Mindy Todd interviews Curt Meine, editor of "Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings." In this volume all the essential works of the pioneering forester, wildlife manager, ecologist, and environmental visionary are gathered. Leopold is now widely acknowledged as a writer and thinker well ahead of his time. One of his philosophical achievements was the idea that ‘community’ should be enlarged to include non-human elements such as soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively, the land.
Dr. Curt Meine came to his conservation work in part through his own intense experiences in the outdoors while growing up. He's especially interested in the development of conservation philosophy, science, and policy—which is how he came to be interested in Aldo Leopold’s life and work. He cites Leopold's quotation “Nothing so important as an ethic is ever written…. It evolves in the minds of a thinking community.” Thus, Leopold avoids proclaiming a land ethic and instead opens the doors to everyone to participate in the task of building it. And that is what it will take; we all have a stake, and a role, in building a healthier relationship between people and land.
