Students look for the real Aldo Leopold
JANUARY 19, 2017
With conservation and ecology politicized at state, national and international levels, it’s important to remember our connection to the physical world, says Jessica Courtier.
“There’s an ever-growing sense of urgency about talking about human relationships to nature,” says Courtier, outreach specialist at the Division of Continuing Studies at the UW-Madison. From Jan. 25 through June, the division will offer a wide-ranging public series of classes, workshops, tours and other events, looking at the life and legacy of favorite son Aldo Leopold.
“The father of wildlife ecology,” Leopold was a scientist, philosopher, UW-Madison professor and author. He’s perhaps best known for his book A Sand County Almanac.Leopold died of a heart attack while fighting a wildfire near his land in Sauk County in 1948.
“Why Leopold now? Leopold is a clear and obvious path into current environmental controversies, no matter where you are in the country,” says Courtier. “But obviously it’s especially important and relevant here in Wisconsin because of his work here.”
“There are degrees of awareness of Leopold’s contributions,” says his biographer, Curt Meine. “He’s [become] almost a mythical figure that bears little resemblance in some ways to the actual human being,” says Meine. “But that’s what happens with authors who write classic books; you think of them primarily in that role.”
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