Iowa Native ALDO LEOPOLD'S Legacy to be Honored
Members of a newly-formed heritage group from ALDO LEOPOLD'S
hometown of Burlington are bringing a noted Leopold scholar to their community as
part of a season-long celebration of their native son's legacy.
On TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, Leopold biographer CURT MEINE will speak at a
town meeting in BURLINGTON. It will start at 7:30 PM, 321
N 5th STREET at the FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The event is
hosted by the Des Moines County Historical Society. This is
designed to raise awareness of LEOPOLD'S IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL
PHILOSOPHY AND HIS BURLINGTON ROOTS.
The organization, known as the Leopold Heritage Group, has obtained
grants from the Rand Lecture Trust-Burlington and Humanities Iowa to
help fund the activities, with additional support from the Burlington
Community Schools and the Des Moines County Conservation Foundation.
Copies of Leopold's landmark book of essays, “A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC,”
are being provided by the LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AT
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY IN AMES, Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever.
Meine is director of conservation programs at the Wisconsin Academy of
Sciences, Arts and Letters in Madison. He is author of the biography
Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (1988) and co-editor with Richard L.
Knight of The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries
(1999). Meine also is a research associate with the International Crane
Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and founder/member of the Sauk
Prairie Conservation Alliance in Sauk County, Wisconsin.
Jerry Rigdon, co-facilitator of the Leopold Heritage Group with his
wife, Lois, said retired University of Iowa English professor Bob Sayre
approached him nearly a year ago, suggesting that they do something in
Burlington to honor Leopold and acknowledge how important his
philosophy regarding our interaction with nature remains today. Both
Rigdon and Sayre have noted that LEOPOLD IS REVERED BY NATURALISTS,
ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND ECOLOGISTS WORLDWIDE, yet has received very
little formal recognition in the town where he grew up and the state in
which he was born.
For more information about other events or the Leopold Heritage Group,
contact the Rigdons at (319) 753-2661, or by e-mail at
ledgerguy@lisco.com.
Following is an excerpt from the 'October/Red Lanterns' section of “A Sand County Almanac”:
“One way to hunt partridge is to make a plan, based on logic and
probabilities, of the terrain to be hunted. This will take you
over the ground where the birds ought to be.
“Another way is to wander, quite aimlessly, from one red lantern to
another. This will likely take you where the birds actually
are. The lanterns are blackberry leaves, red in October sun.
“Red lanterns have lighted my way on many a pleasant hunt in many a
region, but I think that blackberries must first have learned how to
glow in the sand counties of central Wisconsin. Along the little
boggy streams of these friendly wastes, called poor by those whose own
lights barely flicker, the blackberries burn richly red on every sunny
day from first frost to the last day of the season. Every
woodcock and every partridge has his private solarium under these
briars. Most hunters, not knowing this, wear themselves out in
the briarless scrub, and, returning home birdless, leave the rest of us
in peace.
“By 'us' I mean the birds, the stream, the dog, and myself. The
stream is a lazy one; he winds through the alders as if he would rather
stay here than reach the river. So would I. Everyone of his
hairpin hesitations means that much more streambank where hillside
briars adjoin dank beds of frozen ferns and jewelweeds on the boggy
bottom. No partridge can long absent himself from such a place,
nor can I. Partridge hunting, then, is a creekside stroll,
upwind, from one briar patch to another.… Almost anything can happen
between one red lantern and another.”
From “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold, (1949) by Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY
Please Give It A Read…And also, remember to CPR…CONSERVE/PARTICIPATE/RECYCLE
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