I started to read Bound for Glory AND the biography of Aldo Leopold. I’m about half way through the former but have finished Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire by Marybeth Lorbiecki. It was short and I sometimes missed having greater detail about the life of this extraordinary man but I liked the illustrations and feel like I have a good understanding of both his life and times.
I think Leopold’s greatest lesson for us is how he merged his personal and professional lives into a spiritual whole that benefited the world. His early passion for the outdoors as both a watcher and a hunter forged a strong foundation of knowledge, skills and dispositions that made his path seem preordained. Professionally, he helped shape the Forest Service and national wildlife management practices. Personally, his love for the Shack was his personal chance to put his beliefs into practice in a very real way.
Also, the biography shows how Leopold himself learned about living with wilderness. While his path may have been preordained, he did not come into the world knowing the answers. Instead, he used his knowledge and skills to both investigate and learn. For instance, I was surprised at his attitude towards predators like wolves described early in the book. Certainly an environmentalist must understand their role in the natural world. But, I’m writing from a 21st century perspective. Leopold’s early attitude was part of the culture of the first half of the 20th century so it took him some time to break free. Leopold’s editor, Albert Hochbaum, described this learning process:
Albert dashed off one more letter on the subject: Aldo’s unique gift was not that he was “an inspired genius,” he said, but that we was like “any other ordinary fellow trying to put two and two together.” The Professor simply “added up his sums better than most.” Wrong trails taken were as important as right one (p. 167).
The title of the book comes from Leopold’s own description of the moment when he realized he was on the wrong trail when it came to predators as he described fierce green fire in the eyes of the mother wolf he had shot:
I was young then, and full of trigger-itch. I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view (p. 167).
Leopold was pragmatic about other people’s commitment to wildlife preservation. When he was accused of only wanting to preserve wildlife so it could be hunted, he suggested that hunters and conservationists needed to work together. He was also was also honest about his own impact on the world and described a middle way:
I realize, that every time I turn on an electric light…I am ‘selling out’ to the enemies of conservation. When I submit these thoughts to a printing press, I am helping to cut down the woods. When I pour cream in my coffee, I am helping to drain a marsh for cows to graze, and to exterminate the birds of Brazil…What to do? I see only two courses open to the likes of us. One is to go live on locusts in the wilderness, if there is any wilderness left (p. 144).
Lorbiecki goes on to describe Leopold’s other course: “The other, he explained, is to help businesses and consumers become conservation-minded so they find ways to enjoy some comforts of modern life without ruining the land (p. 114).
Like Woody Guthrie, Leopold was a prolific writer. He had things to tell the world and no matter what else was going on in his life, he wrote and published. He had good advice for his students who often had to go through multiple drafts before Leopold approved:
Think of it this way. In spite of all the advances of modern science, it still takes seven waters to clean spinach for the pot…And for all my writings to this day, it still takes seven editings, sometimes seventeen, before I let it go off to press.
I wonder what Leopold would think about the more spontaneous nature of much blog writing?
I enjoyed the book, wanted more and have now moved on to Leopold’s own work: A Sound County Almanac. I’m reading the edition from the 60s that combined his original work with other writing.
