Aldo Leopold: Difference between revisions

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==Later Life==
==Later Life==


===Golden Rule===
===Land Ethic===


Leopold's Golden Rule states, "''A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community.  It is wrong when it tends otherwise''. <ref>Temple, pg. 78.</ref>"  He developed this during his years working on native prairie restoration to provide guidance to the restoration project.
Aldo Leopold developed the Land Ethic in the finale to ''A Sand County Almanac'' as a guide to human relationships with [[ecosystems]]<ref>The Aldo Leopold Foundation. The Leopold Legacy: The Land Ethic. http://www.aldoleopold.org/About/landethic.htm </ref>.  Leopold's Golden Rule states, "''A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community.  It is wrong when it tends otherwise''. <ref>Temple, pg. 78.</ref>"  He developed this during his years working on native prairie restoration to provide guidance to the restoration project.


==Long-term Impacts==
==Long-term Impacts==

Revision as of 14:44, 11 April 2007

This is a biography of an early 20th century conservation ecologist, Aldo Leopold, who said, "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. [1]"

Introduction

Early Life

Later Life

Land Ethic

Aldo Leopold developed the Land Ethic in the finale to A Sand County Almanac as a guide to human relationships with ecosystems[2]. Leopold's Golden Rule states, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. [3]" He developed this during his years working on native prairie restoration to provide guidance to the restoration project.

Long-term Impacts

Leopold provided an ethical basis from which many conservation biologists and restoration ecologists build upon. For example, in the Principles of Conservation Biology textbook by Meffe and Carroll [4], Leopold's Golden Rule is one of the ethical foundations of the field.

References

  1. Temple, S., 1997. Maintaining the integrity of managed ecosystems, IN: (M.S. Boyce and A. Haney, eds.) Ecosystem Management. Yale Univ Press, New Haven. pg. 78.
  2. The Aldo Leopold Foundation. The Leopold Legacy: The Land Ethic. http://www.aldoleopold.org/About/landethic.htm
  3. Temple, pg. 78.
  4. Meffe, G.K. and R.C. Carroll, 1994. Principles of Conservation Biology. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.