Summary Of A Sand County Almanac By Aldo Leopold

A Sand County Almanac is a non-fictional anthology, a collection of short stories, with some fictional aspects, written by Aldo Leopold. The underlying theme that Leopold uses to connect about 50 short stories is that of nature, nature’s importance, and lack of appreciation, all of which tie into the main topic of the book, conservation of the wilderness. The book is organized into four different sections. The first section Leopold’s account of a year on his secluded farm titled “A Sand County Almanac”, the second section is titled “The Quality of Landscape” and is comprised of short stories that discuss the land in various areas, section three is Leopold’s appeal for life in the country and the wilderness titled “A Taste for Country”, and

the fourth and final section is titled “The Upshot” in which Leopold discusses the technical part behind conservation using ethical, political, and scientific points and topics.
Overall Leopold’s main thesis was that of wilderness conservation and appreciation.

While most conservationists would focus on the negative impacts that modern society has had on the environment, Leopold focuses, for a majority of the book, on the simple things that one can enjoy that can only be appreciated if one witnesses or experiences it in person. Leopold not only shares these experiences with the reader but also makes the reader able to “see” what he saw through his fantastic writing and even allows the reader to go on impossible adventures through the use of creative and imaginative storytelling. Leopold is almost quite literally allowing the reader to see the world through his eyes not only through fantastical experiences and stories but also through his views and mindset. Most of the book showcases the marvels of nature, which is for lack of a better word fun, but once the book start getting to its end Leopold starts showing the darker colors that are witnessed as a

conservationist.
In part one Leopold shares with the reader his experiences with nature while living on his secluded farm in the Sand County. This part of the book is organized into the months of the year in chronological order starting from January and ending in December with each month having one to three entries. This part of the book showcases the seclusive lifestyle of living away from the hustle and bustle of city life and being able to get away and live life at a slower more intimate pace. One example of this is Leopold’s entry titled “Good Oak” where Leopold discusses the stories that are told while cutting down a tree, just by observing its rings, through this you can see what the tree has been through from how when you began cutting to when it may have first taken root. This was interesting because it allows Leopold to show the intimacy that one can have with nature just by doing a simple task. In one of his April entries titled “Draba” Leopold very briefly discusses the simplicity of the small flower Draba. This is perhaps one of the most meaningful entries in the book because Leopold talks about the averageness of the flower in such a way that it gives it its own beauty, all in a less than a page. These short stories are among the most interesting out of the book due to the new perspective that Leopold gives to seemingly ordinary or overlooked things.
Part two of the book, “The Quality of Landscape”, exposes the reader to the land in the Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, Arizona and New Mexico, Chihuahua and Sonora, Oregon and Utah, and Manitoba. Each of these pairs is its own chapter and has short stories either about the history of the land or some features of the land, sometimes specific to these areas and sometimes in general. Wisconsin is the first “chapter” in part two and has two short stories that stick out. The first is conveniently titled “The Sand Counties” in which Leopold explains to the reader that the Sand Counties were once sought after by economists in an effort to modernize them for financial gain. The residents of the Sand Counties, however, refused their efforts to buy their land and as a result the Sand Counties are still undeveloped. Leopold again brings up Draba, the simple underrated flower, saying how it is able to grow in the Sand Counties due to it not having to compete with bigger plants for space, since the Sand Counties are dry and are sparsely vegetated. Since the Sand Counties are sparsely vegetated it allows for the male woodcock, a type of small bird, to perform a mating dance, which it can only perform due to the short and sparse vegetation. The people’s refusal to give up their land allowed for the small Drada to not get pushed out by suburban area’s non-native grasses and other plant, which could ruin the balance of the Sand Counties ecosystem, and allows for the woodcock to perform its dance and start a family. Leopold shares with the reader that the Sand Counties are in fact poor and that the economists did in fact plan to relocate the people of the Sand Counties. Leopold’s last words of this short story are, “The economists have not yet tried to relocate the woodcock”. This shows the connection that Leopold, as well as the rest of the Sand Counties, has with the land. For them it is more than a money making tool, it is just as part of their lives as a wife is to her husband.
The second short story is titled “Odyssey” and while it is not as long as the epic poem written by Homer it does take the reader on a great adventure. This version is about starts off with Leopold introducing the reader to X, an atom. X starts off the story stuck in a limestone ledge and gets freed by the roots of a tree which cause the piece of limestone that X is in to break off. A century later the limestone has decayed and has Leopold puts it “Time, to an atom, does not pass”. X eventually makes its way into a flower which became an acorn, then into a deer and from there into an Indian. Once the Indian has passed X becomes loam and continues through the circle of life again many times ultimately ending up in the ocean to become limestone once again. Leopold next introduces the reader to Y, another atom. The only difference is that there is a new “animal” in the prairie this time, an animal that is terraforming the prairie to what it believes to be law and order. This animal only saw use in planting wheat and raising cattle. To it there was no use in anything else so it destroyed the prairie and sucked up its resources. While Y did go through the ecosystem as X did it only took Y a few short years while it took X a century or more. Through this Leopold shows the reader the impact that humans have on the environment and the delicate balance that ecosystems had before human influence was introduced.
“A Taste for Country” is the third part of the book and is simply put about country life.

This part is comprised of seven chapters, each about a different aspect of living in the country from what to do in your free time to its influence in American culture. In the first chapter titled “Country” Leopold describes the difference between “land” and “country”. Leopold states that land is, “where corn, gullies, and mortgages grow” while country knows “no mortgages, no alphabet agencies, no tobacco road”. According to Leopold “poor land may be rich country, and vice versa”. What Leopold means by land is the product that people value not based on by beauty but by location or natural resources, to Leopold country is more than location near the city or being able to farm but is about natural beauty and is valued by quality not by quantity, like land is.

The last chapter in this section is titled “Goose Music” and in it Leopold discusses how the native part of man is getting filtered out of us by modern practices. Hunting is no longer a daily part living and thus has caused society to become disconnected with the land. This connection to the land is what separates modern society from the past and is why the environment needs to be conserved in the first

place.
In the last part of the book, “Upshot”, Leopold talks about the ethics of conservation. This section is divided into two main parts “The Land Ethic” and “Wilderness”. The Land Ethic discusses the ethics of humans going in and disrupting the delicate balance of ecosystems for benefit, whether it be required for survival or financial gain. Leopold also discusses the objectifying of land rather than seeing at a living thing. In “Wilderness” Leopold describes the state that Americans have left the wilderness in. America has shrunk a majority of its wilderness down to a couple of national parks, such as Yellowstone. While this a good effort this does not suffice for a majority of the species that call those regions home. Large carnivores such as bears and wolves require a large territory which is why they often wander into populated areas and are dwindling in numbers. According to Leopold conservation is receiving a lot of publicity but unfortunately for many flora and fauna it is moving at a snail’s pace.
Overall “A Sand County Almanac” is great book about the views of a conservationist and shows the modern reader a new perspective to what America has to offer, from the smallest flower to a performance of a bird, and what some people have gone through to preserve and protect the natural beauty that only mother nature herself can create.