220
As deer populations
increased there,

573
00:28:40.220 --> 00:28:43.123
he began to go
into the Gila with horses

574
00:28:43.123 --> 00:28:46.827
and pack stock
on long hunting trips.

575
00:28:46.827 --> 00:28:49.296
And he began to realize

576
00:28:49.296 --> 00:28:52.432
that there was potential
for developing

577
00:28:52.432 --> 00:28:56.370
a new kind of recreational
experience in the forests,

578
00:28:56.370 --> 00:28:59.940
what he called
\"wilderness hunting grounds.\"

579
00:29:03.477 --> 00:29:06.046
- \"Wilderness is the one kind
of playground

580
00:29:06.046 --> 00:29:11.084
\"which mankind
cannot build to order.

581
00:29:11.084 --> 00:29:13.754
\"I contrived to get
the Gila headwaters

582
00:29:13.754 --> 00:29:18.492
\"withdrawn
as a wilderness area,

583
00:29:18.492 --> 00:29:20.594
\"to be kept as pack country,

584
00:29:20.594 --> 00:29:23.997
free from additional roads
forever.\"

585
00:29:26.900 --> 00:29:29.603
- Roads were spreading
across the country,

586
00:29:29.603 --> 00:29:32.539
threatening the last great
wild areas,

587
00:29:32.539 --> 00:29:34.474
and so he began working
to protect

588
00:29:34.474 --> 00:29:36.777
the larger expanses
of undeveloped land

589
00:29:36.777 --> 00:29:39.079
in the Southwest.

590
00:29:39.079 --> 00:29:42.482
This led to the designation
of the Gila Wilderness Area

591
00:29:42.482 --> 00:29:46.520
on the Gila National Forest
in 1924.

592
00:29:46.520 --> 00:29:49.857
It was the first federally
designated wilderness area,

593
00:29:49.857 --> 00:29:54.094
40 years before Congress passed
the Wilderness Act.

594
00:30:03.270 --> 00:30:06.373
I first came here
when I was a high school kid.

595
00:30:06.373 --> 00:30:09.276
- I grew up not far
from where we are.

596
00:30:09.276 --> 00:30:11.678
And I remember coming up here
and looking at this place

597
00:30:11.678 --> 00:30:13.480
behind its chain-link fence
and saying,

598
00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:15.482
\"What is up with that place?\"

599
00:30:15.482 --> 00:30:19.219
It was this little
postage stamp of a prairie

600
00:30:19.219 --> 00:30:20.687
here in the great expanse

601
00:30:20.687 --> 00:30:24.725
of Chicago\'s sprawling
suburban landscape.

602
00:30:24.725 --> 00:30:26.860
And it was magical.

603
00:30:26.860 --> 00:30:28.529
It was magic
\'cause it was different.

604
00:30:28.529 --> 00:30:33.700
It was something mysterious
about this little place.

605
00:30:33.700 --> 00:30:36.103
It was kind of a remnant
of something

606
00:30:36.103 --> 00:30:38.906
that was once vast
and inspiring.

607
00:30:38.906 --> 00:30:42.442
Now it was diminished,
forgotten,

608
00:30:42.442 --> 00:30:43.477
but it\'s still here,

609
00:30:43.477 --> 00:30:45.946
and it still can provide
that kind

610
00:30:45.946 --> 00:30:49.383
of inspirational connection
for anyone who cares

611
00:30:49.383 --> 00:30:52.419
to understand
what it\'s all about.

612
00:30:54.054 --> 00:30:57.558
Wildness, after all,
is where you find it.

613
00:30:57.558 --> 00:30:59.426
It\'s not just
in the wilderness.

614
00:31:02.162 --> 00:31:03.997
- See, we\'re going
to grow some carrots.

615
00:31:03.997 --> 00:31:05.666
Is everybody ready?

616
00:31:05.666 --> 00:31:06.834
- Yeah.

617
00:31:06.834 --> 00:31:08.569
- Now, these seeds
are very small.

618
00:31:08.569 --> 00:31:11.271
- And I want you to put
one or two of those seeds

619
00:31:11.271 --> 00:31:13.240
in the holes, okay?

620
00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:14.274
- In here?

621
00:31:14.274 --> 00:31:16.643
- Yes, in there for me.

622
00:31:16.643 --> 00:31:19.146
This is 3 1/2 acres here.

623
00:31:19.146 --> 00:31:21.515
- And it wasn\'t always as
pretty as it is now.

624
00:31:21.515 --> 00:31:22.883
- Oh, no!

625
00:31:22.883 --> 00:31:26.787
Its history was a 35-year-old
illegal dump site.

626
00:31:26.787 --> 00:31:31.258
And the community actually
called this \"dead man\'s alley,\"

627
00:31:31.258 --> 00:31:34.094
because a few dead bodies
had been dumped here

628
00:31:34.094 --> 00:31:35.729
in those 35 years.

629
00:31:35.729 --> 00:31:38.031
And so, basically,
there\'s so many things

630
00:31:38.031 --> 00:31:40.968
that have taken place
in a former illegal dump site.

631
00:31:40.968 --> 00:31:41.969
You\'ll be amazed.

632
00:31:41.969 --> 00:31:43.136
We have a prairie.

633
00:31:43.136 --> 00:31:44.371
We have a wetland.

634
00:31:44.371 --> 00:31:46.607
We have a children\'s
petting zoo.

635
00:31:46.607 --> 00:31:48.575
We have Potawatomi Indian
village,

636
00:31:48.575 --> 00:31:50.310
and we\'ve got a truck garden
up here

637
00:31:50.310 --> 00:31:51.979
teaching people
how to grow food.

638
00:31:51.979 --> 00:31:54.882
It\'s amazing what you can do
in these little bitty spaces,

639
00:31:54.882 --> 00:31:58.652
trying to reconnect this
community back to the land.

640
00:31:58.652 --> 00:32:01.989
And at the time
where most of the country

641
00:32:01.989 --> 00:32:05.359
was abusing the land,
abandoning the land,

642
00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:07.694
Aldo Leopold
was saying, \"Hold on.

643
00:32:07.694 --> 00:32:10.197
\"We need to understand
that our community

644
00:32:10.197 --> 00:32:12.733
\"is less without that

645
00:32:12.733 --> 00:32:14.768
\"and that our community
is not strong

646
00:32:14.768 --> 00:32:16.036
\"without that land.

647
00:32:16.036 --> 00:32:18.038
We\'ve got to protect it
and hold on to it.\"

648
00:32:18.038 --> 00:32:19.873
- The land ethic,

649
00:32:19.873 --> 00:32:22.309
this idea that we\'re part
of a community

650
00:32:22.309 --> 00:32:25.345
that includes the land
and the land includes us:

651
00:32:25.345 --> 00:32:26.914
doesn\'t matter where you are.

652
00:32:26.914 --> 00:32:29.349
It doesn\'t matter if you\'re
in the most remote wild place

653
00:32:29.349 --> 00:32:31.919
or if you\'re in the heart
of a big city like Chicago.

654
00:32:31.919 --> 00:32:33.153
It doesn\'t matter where you
are.

655
00:32:33.153 --> 00:32:34.154
- Doesn\'t matter.

656
00:32:34.154 --> 00:32:35.155
Nature is here.

657
00:32:35.155 --> 00:32:36.924
It\'s everywhere to be found.

658
00:32:36.924 --> 00:32:40.127
And we\'ve got to really change
the mind-set of so many people,

659
00:32:40.127 --> 00:32:41.562
especially
in urban environments,

660
00:32:41.562 --> 00:32:44.431
that are so disconnected
from the land.

661
00:32:44.431 --> 00:32:46.700
I had the biggest argument
with a student

662
00:32:46.700 --> 00:32:47.901
who argued with me

663
00:32:47.901 --> 00:32:50.437
where the eggs
in our henhouse came from.

664
00:32:50.437 --> 00:32:52.606
And I was showing him
Henrietta,

665
00:32:52.606 --> 00:32:54.208
our head chicken layer,

666
00:32:54.208 --> 00:32:56.677
and he was saying,
\"She didn\'t lay that egg.

667
00:32:56.677 --> 00:32:59.279
That egg came from Jewel\'s.\"

668
00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:01.281
I said, \"You mean,
the grocery store?\"

669
00:33:01.281 --> 00:33:02.983
He said, \"Yeah, that\'s where
it came from,

670
00:33:02.983 --> 00:33:04.518
the grocery store.\"

671
00:33:04.518 --> 00:33:06.653
I said, \"Where do you think
the grocery store got it from?\"

672
00:33:06.653 --> 00:33:08.121
And then he thought about it.

673
00:33:08.121 --> 00:33:11.158
He says, \"It came from
the grocery store.\"

674
00:33:11.158 --> 00:33:14.795
[laughter]

675
00:33:14.795 --> 00:33:18.732
- \"There are two spiritual
dangers in not owning a farm.

676
00:33:18.732 --> 00:33:21.301
\"One is the danger
of supposing

677
00:33:21.301 --> 00:33:23.937
\"that breakfast
comes from the grocery.

678
00:33:23.937 --> 00:33:27.307
and the other, that heat
comes from a furnace.\"

679
00:33:30.811 --> 00:33:32.813
- I think Leopold
would have loved this.

680
00:33:32.813 --> 00:33:35.849
You know, he was all about
trying to heal the connection

681
00:33:35.849 --> 00:33:37.251
between rural and urban,

682
00:33:37.251 --> 00:33:41.221
to get people to understand
the need for wilderness,

683
00:33:41.221 --> 00:33:43.423
but the need for working
rural environments.

684
00:33:43.423 --> 00:33:46.326
And I think today he would
expand that to talk about

685
00:33:46.326 --> 00:33:47.861
the need for cities as well.

686
00:33:47.861 --> 00:33:49.563
- Absolutely.

687
00:33:49.563 --> 00:33:52.132
In the late spring of 1924,

688
00:33:52.132 --> 00:33:54.868
Leopold made
a major career move.

689
00:33:54.868 --> 00:33:57.638
He left the Southwest
and returned to the Midwest,

690
00:33:57.638 --> 00:33:59.540
to Madison, Wisconsin,

691
00:33:59.540 --> 00:34:01.308
where he accepted
a new position

692
00:34:01.308 --> 00:34:02.543
with the Forest Service

693
00:34:02.543 --> 00:34:04.645
at the Forest Products
Laboratory.

694
00:34:04.645 --> 00:34:06.847
It was here in Madison
where he and Estella

695
00:34:06.847 --> 00:34:10.184
would raise their family.

696
00:34:10.184 --> 00:34:14.254
- Aldo Leopold lived here,
on the west side of Madison.

697
00:34:14.254 --> 00:34:18.992
And day-to-day, he actually
lived a pretty urban life.

698
00:34:18.992 --> 00:34:20.827
- You know, it may seem odd
to a lot of people,

699
00:34:20.827 --> 00:34:24.198
but I\'m mayor in large part
because of Aldo Leopold.

700
00:34:24.198 --> 00:34:27.401
I started reading Leopold
when I was in high school,

701
00:34:27.401 --> 00:34:28.969
and I really started
to understand

702
00:34:28.969 --> 00:34:30.404
that we need to think
of ourselves

703
00:34:30.404 --> 00:34:32.506
as part of a larger community,

704
00:34:32.506 --> 00:34:35.475
both a biotic community
and a community of people.

705
00:34:35.475 --> 00:34:37.077
Then I think we\'re going
to start to treat

706
00:34:37.077 --> 00:34:39.313
both urban
and rural environments

707
00:34:39.313 --> 00:34:42.850
with the respect
that they deserve.

708
00:34:42.850 --> 00:34:45.986
- After several years,
Leopold left the Forest Service

709
00:34:45.986 --> 00:34:51.391
to devote himself to his most
compelling interest: wildlife.

710
00:34:51.391 --> 00:34:53.126
For three years
he conducted

711
00:34:53.126 --> 00:34:55.929
unprecedented surveys
of game populations

712
00:34:55.929 --> 00:35:00.801
and habitats
across the Midwestern states.

713
00:35:00.801 --> 00:35:04.238
Then, in 1933, he published
the first text

714
00:35:04.238 --> 00:35:06.573
in the new field,
Game Management,

715
00:35:06.573 --> 00:35:08.342
and became its first professor

716
00:35:08.342 --> 00:35:10.511
at the University of Wisconsin.

717
00:35:16.483 --> 00:35:19.386
Well, for me, the moment
that really opened up the doors

718
00:35:19.386 --> 00:35:20.787
to Leopold\'s life and work

719
00:35:20.787 --> 00:35:23.957
came one day when I was working
down in the archives

720
00:35:23.957 --> 00:35:25.726
deep in the basement
of the library

721
00:35:25.726 --> 00:35:27.794
in Madison, Wisconsin.

722
00:35:27.794 --> 00:35:31.098
And I found
this particular box of paper.

723
00:35:31.098 --> 00:35:32.699
It was a collection
of manuscripts

724
00:35:32.699 --> 00:35:35.502
that Leopold
had left unpublished,

725
00:35:35.502 --> 00:35:39.039
and I slowly began reading
this meticulously edited prose.

726
00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:42.276
My jaw dropped.

727
00:35:42.276 --> 00:35:43.944
I could not believe
what I was reading.

728
00:35:43.944 --> 00:35:45.746
His insights were so profound.

729
00:35:45.746 --> 00:35:49.650
They were both timeless
and contemporary.

730
00:35:51.885 --> 00:35:55.055
I have not been devoted
to telling of Leopold\'s story

731
00:35:55.055 --> 00:35:57.057
simply for its own sake.

732
00:35:57.057 --> 00:35:58.158
I have been most interested

733
00:35:58.158 --> 00:36:00.160
in how we can learn
from Leopold,

734
00:36:00.160 --> 00:36:02.196
how we can take from his story

735
00:36:02.196 --> 00:36:04.331
things that are relevant
to the challenges

736
00:36:04.331 --> 00:36:06.800
and opportunities of today.

737
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:08.702
- Appreciate it. Thank you.
- Oh, well, thank you.

738
00:36:08.702 --> 00:36:09.937
It\'s really
a pleasure to meet you.

739
00:36:09.937 --> 00:36:11.271
This is a tremendous work
of scholarship

740
00:36:11.271 --> 00:36:12.272
and just well written.

741
00:36:12.272 --> 00:36:13.307
- Thank you.

742
00:36:13.307 --> 00:36:14.675
I\'m warning you.
- It\'s heavy.

743
00:36:14.675 --> 00:36:17.811
- It\'s, like-
like, my mother hasn\'t read it.

744
00:36:22.049 --> 00:36:23.951
We live in a time
that sometimes

745
00:36:23.951 --> 00:36:25.452
seems completely overwhelming

746
00:36:25.452 --> 00:36:27.688
in terms
of the environmental change,

747
00:36:27.688 --> 00:36:29.523
even as our economics systems

748
00:36:29.523 --> 00:36:33.126
are also being shaken
at their roots.

749
00:36:33.126 --> 00:36:35.429
We can learn a great deal
by looking back

750
00:36:35.429 --> 00:36:38.265
on Leopold\'s work in the 1930s,

751
00:36:38.265 --> 00:36:40.133
another period of great social,

752
00:36:40.133 --> 00:36:42.803
economic,
and ecological crisis.

753
00:36:42.803 --> 00:36:45.472
Those dark times
of the Dust Bowl, Depression,

754
00:36:45.472 --> 00:36:46.974
and impending war,

755
00:36:46.974 --> 00:36:51.278
were critical in Leopold\'s
intellectual development.

756
00:36:51.278 --> 00:36:54.982
[wind howling]

757
00:36:54.982 --> 00:36:56.884
- \"The destruction
of soil

758
00:36:56.884 --> 00:37:00.287
\"is the most fundamental kind
of economic loss

759
00:37:00.287 --> 00:37:05.626
which the human race
can suffer.\"

760
00:37:05.626 --> 00:37:08.929
- The Upper Midwest was subject
to massive soil erosion

761
00:37:08.929 --> 00:37:11.598
and watershed degradation.

762
00:37:11.598 --> 00:37:14.701
Many watersheds
were terribly eroded.

763
00:37:14.701 --> 00:37:17.037
Farmers took notice
when whole pastures

764
00:37:17.037 --> 00:37:22.309
or crop fields disappeared
in a single storm.

765
00:37:22.309 --> 00:37:25.445
And so Leopold and a team
of like-minded colleagues

766
00:37:25.445 --> 00:37:28.849
pioneered a radical
new approach to conservation:

767
00:37:28.849 --> 00:37:31.685
working with all the landowners
in a given watershed

768
00:37:31.685 --> 00:37:33.787
to heal the land.

769
00:37:33.787 --> 00:37:36.990
The first time they tried this
was in western Wisconsin

770
00:37:36.990 --> 00:37:40.928
in a place called Coon Valley.

771
00:37:43.630 --> 00:37:46.934
- \"Coon Valley
is one of the thousand

772
00:37:46.934 --> 00:37:49.670
\"farm communities
which, through the abuse

773
00:37:49.670 --> 00:37:51.672
\"of its originally rich soil,

774
00:37:51.672 --> 00:37:55.142
\"has not only filled
the national dinner pail

775
00:37:55.142 --> 00:37:58.545
\"but has created
the Mississippi flood problem

776
00:37:58.545 --> 00:38:03.483
and the problem
of its own future continuity.\"

777
00:38:03.483 --> 00:38:05.452
- Here in this little valley,

778
00:38:05.452 --> 00:38:11.758
a revolution
in conservation began.

779
00:38:11.758 --> 00:38:14.695
The amazing innovation
that took place in Coon Valley

780
00:38:14.695 --> 00:38:16.997
was this integrated approach.

781
00:38:16.997 --> 00:38:19.299
Hundreds of farmers
joined the effort,

782
00:38:19.299 --> 00:38:23.136
working with specialists
in agriculture, soil, water,

783
00:38:23.136 --> 00:38:24.938
wildlife, and forestry

784
00:38:24.938 --> 00:38:26.807
and with the newly enrolled
young workers

785
00:38:26.807 --> 00:38:29.142
of the Civilian
Conservation Corps.

786
00:38:29.142 --> 00:38:31.812
Together, they created
the very first

787
00:38:31.812 --> 00:38:36.683
watershed-scale conservation
project in the nation.

788
00:38:36.683 --> 00:38:38.886
We tend to think of something
as either public,

789
00:38:38.886 --> 00:38:40.053
or it\'s private,

790
00:38:40.053 --> 00:38:41.655
and there is no overlap
between them.

791
00:38:41.655 --> 00:38:43.991
- Leopold started
on the public land,

792
00:38:43.991 --> 00:38:46.927
the national forest lands
and so on,

793
00:38:46.927 --> 00:38:49.997
but then came to realize
the importance,

794
00:38:49.997 --> 00:38:53.100
after moving back
to the Midwest,

795
00:38:53.100 --> 00:38:56.203
that there really was very
little public land.

796
00:38:56.203 --> 00:38:58.672
And in fact,
most of the productive land,

797
00:38:58.672 --> 00:39:00.574
from a biological standpoint,

798
00:39:00.574 --> 00:39:04.044
it is really on private lands
and not on public lands.

799
00:39:04.044 --> 00:39:05.312
- So in the Southwest,

800
00:39:05.312 --> 00:39:07.381
you could literally have
an entire watershed

801
00:39:07.381 --> 00:39:10.350
under a single national forest
or even a single ranch.

802
00:39:10.350 --> 00:39:12.019
But here it was very different,

803
00:39:12.019 --> 00:39:13.987
\'cause at least in, say,
Coon Valley,

804
00:39:13.987 --> 00:39:15.622
the watershed may comprise

805
00:39:15.622 --> 00:39:17.858
hundreds
of individual farmsteads.

806
00:39:17.858 --> 00:39:19.493
- That\'s right,
and so out of that

807
00:39:19.493 --> 00:39:21.295
came the idea
that if we really are

808
00:39:21.295 --> 00:39:24.998
going to protect
and preserve our environment,

809
00:39:24.998 --> 00:39:26.800
we would have to do it
through private land

810
00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:29.536
and private land owners.

811
00:39:29.536 --> 00:39:32.139
- \"Conservation will ultimately
boil down

812
00:39:32.139 --> 00:39:34.575
\"to rewarding
the private land owner

813
00:39:34.575 --> 00:39:39.279
who conserves
the public interest.\"

814
00:39:39.279 --> 00:39:41.481
- And so Leopold came in
with the idea

815
00:39:41.481 --> 00:39:43.350
that we ought to have
a beautiful landscape,

816
00:39:43.350 --> 00:39:45.719
not just
a utilitarian landscape.

817
00:39:45.719 --> 00:39:49.089
And he wrote back then
about conservation

818
00:39:49.089 --> 00:39:51.358
being harmony
between people and land.

819
00:39:51.358 --> 00:39:53.894
And land, to him, was more
than just soil.

820
00:39:53.894 --> 00:39:55.996
It also includes water
and wildlife

821
00:39:55.996 --> 00:39:59.399
and plants and humans.

822
00:40:01.235 --> 00:40:02.703
Just drive
through Coon Valley today

823
00:40:02.703 --> 00:40:04.371
and see the beauty
of the landscape.

824
00:40:04.371 --> 00:40:07.374
Through Leopold\'s ideas
and many others

825
00:40:07.374 --> 00:40:10.244
that began back in 1933,

826
00:40:10.244 --> 00:40:12.379
we have been able to make
that land

827
00:40:12.379 --> 00:40:15.849
much healthier again.

828
00:40:15.849 --> 00:40:18.852
- When Aldo Leopold joined
the university as a professor,

829
00:40:18.852 --> 00:40:20.654
part of the deal
they worked out

830
00:40:20.654 --> 00:40:22.189
was that he would help develop

831
00:40:22.189 --> 00:40:24.458
this new idea of ecological
restoration

832
00:40:24.458 --> 00:40:27.261
at the University
of Wisconsin Arboretum.

833
00:40:27.261 --> 00:40:28.695
- It\'s always amazing to me

834
00:40:28.695 --> 00:40:30.397
that he could look
into the future

835
00:40:30.397 --> 00:40:33.200
without having
a lot of role models to follow.

836
00:40:33.200 --> 00:40:36.436
He had this vision
that we could rebuild

837
00:40:36.436 --> 00:40:37.871
on this site prairies,

838
00:40:37.871 --> 00:40:40.207
savannahs, and forests
that were here

839
00:40:40.207 --> 00:40:42.109
and rebuild them
the way they were

840
00:40:42.109 --> 00:40:45.546
before European settlement.

841
00:40:45.546 --> 00:40:48.815
- \"The time has come
for science to busy itself

842
00:40:48.815 --> 00:40:50.551
\"with the Earth itself.

843
00:40:50.551 --> 00:40:53.587
\"The first step
is to reconstruct a sample

844
00:40:53.587 --> 00:40:56.023
\"of what we had to start with.

845
00:40:56.023 --> 00:41:00.360
That, in a nutshell,
is the Arboretum.\"

846
00:41:00.360 --> 00:41:02.563
- They went out and foraged
over the landscape

847
00:41:02.563 --> 00:41:05.499
and found small
remnant prairies,

848
00:41:05.499 --> 00:41:08.769
collected sods, collected
seeds, collected plants

849
00:41:08.769 --> 00:41:11.538
and brought them here
and established the species

850
00:41:11.538 --> 00:41:14.441
that used to be there.

851
00:41:19.913 --> 00:41:22.749
- \"If the land mechanism
as a whole is good,

852
00:41:22.749 --> 00:41:24.117
\"then every part is good,

853
00:41:24.117 --> 00:41:28.255
whether we understand it
or not.

854
00:41:28.255 --> 00:41:31.391
\"To keep every cog and wheel

855
00:41:31.391 --> 00:41:36.063
is the first precaution
of intelligent tinkering.\"

856
00:41:36.063 --> 00:41:39.099
- This idea
of restoring damaged

857
00:41:39.099 --> 00:41:42.035
or degraded communities
and landscapes,

858
00:41:42.035 --> 00:41:46.440
that was a whole new direction
for conservation.

859
00:41:49.309 --> 00:41:50.978
- My father was head

860
00:41:50.978 --> 00:41:54.748
of the University of Wisconsin
Arboretum in the \'30s,

861
00:41:54.748 --> 00:41:58.252
and I think he was
enjoying that process so much

862
00:41:58.252 --> 00:42:01.488
that he decided that he wanted
to do it on his own land.

863
00:42:01.488 --> 00:42:03.624
And that\'s when
he bought this property.

864
00:42:06.927 --> 00:42:09.329
- \"On this sand farm
in Wisconsin,

865
00:42:09.329 --> 00:42:11.765
\"first worn out
and then abandoned

866
00:42:11.765 --> 00:42:14.401
\"by our bigger
and better society,

867
00:42:14.401 --> 00:42:17.771
\"we try to rebuild
with shovel and axe

868
00:42:17.771 --> 00:42:20.240
\"what we are losing elsewhere.

869
00:42:20.240 --> 00:42:23.477
\"It is here that we seek
and still find

870
00:42:23.477 --> 00:42:27.381
our meat from God.\"

871
00:42:27.381 --> 00:42:31.018
- I remember,
Dad at dinner one evening

872
00:42:31.018 --> 00:42:32.920
said that he had bought
some land

873
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:37.357
up in the sand counties
along the Wisconsin River,

874
00:42:37.357 --> 00:42:40.827
and we all had dreams
of a little cabin

875
00:42:40.827 --> 00:42:43.430
covered with vines
where we would sit on the porch

876
00:42:43.430 --> 00:42:45.499
and watch the water.

877
00:42:45.499 --> 00:42:47.134
Not so.

878
00:42:51.672 --> 00:42:54.741
We finally got in
to see this place,

879
00:42:54.741 --> 00:42:57.878
and it was corn stubble
and cockleburs

880
00:42:57.878 --> 00:43:00.013
as far as you could see.

881
00:43:00.013 --> 00:43:04.618
The old shed that remained
was the old chicken coop,

882
00:43:04.618 --> 00:43:07.754
and it was waist deep
in frozen manure.

883
00:43:07.754 --> 00:43:10.524
- Our first task was to get rid
of the manure

884
00:43:10.524 --> 00:43:12.392
that had accumulated
in this little shed

885
00:43:12.392 --> 00:43:14.595
that was the only building
left standing

886
00:43:14.595 --> 00:43:16.463
after the house burned down.

887
00:43:16.463 --> 00:43:18.699
- There were no windows.

888
00:43:18.699 --> 00:43:21.268
There was just an opening
for a door.

889
00:43:21.268 --> 00:43:24.538
And I say my mother
was a saint.

890
00:43:24.538 --> 00:43:27.741
She said, \"Oh, okay.
All right.\"

891
00:43:27.741 --> 00:43:31.445
But as soon as we
started fixing it up,

892
00:43:31.445 --> 00:43:34.715
we all became addicted,
and we just loved it.

893
00:43:41.455 --> 00:43:44.124
- When my husband found
this little place,

894
00:43:44.124 --> 00:43:45.859
which was a worn-out farm,

895
00:43:45.859 --> 00:43:52.199
he decided to buy it
to see what could be done.

896
00:43:52.199 --> 00:43:55.903
- The shack was as close
to nothing as you could get,

897
00:43:55.903 --> 00:43:57.538
and still it was everything.

898
00:43:57.538 --> 00:43:59.106
It\'s where we learned to work,

899
00:43:59.106 --> 00:44:03.977
where we learned to be
together and to sing.

900
00:44:03.977 --> 00:44:06.747
It just pulled
the family together.

901
00:44:06.747 --> 00:44:12.886
It was seven of us and the dog
and usually a pet or two.

902
00:44:12.886 --> 00:44:17.191
It was quite
a cheerful place.

903
00:44:17.191 --> 00:44:19.626
- And there\'s one thing
that my husband always said

904
00:44:19.626 --> 00:44:21.495
and which we kept to:

905
00:44:21.495 --> 00:44:23.263
\"Never take anything up there

906
00:44:23.263 --> 00:44:26.967
that isn\'t absolutely
necessary.\"

907
00:44:26.967 --> 00:44:28.635
- But we always had the guitar.

908
00:44:28.635 --> 00:44:32.172
There was always a gun,
the picnic basket,

909
00:44:32.172 --> 00:44:38.145
the dog,
the essentials.

910
00:44:38.145 --> 00:44:40.247
I think fundamental
to everything

911
00:44:40.247 --> 00:44:43.283
was this absolutely
wonderful marriage

912
00:44:43.283 --> 00:44:48.021
between my mother
and my father.

913
00:44:48.021 --> 00:44:51.725
- You haven\'t any idea
how much pleasure I have gotten

914
00:44:51.725 --> 00:44:55.195
out of going into the country
with my husband.

915
00:44:58.031 --> 00:44:59.700
- It seemed to me
that that was

916
00:44:59.700 --> 00:45:03.737
one of the happiest marriages
I know of.

917
00:45:08.542 --> 00:45:10.310
- He\'d say,
\"Your mother and I

918
00:45:10.310 --> 00:45:12.179
\"are going to the shack
for the weekend.

919
00:45:12.179 --> 00:45:14.515
Anybody want to come?\"

920
00:45:14.515 --> 00:45:17.084
And of course,
we all wanted to come.

921
00:45:17.084 --> 00:45:20.320
And now I look at it
as a kind of metaphor

922
00:45:20.320 --> 00:45:24.892
of how one can find
absolute happiness

923
00:45:24.892 --> 00:45:28.061
with the least
amount of stuff.

924
00:45:32.366 --> 00:45:34.034
- \"Like winds and sunsets,

925
00:45:34.034 --> 00:45:36.336
\"wild things were taken
for granted

926
00:45:36.336 --> 00:45:39.573
\"until progress began
to do away with them.

927
00:45:39.573 --> 00:45:42.476
\"Now we face the question
whether a still higher

928
00:45:42.476 --> 00:45:45.245
\"standard of living
is worth its cost

929
00:45:45.245 --> 00:45:50.350
in things natural,
wild, and free.\"

930
00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:55.155
- When Leopold came out
to his shack

931
00:45:55.155 --> 00:45:56.623
by the Wisconsin River,

932
00:45:56.623 --> 00:45:59.059
there were no calls
of sandhill cranes.

933
00:45:59.059 --> 00:46:01.495
He had to go deep
into the sand counties,

934
00:46:01.495 --> 00:46:04.431
into the wilderness areas
to find the last few birds

935
00:46:04.431 --> 00:46:05.933
that were left.

936
00:46:05.933 --> 00:46:07.167
He estimated back then

937
00:46:07.167 --> 00:46:10.270
there were only about 100
cranes in Wisconsin,

938
00:46:10.270 --> 00:46:15.275
and the whooping crane was
practically extinct then.

939
00:46:15.275 --> 00:46:17.511
And he thought
his Marshland Elegy

940
00:46:17.511 --> 00:46:20.113
was an elegy
to the sandhill crane.

941
00:46:20.113 --> 00:46:23.617
It would soon disappear.

942
00:46:23.617 --> 00:46:27.688
[crane chittering]

943
00:46:27.688 --> 00:46:31.792
- \"When we hear his call,
we hear no mere bird.

944
00:46:31.792 --> 00:46:35.696
We hear the trumpet
in the orchestra of evolution.\"

945
00:46:39.566 --> 00:46:42.903
\"He is the symbol
of our untamable past,

946
00:46:42.903 --> 00:46:45.873
\"of that incredible sweep
of millennia

947
00:46:45.873 --> 00:46:48.041
\"which underlies
and conditions

948
00:46:48.041 --> 00:46:52.379
the daily affairs
of birds and men.\"

949
00:46:52.379 --> 00:46:55.282
[birds chirping]

950
00:47:04.391 --> 00:47:06.093
- When we do a capture calling
like that

951
00:47:06.093 --> 00:47:07.895
so the chicks can hear them.

952
00:47:07.895 --> 00:47:10.964
These chicks will be
about six weeks old.

953
00:47:10.964 --> 00:47:13.600
- How long will the band last?

954
00:47:13.600 --> 00:47:16.270
- We have bands
that have been on for 20 years.

955
00:47:17.938 --> 00:47:20.073
- These are birds
that are getting ready

956
00:47:20.073 --> 00:47:24.978
for the flight south.

957
00:47:24.978 --> 00:47:26.847
And so we are putting bands
on them

958
00:47:26.847 --> 00:47:28.415
so that we can track them.

959
00:47:28.415 --> 00:47:30.751
This happens to be a pair
that is resident on the grounds

960
00:47:30.751 --> 00:47:32.052
of the Crane Foundation,

961
00:47:32.052 --> 00:47:33.787
so it kind of gives
a real special opportunity

962
00:47:33.787 --> 00:47:35.756
to-first of all, to teach

963
00:47:35.756 --> 00:47:39.927
but also to track the birds
that are right on site.

964
00:48:03.016 --> 00:48:05.152
- As an influential teacher,

965
00:48:05.152 --> 00:48:06.453
Leopold was among the first

966
00:48:06.453 --> 00:48:08.155
to bring students
into the field

967
00:48:08.155 --> 00:48:10.958
to carefully observe wildlife.

968
00:48:10.958 --> 00:48:13.727
He also continued
his own field studies,

969
00:48:13.727 --> 00:48:16.830
traveling overseas
for the only time in his life

970
00:48:16.830 --> 00:48:20.767
to Europe in 1935,
where he got a firsthand look

971
00:48:20.767 --> 00:48:24.037
at intensive resource
management.

972
00:48:24.037 --> 00:48:28.509
- \"We Americans have not yet
experienced a bear-less,

973
00:48:28.509 --> 00:48:33.614
\"wolf-less, eagle-less,
cat-less woods.

974
00:48:33.614 --> 00:48:35.916
\"Germany strove
for maximum yields

975
00:48:35.916 --> 00:48:40.754
of both timber and game
and got neither.\"

976
00:48:40.754 --> 00:48:43.657
- Leopold\'s time in the forests
of Central Europe

977
00:48:43.657 --> 00:48:45.659
taught him a critical lesson.

978
00:48:45.659 --> 00:48:47.928
Germany had,
over several centuries,

979
00:48:47.928 --> 00:48:50.898
developed an artificial,
highly intensive approach

980
00:48:50.898 --> 00:48:52.699
to forest and game management.

981
00:48:52.699 --> 00:48:57.204
But for Leopold,
something crucial was missing.

982
00:48:57.204 --> 00:49:00.040
- He made a trip in 1935
to Germany,

983
00:49:00.040 --> 00:49:02.643
where he describes the slick,
clean forests,

984
00:49:02.643 --> 00:49:04.811
sort of an agro-forest.

985
00:49:04.811 --> 00:49:09.183
And one of the contrasts
of that was his trip in 1936

986
00:49:09.183 --> 00:49:12.819
and again in 1937
to the Rio Gavilan region

987
00:49:12.819 --> 00:49:14.321
of Northern Mexico,

988
00:49:14.321 --> 00:49:16.890
a region that I have become
familiar with in my own work.

989
00:49:22.296 --> 00:49:24.364
I\'m gonna guess that I\'m gonna
hit pith

990
00:49:24.364 --> 00:49:25.999
by angling a little bit
like this.

991
00:49:25.999 --> 00:49:28.368
And it takes a little pressure
to get them started.

992
00:49:28.368 --> 00:49:32.406
My research is focused
on developing a fire history

993
00:49:32.406 --> 00:49:35.375
for a region
of the northern Sierra Madre

994
00:49:35.375 --> 00:49:37.845
where there\'s been
no fire suppression

995
00:49:37.845 --> 00:49:39.446
and a very different
land use history

996
00:49:39.446 --> 00:49:41.148
than on the north side
of the border,

997
00:49:41.148 --> 00:49:44.184
where land
had been severely overgrazed

998
00:49:44.184 --> 00:49:46.787
and heavily logged
beginning in about 1870.

999
00:49:52.559 --> 00:49:55.362
This is a pretty wild,
remote piece of country,

1000
00:49:55.362 --> 00:50:01.301
and I think it had a profound
influence on Leopold.

1001
00:50:01.301 --> 00:50:04.571
- \"It was here that I first
clearly realized

1002
00:50:04.571 --> 00:50:06.940
\"that land is an organism,

1003
00:50:06.940 --> 00:50:10.511
\"that all my life,
I had seen only sick land,

1004
00:50:10.511 --> 00:50:12.746
\"whereas here was a biota

1005
00:50:12.746 --> 00:50:16.950
\"still in perfect
aboriginal health.

1006
00:50:16.950 --> 00:50:22.823
The term \'unspoiled wilderness\'
took on a new meaning.\"

1007
00:50:22.823 --> 00:50:25.158
- Of course,
Leopold was well aware

1008
00:50:25.158 --> 00:50:27.728
that this region
of northern Mexico

1009
00:50:27.728 --> 00:50:31.298
had human occupation
for long periods of time.

1010
00:50:31.298 --> 00:50:33.734
So he wasn\'t using
\"aboriginal health\" to mean

1011
00:50:33.734 --> 00:50:36.670
that humans were excluded
from this,

1012
00:50:36.670 --> 00:50:38.272
you know, \"wilderness area.\"

1013
00:50:38.272 --> 00:50:40.107
But I think what Leopold
was talking about

1014
00:50:40.107 --> 00:50:45.012
by \"aboriginal health\"
was that this land was special

1015
00:50:45.012 --> 00:50:49.783
in that things were intact,
so to speak.

1016
00:50:49.783 --> 00:50:54.454
- \"Land health is the capacity
for self-renewal in the soils,

1017
00:50:54.454 --> 00:50:56.690
\"waters, plants, and animals

1018
00:50:56.690 --> 00:51:00.928
that collectively comprise
the land.\"

1019
00:51:02.896 --> 00:51:05.766
- We are all Aldo Leopold\'s

1020
00:51:05.766 --> 00:51:08.268
great-grandchildren
intellectually,

1021
00:51:08.268 --> 00:51:11.872
and I happen to be personally
as well.

1022
00:51:11.872 --> 00:51:14.908
But he\'s pointed us down
an important path,

1023
00:51:14.908 --> 00:51:16.977
and we\'ll be going
down that path

1024
00:51:16.977 --> 00:51:19.446
and finding our way
for some time, I suspect,

1025
00:51:19.446 --> 00:51:23.183
and that\'s a good thing.

1026
00:51:23.183 --> 00:51:25.586
- Leopold\'s travels led him
to realize

1027
00:51:25.586 --> 00:51:27.788
that wilderness
must be protected

1028
00:51:27.788 --> 00:51:30.891
not just for its recreational
and cultural value,

1029
00:51:30.891 --> 00:51:33.994
but also
for its scientific value.

1030
00:51:33.994 --> 00:51:36.063
In his words,
\"We need wilderness

1031
00:51:36.063 --> 00:51:38.031
\"to serve as a land laboratory,

1032
00:51:38.031 --> 00:51:43.437
a place to understand the
land\'s ecological processes.\"

1033
00:51:43.437 --> 00:51:45.973
During this period,
Leopold joined forces

1034
00:51:45.973 --> 00:51:47.774
with other leading
conservationists

1035
00:51:47.774 --> 00:51:49.943
to form the Wilderness Society,

1036
00:51:49.943 --> 00:51:52.546
dedicated to protecting
the wildest portions

1037
00:51:52.546 --> 00:51:56.149
of the nation\'s public lands
from rampant development.

1038
00:51:59.620 --> 00:52:02.623
Eventually, the system
of protected wilderness

1039
00:52:02.623 --> 00:52:05.058
would embrace more
than 100 million acres

1040
00:52:05.058 --> 00:52:08.662
across the country.

1041
00:52:08.662 --> 00:52:11.031
- \"To those devoid
of imagination,

1042
00:52:11.031 --> 00:52:14.668
\"a blank place on the map
is a useless waste.

1043
00:52:14.668 --> 00:52:18.505
To others,
the most valuable part.\"

1044
00:52:21.341 --> 00:52:23.243
- While Leopold fought
to protect

1045
00:52:23.243 --> 00:52:25.913
the spectacular
public wildlands,

1046
00:52:25.913 --> 00:52:27.981
he was equally conscious
of the need

1047
00:52:27.981 --> 00:52:31.952
to restore wildness
and land health close to home.

1048
00:52:37.891 --> 00:52:40.194
- \"What more delightful
avocation

1049
00:52:40.194 --> 00:52:42.329
\"than to take a piece of land

1050
00:52:42.329 --> 00:52:45.032
\"and, by cautious
experimentation,

1051
00:52:45.032 --> 00:52:47.801
\"to prove how it works?

1052
00:52:47.801 --> 00:52:50.771
\"What more substantial service
to conservation

1053
00:52:50.771 --> 00:52:57.244
than to practice it
on one\'s own land?\"

1054
00:52:57.244 --> 00:53:00.247
- That first year,
we began to plant pines

1055
00:53:00.247 --> 00:53:04.451
and bring it back
to what it was originally.

1056
00:53:04.451 --> 00:53:06.987
- We planted 3,000 a year,

1057
00:53:06.987 --> 00:53:09.823
so I think it was
approximately 48.000,

1058
00:53:09.823 --> 00:53:13.827
something like that,
altogether.

1059
00:53:13.827 --> 00:53:16.897
- \"Acts of creation
are ordinarily reserved

1060
00:53:16.897 --> 00:53:19.066
\"for gods and poets.

1061
00:53:19.066 --> 00:53:22.002
\"But humbler folk
may circumvent this restriction

1062
00:53:22.002 --> 00:53:23.837
\"if they know how.

1063
00:53:23.837 --> 00:53:26.006
\"To plant a pine, for example,

1064
00:53:26.006 --> 00:53:29.309
\"one need be neither
god nor poet.

1065
00:53:29.309 --> 00:53:33.213
One need only own
a good shovel.\"

1066
00:53:36.817 --> 00:53:38.652
- To come to this place today

1067
00:53:38.652 --> 00:53:41.955
and see what it is
as a result

1068
00:53:41.955 --> 00:53:45.359
of Leopold\'s early efforts
at restoration

1069
00:53:45.359 --> 00:53:48.362
is truly remarkable.

1070
00:53:48.362 --> 00:53:51.498
It\'s an inspiration
to go back

1071
00:53:51.498 --> 00:53:52.933
and think about the history

1072
00:53:52.933 --> 00:53:56.136
of what Leopold
accomplished here.

1073
00:53:56.136 --> 00:53:58.805
It took decades
for the science

1074
00:53:58.805 --> 00:54:02.142
of ecological restoration
to catch on

1075
00:54:02.142 --> 00:54:05.646
and become a real endeavor
that is now practiced

1076
00:54:05.646 --> 00:54:08.949
in ecosystems literally
around the world.

1077
00:54:08.949 --> 00:54:11.718
- Leopold\'s thinking
is pertinent everywhere.

1078
00:54:11.718 --> 00:54:14.988
It was very modern with regards
of using science

1079
00:54:14.988 --> 00:54:18.325
and the new emergent science
of ecology

1080
00:54:18.325 --> 00:54:22.262
for making decisions
about managing the landscape.

1081
00:54:22.262 --> 00:54:26.800
- I think, today Aldo Leopold\'s
influence and his philosophies

1082
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:29.369
are more apparent
and more of a guiding factor

1083
00:54:29.369 --> 00:54:32.439
in land management agencies
than they\'ve ever been.

1084
00:54:32.439 --> 00:54:34.808
- I mean, it took ecology
to bring us back

1085
00:54:34.808 --> 00:54:37.077
to this notion of communities,

1086
00:54:37.077 --> 00:54:39.112
of things being deeply
connected.

1087
00:54:39.112 --> 00:54:42.416
And Leopold
was the key translator

1088
00:54:42.416 --> 00:54:44.184
of that idea,
in a sense.

1089
00:54:48.222 --> 00:54:50.290
- As the Second World War
began,

1090
00:54:50.290 --> 00:54:51.925
Leopold became concerned

1091
00:54:51.925 --> 00:54:54.328
about the tragic
human impacts of war

1092
00:54:54.328 --> 00:55:01.168
as well as the damage
we can inflict on nature.

1093
00:55:01.168 --> 00:55:04.171
- \"Our tools are better
than we are

1094
00:55:04.171 --> 00:55:08.709
\"and grow better
faster than we do.

1095
00:55:08.709 --> 00:55:13.347
\"They suffice to crack
the atom, to command the tides,

1096
00:55:13.347 --> 00:55:15.048
\"but they do not suffice

1097
00:55:15.048 --> 00:55:18.752
\"for the oldest task
in human history,

1098
00:55:18.752 --> 00:55:22.489
to live on a piece of land
without spoiling it.\"

1099
00:55:25.425 --> 00:55:28.762
- This is an area where wolves
have been reintroduced.

1100
00:55:28.762 --> 00:55:30.197
It\'s been an ongoing process.

1101
00:55:30.197 --> 00:55:31.465
There have been
about 100 wolves

1102
00:55:31.465 --> 00:55:33.534
reintroduced over the years,

1103
00:55:33.534 --> 00:55:37.404
and about 52 at last count
occupying this country

1104
00:55:37.404 --> 00:55:39.506
and the adjacent country
over in New Mexico.

1105
00:55:39.506 --> 00:55:40.574
We\'ve got a ways to go

1106
00:55:40.574 --> 00:55:43.010
in terms of building
our wolf numbers

1107
00:55:43.010 --> 00:55:45.479
up to what we refer to

1108
00:55:45.479 --> 00:55:48.982
as ecologically effective
population densities.

1109
00:56:01.295 --> 00:56:04.131
This population was down
to seven wolves at one time.

1110
00:56:04.131 --> 00:56:06.967
Every Mexican wolf that\'s alive
today in captivity or the wild

1111
00:56:06.967 --> 00:56:08.902
can be traced back
to seven animals.

1112
00:56:08.902 --> 00:56:11.071
So they were teetering
on the brink of extinction.

1113
00:56:11.071 --> 00:56:12.539
It was nearly there.

1114
00:56:19.313 --> 00:56:21.949
Starting when the wolves
were taken out of that system,

1115
00:56:21.949 --> 00:56:24.451
the aspens, the willows,
and the cottonwoods

1116
00:56:24.451 --> 00:56:26.320
just ceased to reproduce,

1117
00:56:26.320 --> 00:56:29.256
because the elk
increased in numbers.

1118
00:56:29.256 --> 00:56:32.826
And that\'s one of the roles
of wolves in ecosystems

1119
00:56:32.826 --> 00:56:35.462
is to control
the elk population.

1120
00:56:35.462 --> 00:56:38.098
And that\'s what they found
in Yellowstone National Park,

1121
00:56:38.098 --> 00:56:39.533
where wolves have been
reintroduced

1122
00:56:39.533 --> 00:56:42.703
and where the wolves
have been there longer.

1123
00:56:42.703 --> 00:56:45.772
It\'s an amazing story
of ecological regeneration.

1124
00:57:11.064 --> 00:57:12.699
Wolf recovery, of course,

1125
00:57:12.699 --> 00:57:15.903
is an extremely
controversial topic.

1126
00:57:15.903 --> 00:57:19.072
So we need to find new ways
to resolve conflict

1127
00:57:19.072 --> 00:57:22.576
that leave wolves
on the ground,

1128
00:57:22.576 --> 00:57:24.244
more wolves on the ground,

1129
00:57:24.244 --> 00:57:26.113
so that we can get
to that objective

1130
00:57:26.113 --> 00:57:28.348
and help regenerate
ecosystems.

1131
00:57:31.285 --> 00:57:34.588
- \"Conservation
without a keen realization

1132
00:57:34.588 --> 00:57:36.456
\"of its vital conflicts

1133
00:57:36.456 --> 00:57:40.227
\"fails to rate
as authentic human drama.

1134
00:57:40.227 --> 00:57:45.065
It falls to the level
of a mere utopian dream.\"

1135
00:57:45.065 --> 00:57:48.669
- Leopold understood that these
are complicated issues.

1136
00:57:48.669 --> 00:57:52.339
He understood that there was
no simple solution.

1137
00:57:52.339 --> 00:57:55.342
He himself contained
so many different dimensions.

1138
00:57:55.342 --> 00:57:56.810
He was a hunter.

1139
00:57:56.810 --> 00:58:00.147
He was also a protector
of wildlife and land.

1140
00:58:00.147 --> 00:58:02.049
He was a forester
who understood the need

1141
00:58:02.049 --> 00:58:06.286
for \"wise use\" of timber
and other forest resources,

1142
00:58:06.286 --> 00:58:08.322
but he was also one
of the great champions

1143
00:58:08.322 --> 00:58:10.357
of protecting wildlands.

1144
00:58:10.357 --> 00:58:12.960
All the complex tensions
that were built

1145
00:58:12.960 --> 00:58:19.166
into the conservation movement
were there inside of Leopold.

1146
00:58:19.166 --> 00:58:20.834
- The amazing thing
is that we could almost

1147
00:58:20.834 --> 00:58:22.903
be seeing a wolf
here at anytime,

1148
00:58:22.903 --> 00:58:24.304
because they are back.

1149
00:58:24.304 --> 00:58:25.739
- Mm-hmm.

1150
00:58:25.739 --> 00:58:27.174
- And they are nearby,
aren\'t they?

1151
00:58:27.174 --> 00:58:28.742
- Yes, they are.

1152
00:58:28.742 --> 00:58:31.879
There is a pack
about five miles from here,

1153
00:58:31.879 --> 00:58:33.780
and that\'s close
in wolf terms.

1154
00:58:33.780 --> 00:58:35.816
That means they could be
anywhere near us

1155
00:58:35.816 --> 00:58:37.184
at this point in time.

1156
00:58:37.184 --> 00:58:38.652
- Well we may never know
exactly where

1157
00:58:38.652 --> 00:58:40.954
the wolf shooting incident
happened,

1158
00:58:40.954 --> 00:58:41.955
but we can feel
pretty confident

1159
00:58:41.955 --> 00:58:43.490
that it was very close

1160
00:58:43.490 --> 00:58:44.491
to where we are standing.

1161
00:58:44.491 --> 00:58:46.393
And for the record,

1162
00:58:46.393 --> 00:58:50.430
it\'s almost exactly 100 years
ago to the day

1163
00:58:50.430 --> 00:58:51.765
that the incident
happened here.

1164
00:58:51.765 --> 00:58:53.400
- That\'s correct.
It is September.

1165
00:58:53.400 --> 00:58:55.736
- So he and his ranger,
Mr. Wheatley,

1166
00:58:55.736 --> 00:58:57.571
are both shooting,
we presume.

1167
00:58:57.571 --> 00:59:00.574
We don\'t know which fatal shots
may have been whose.

1168
00:59:00.574 --> 00:59:02.709
But the wolves are wounded.

1169
00:59:02.709 --> 00:59:04.211
A couple are down.

1170
00:59:04.211 --> 00:59:07.381
The ones that are surviving
begin clawing their way

1171
00:59:07.381 --> 00:59:08.849
back onto the talus slopes.

1172
00:59:08.849 --> 00:59:11.919
Leopold comes up
to the mother wolf

1173
00:59:11.919 --> 00:59:15.622
and sees the green fire die
right here.

1174
00:59:21.862 --> 00:59:24.331
- \"We reached the old wolf
in time

1175
00:59:24.331 --> 00:59:28.902
\"to watch a fierce green fire
dying in her eyes.

1176
00:59:28.902 --> 00:59:32.573
\"I realized then
and have known ever since

1177
00:59:32.573 --> 00:59:35.509
\"that there was something new
to me in those eyes,

1178
00:59:35.509 --> 00:59:39.346
\"something known only to her
and to the mountain.

1179
00:59:39.346 --> 00:59:43.450
\"I was young then
and full of trigger itch.

1180
00:59:43.450 --> 00:59:47.354
\"I thought that because
fewer wolves meant more deer

1181
00:59:47.354 --> 00:59:51.425
\"that no wolves would mean
hunters\' paradise.

1182
00:59:51.425 --> 00:59:54.561
\"But after seeing
the green fire die,

1183
00:59:54.561 --> 00:59:57.931
\"I sensed that neither the wolf
nor the mountain

1184
00:59:57.931 --> 01:00:00.801
agreed with such a view.\"

1185
01:00:00.801 --> 01:00:06.173
[wolf howling in distance]

1186
01:00:06.173 --> 01:00:08.308
- In that one essay,
that one moment

1187
01:00:08.308 --> 01:00:10.110
when he saw the green fire,

1188
01:00:10.110 --> 01:00:14.548
that was a transformational
moment in his individual life.

1189
01:00:14.548 --> 01:00:17.618
And it also suggests
the transformational moment

1190
01:00:17.618 --> 01:00:22.389
in our movement if we are
willing to change ourselves.

1191
01:00:22.389 --> 01:00:26.226
- And, you know, we all have

1192
01:00:26.226 --> 01:00:30.864
the essence
of the fierce green fire.

1193
01:00:30.864 --> 01:00:34.835
That\'s, again, our hope,
I think.

1194
01:00:42.476 --> 01:00:45.579
- The fierce green fire
Leopold saw in the eyes

1195
01:00:45.579 --> 01:00:48.415
of the dying wolf
would come over his lifetime

1196
01:00:48.415 --> 01:00:51.485
to signify far more
than one creature\'s passing

1197
01:00:51.485 --> 01:00:55.622
and one person\'s experience.

1198
01:00:55.622 --> 01:00:58.125
In remembering
that fateful moment,

1199
01:00:58.125 --> 01:00:59.493
Leopold bore witness

1200
01:00:59.493 --> 01:01:01.662
to the deep history
of the mountain,

1201
01:01:01.662 --> 01:01:04.431
the fullness
of its community of life

1202
01:01:04.431 --> 01:01:06.500
and the complicated
and changing role

1203
01:01:06.500 --> 01:01:10.003
of people within it.

1204
01:01:10.003 --> 01:01:12.472
For Leopold, the encounter
with the wolf

1205
01:01:12.472 --> 01:01:16.210
was an early turning point
on his own trail.

1206
01:01:16.210 --> 01:01:20.314
He followed that trail
until it led to the land ethic.

1207
01:01:20.314 --> 01:01:23.317
Finally, in the summer of 1947,

1208
01:01:23.317 --> 01:01:27.221
he sat down
to distill his thoughts.

1209
01:01:30.324 --> 01:01:31.825
- \"Examine each question

1210
01:01:31.825 --> 01:01:35.896
\"in terms of what is ethically
and aesthetically right

1211
01:01:35.896 --> 01:01:39.266
\"as well as what is
economically expedient.

1212
01:01:39.266 --> 01:01:43.237
\"A thing is right when it tends
to preserve the integrity,

1213
01:01:43.237 --> 01:01:47.207
\"stability, and beauty
of the biotic community.

1214
01:01:47.207 --> 01:01:50.711
It is wrong
when it tends otherwise.\"

1215
01:01:53.647 --> 01:01:57.050
- The land ethic was the end
result of a long process

1216
01:01:57.050 --> 01:02:00.220
of experience and reflection.

1217
01:02:00.220 --> 01:02:02.556
In many ways,
it was the culmination

1218
01:02:02.556 --> 01:02:05.092
of his life journey.

1219
01:02:05.092 --> 01:02:07.461
These are Leopold\'s
field journals.

1220
01:02:07.461 --> 01:02:09.329
He began them in 1917,

1221
01:02:09.329 --> 01:02:11.031
when he was still
in the Forest Service

1222
01:02:11.031 --> 01:02:12.933
and living in the Southwest.

1223
01:02:12.933 --> 01:02:14.968
These aren\'t
his professional journals.

1224
01:02:14.968 --> 01:02:16.703
These are his
more personal records

1225
01:02:16.703 --> 01:02:20.107
of his own time
in the outdoors.

1226
01:02:20.107 --> 01:02:22.476
And almost any time Leopold
was outside,

1227
01:02:22.476 --> 01:02:24.378
the next thing he would do
was come home

1228
01:02:24.378 --> 01:02:25.712
and write about it.

1229
01:02:25.712 --> 01:02:27.548
On a given day,
he would note the weather,

1230
01:02:27.548 --> 01:02:30.484
what he saw, phenology,

1231
01:02:30.484 --> 01:02:32.786
first and last blooms
of flowers.

1232
01:02:32.786 --> 01:02:36.957
This is just two nights before
he would pass away, actually.

1233
01:02:36.957 --> 01:02:39.860
In fact, over here, we have
things that were on him

1234
01:02:39.860 --> 01:02:42.329
when he suffered the heart
attack that killed him

1235
01:02:42.329 --> 01:02:43.764
while he was fighting a fire.

1236
01:02:43.764 --> 01:02:46.700
This is actually the materials
that were in his pocket

1237
01:02:46.700 --> 01:02:49.169
that were singed
during that fire.

1238
01:02:49.169 --> 01:02:50.404
This is actually
the final entry

1239
01:02:50.404 --> 01:02:52.372
in Aldo Leopold\'s
field journals.

1240
01:02:52.372 --> 01:02:56.143
\"April 21, 1948.

1241
01:02:56.143 --> 01:03:01.415
Bloodroot in shower bed,
closed 6:00 a.m.\"

1242
01:03:04.785 --> 01:03:08.455
- My father was at the shack
with Mother, always,

1243
01:03:08.455 --> 01:03:10.357
and my younger sister,
Estella.

1244
01:03:10.357 --> 01:03:13.594
And she was about
15 years old then.

1245
01:03:13.594 --> 01:03:15.896
- So that week,
we got all packed up.

1246
01:03:15.896 --> 01:03:19.499
Just Mother and Dad and I went
up to the shack to plant pines.

1247
01:03:19.499 --> 01:03:22.970
And of course,
that was the very week

1248
01:03:22.970 --> 01:03:27.541
when the neighbor\'s fire
was a calamity for us.

1249
01:03:27.541 --> 01:03:32.346
- And the farmer adjacent to us
was burning brush,

1250
01:03:32.346 --> 01:03:34.548
and the fire
got away from him.

1251
01:03:34.548 --> 01:03:38.185
So Dad and Mother and Estella
decided they would go

1252
01:03:38.185 --> 01:03:42.022
and help this farmer
fight the fire,

1253
01:03:42.022 --> 01:03:44.925
and each one went
in a different direction.

1254
01:03:44.925 --> 01:03:47.427
And all of a sudden-

1255
01:03:47.427 --> 01:03:49.530
I guess the fire was out-

1256
01:03:49.530 --> 01:03:53.267
and Dad was nowhere
to be seen.

1257
01:03:53.267 --> 01:03:54.902
- I went out into the marsh,

1258
01:03:54.902 --> 01:03:58.405
and I saw a man
coming down the hill,

1259
01:03:58.405 --> 01:03:59.806
coming toward me,

1260
01:03:59.806 --> 01:04:02.943
and I had this sinking feeling.

1261
01:04:02.943 --> 01:04:05.212
And he came all the way
across the marsh,

1262
01:04:05.212 --> 01:04:08.348
and when he got to me,
I said, \"Something\'s wrong.\"

1263
01:04:08.348 --> 01:04:10.851
And he said,
\"Yes, your father is sick.\"

1264
01:04:10.851 --> 01:04:13.453
And I said, \"It\'s worse
than that, isn\'t it?\"

1265
01:04:13.453 --> 01:04:17.090
And I just knew.

1266
01:04:51.325 --> 01:04:53.026
- \"We reached the old wolf
in time

1267
01:04:53.026 --> 01:04:56.563
\"to watch a fierce green fire
dying in her eyes.

1268
01:04:56.563 --> 01:04:59.800
\"I realized then
and have known ever since

1269
01:04:59.800 --> 01:05:03.337
that there was something new
to me in those eyes.\"

1270
01:05:03.337 --> 01:05:06.006
- It was fortuitous, indeed,

1271
01:05:06.006 --> 01:05:08.976
that the same week
that Dad died,

1272
01:05:08.976 --> 01:05:12.346
he heard
from Oxford University Press

1273
01:05:12.346 --> 01:05:15.182
that they would publish
his essays.

1274
01:05:15.182 --> 01:05:16.917
- After several rejections,

1275
01:05:16.917 --> 01:05:19.019
A Sand County Almanac
was finally published.

1276
01:05:19.019 --> 01:05:21.054
At first, it sold modestly.

1277
01:05:21.054 --> 01:05:23.991
It took decades for it
to become, as some would say,

1278
01:05:23.991 --> 01:05:26.093
the bible
of the environmental movement.

1279
01:05:26.093 --> 01:05:27.794
It would sell in the millions.

1280
01:05:27.794 --> 01:05:30.297
- His writing was so deep
and so layered

1281
01:05:30.297 --> 01:05:34.001
that you can find something new
each time you pick it up.

1282
01:05:34.001 --> 01:05:37.171
- Now I read it at least
once a year on my birthday,

1283
01:05:37.171 --> 01:05:38.705
just to see what I\'ve learned.

1284
01:05:38.705 --> 01:05:41.942
- Even in Russian,
you feel the poetry.

1285
01:05:41.942 --> 01:05:46.013
- That book
is an absolute masterpiece.

1286
01:05:46.013 --> 01:05:50.417
It\'s so simple and-

1287
01:05:50.417 --> 01:05:52.052
but that\'s
only the construction,

1288
01:05:52.052 --> 01:05:54.922
because the thinking behind it
is so, so deep.

1289
01:05:56.223 --> 01:05:57.858
- I had the pleasure of reading
this book,

1290
01:05:57.858 --> 01:06:01.528
A Sand County Almanac,
about 25 years ago.

1291
01:06:01.528 --> 01:06:03.297
So pleased to be with you
this morning.

1292
01:06:03.297 --> 01:06:04.498
Thank you for the honor.

1293
01:06:04.498 --> 01:06:07.634
So we are going to share
the reading of February.

1294
01:06:07.634 --> 01:06:11.438
\"If one has cut, split,
hauled...\"

1295
01:06:11.438 --> 01:06:16.476
- Aldo Leopold left
a huge legacy, obviously.

1296
01:06:16.476 --> 01:06:21.882
But there are certain parts
of it that are enduring,

1297
01:06:21.882 --> 01:06:23.650
that are timeless, if you will,

1298
01:06:23.650 --> 01:06:28.388
that really are never going
to lose their usefulness.

1299
01:06:30.824 --> 01:06:34.361
- And I remember, one day,
I was at the shack

1300
01:06:34.361 --> 01:06:37.631
with Estella Leopold
and her mother

1301
01:06:37.631 --> 01:06:41.668
on Easter Sunday, 1969,

1302
01:06:41.668 --> 01:06:44.338
and we heard a sound
that was unlike anything

1303
01:06:44.338 --> 01:06:45.339
I had ever heard.

1304
01:06:45.339 --> 01:06:49.042
It was an extraordinary thrill.

1305
01:06:49.042 --> 01:06:53.347
And you know, I had never heard
that sound before in my life,

1306
01:06:53.347 --> 01:06:56.583
but somehow, I had heard it
in my imagination,

1307
01:06:56.583 --> 01:06:59.720
because Leopold
had described it

1308
01:06:59.720 --> 01:07:00.988
as this primordial bugling.

1309
01:07:00.988 --> 01:07:02.523
[cranes chittering]

1310
01:07:02.523 --> 01:07:08.729
The sandhill cranes had come
back to Aldo Leopold\'s marsh.

1311
01:07:08.729 --> 01:07:12.065
- \"Our ability to perceive
quality in nature

1312
01:07:12.065 --> 01:07:16.970
\"begins, as in art,
with the pretty.

1313
01:07:16.970 --> 01:07:19.540
\"It expands
through successive stages

1314
01:07:19.540 --> 01:07:26.280
\"of the beautiful to values
as yet un-captured by language.

1315
01:07:26.280 --> 01:07:31.552
\"The quality of cranes lies,
I think, in this higher gamut,

1316
01:07:31.552 --> 01:07:34.922
as yet beyond
the reach of words.\"

1317
01:07:34.922 --> 01:07:37.824
[cranes chittering]

1318
01:07:42.062 --> 01:07:43.463
- Thanks to Leopold

1319
01:07:43.463 --> 01:07:45.499
and to so many
who have followed him,

1320
01:07:45.499 --> 01:07:48.735
sandhill cranes
have rebounded dramatically.

1321
01:07:48.735 --> 01:07:50.370
Although we face
daunting threats

1322
01:07:50.370 --> 01:07:52.739
to nature\'s diversity
worldwide,

1323
01:07:52.739 --> 01:07:55.309
the cranes demonstrate
and symbolize

1324
01:07:55.309 --> 01:07:58.512
our ability to work together
for the health of the land

1325
01:07:58.512 --> 01:08:01.415
and its creatures.

1326
01:08:12.659 --> 01:08:15.829
Leopold\'s legacy endures
because he is asking

1327
01:08:15.829 --> 01:08:17.297
the fundamental questions

1328
01:08:17.297 --> 01:08:19.132
of our relationship
to the Earth,

1329
01:08:19.132 --> 01:08:20.834
to other forms of life,

1330
01:08:20.834 --> 01:08:25.506
to the communities
in which we live.

1331
01:08:25.506 --> 01:08:29.977
- There\'s been a rediscovery
of Leopold\'s significance

1332
01:08:29.977 --> 01:08:33.146
for community-based
conservation.

1333
01:08:33.146 --> 01:08:35.549
More than a million
organizations

1334
01:08:35.549 --> 01:08:38.685
all over the world
are working on some aspect

1335
01:08:38.685 --> 01:08:43.790
of conservation and restoration
of the environment.

1336
01:08:43.790 --> 01:08:46.393
And this, I\'ve come to believe,

1337
01:08:46.393 --> 01:08:48.762
is a veritable green fire

1338
01:08:48.762 --> 01:08:53.133
of conservation
and ecosystem restoration.

1339
01:08:53.133 --> 01:08:59.239
That, I think, is Aldo
Leopold\'s living legacy.

1340
01:08:59.239 --> 01:09:04.545
- Leopold said that \"the oldest
task in human history

1341
01:09:04.545 --> 01:09:09.249
is perhaps to live on a piece
of land without spoiling it.\"

1342
01:09:09.249 --> 01:09:14.121
Certainly, my generation is no
better than the one before us.

1343
01:09:14.121 --> 01:09:17.424
But I think there\'s a lot
of hope in the land ethic.

1344
01:09:17.424 --> 01:09:21.094
A land ethic is not meant
to be a last word.

1345
01:09:21.094 --> 01:09:23.163
It\'s not meant to be doctrine.

1346
01:09:23.163 --> 01:09:25.265
It\'s really a guiding light

1347
01:09:25.265 --> 01:09:29.603
for the way we can
find our way forward.

1348
01:09:29.603 --> 01:09:30.904
- If you read The Land Ethic,

1349
01:09:30.904 --> 01:09:32.372
you\'ll see what I like to call

1350
01:09:32.372 --> 01:09:34.508
Leopold\'s
most important sentence.

1351
01:09:34.508 --> 01:09:35.809
Toward the end
of The Land Ethic,

1352
01:09:35.809 --> 01:09:37.177
he has sentence that says,

1353
01:09:37.177 --> 01:09:40.447
\"Nothing so important
as an ethic is ever written.

1354
01:09:40.447 --> 01:09:43.283
It evolves in the minds
of a thinking community.\"

1355
01:09:43.283 --> 01:09:45.752
So here he is in his
essay The Land Ethic,

1356
01:09:45.752 --> 01:09:50.390
saying no one writes
the land ethic.

1357
01:09:50.390 --> 01:09:52.059
And I think it\'s
a stroke of genius,

1358
01:09:52.059 --> 01:09:53.560
maybe his greatest stroke
of genius,

1359
01:09:53.560 --> 01:09:55.696
because with that,
he liberates the idea;

1360
01:09:55.696 --> 01:10:00.501
he opens it to the larger
thinking community, us.

1361
01:10:04.872 --> 01:10:07.941
- \"I have purposely presented
the land ethic

1362
01:10:07.941 --> 01:10:10.677
\"as a product
of social evolution,

1363
01:10:10.677 --> 01:10:15.816
\"because nothing so important
as an ethic is ever written.

1364
01:10:15.816 --> 01:10:20.821
It evolves in the minds
of a thinking community.\"

1365
01:10:20.821 --> 01:10:23.857
-Aldo Leopold.

1366
01:10:32.499 --> 01:10:35.502
[stirring orchestral music]

1367
01:10:35.502 --> 01:10:42.509
♪ ♪