Aldo Leopold

Environmental · North America · 1887 to 1948

American forester and writer who held that our community should include soil, water, plants and animals, and that we owe it respect.

What it is

Aldo Leopold (1887 to 1948) was an American forester, ecologist and writer. He is best known for the idea of a land ethic, the view that the community we belong to includes soil, water, plants and animals, and that we owe it respect. His book A Sand County Almanac was published after his death and has sold more than two million copies.

He studied at Yale and worked for the U.S. Forest Service from 1909, mostly in the American Southwest. From 1933 he taught at the University of Wisconsin, as professor of game management. His ideas grew partly out of his work on his farm in the sand country of Wisconsin.

The main ideas

The land ethic. In his words, it enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, which together he called the land.
A wider circle of concern. The point is to widen who and what we count in our moral thinking, from other people to the land itself.
Wilderness worth keeping. He argued for the protection of wild country. A proposal of his led to the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico, the first national wilderness area in the United States.
Wildlife as a science. He helped found the science of managing wildlife. His book Game Management appeared in 1933.
Ecology and variety. He was a pioneer of wildlife and restoration ecology, and his work gave weight to the idea that land should be seen as an ecological whole.

What it looks like in practice

Picture someone who owns a small wood and is asked to sell it for a car park. Before thinking about price, she asks what the wood is part of: the soil, the water running through it, the birds and plants that depend on each other. On Leopold's view, the wood is part of a community that includes her. This is an illustration of the idea, not an example from his writing.

Books and moments

Game Management (1933) was his book on wildlife management, the field in which he became a professor.
The Wilderness Society (1935) was founded with his help, to protect wilderness areas.
A Sand County Almanac (1949) appeared the year after he died. It is considered a fundamental work in environmentalism and environmental ethics.
The Gila Wilderness came from his work as a forester in the Southwest.

Questions and criticism

What makes something a member of a community? If soils and waters count as members, readers can ask what we owe them and how that differs from what we owe people.
How should the ethic guide choices? He gave a way of seeing, more than a rule. Readers can ask how it settles real conflicts between human needs and the needs of the land.
Birth year. The sources differ on whether he was born in 1886 or 1887.

Close neighbours

The page on Arne Næss covers a later thinker who held that living things have value in themselves. The page on Henry David Thoreau covers an earlier American writer on nature.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced

Arne Naess · Later writers on deep ecology looked back to his land ethic. (scholars disagree about this link)

Influenced by

Henry David Thoreau · He shared Thoreau's love of wild country and his view that nature has worth in itself. (scholars disagree about this link)

Other Environmental thinkers

Arne Naess · 1912 to 2009

Sources we used

Aldo Leopold · Encyclopaedia Britannica, read on 29 October 2026
Aldo Leopold · Wikipedia, read on 29 October 2026
Aldo Leopold · Lehigh University Library Exhibits, read on 29 October 2026