Sand County Almanac
I. Aldo
Leopold—bio
B.
speakerÕs personality; relation to Thoreau, Muir, Austin
II. power
of book—field guide introd
III. favorite
month or sketch or ecolog—best literary device, most interesting thing
you learned—notes on readings
IV. Themes
A. two kinds of values
1.
land as community vs. commodity
2.
plethora of material blessings
3.
aesthetic values—
a)
plover
in May; the prairie—we grieve only for what we know—
b)
the
green pasture: August
4.
biodiversity
a)
prairie
birthday July—graveyard; prairie ecology
5.
protection laws—wipe out bison, plover, cranes,
pigeons
6.
land management: the axe and the shovel--November
B. reading and writing
the landscape—animals do it; he does—
1.
Geese in March
2.
December: who is the more thoroughly acquainted with the
world in which he lives?
a)
animal
ecology: every farm is a textbook; woodsmanship is the translation of the book*
86
b)
3.
book in the board—april
4.
weed as book—silphium p. 50
5.
writing signature with axe
C. altered and alternative perspectives—hawkÕs and meadow
mouseÕs
D. Theme of time: seasons, history; linear and recurrent and
eternalÉ
1.
Cycle of beginnings and ceasings we call a year
a)
Almanac[cf. Works
and Days, Georgics, Kalendar of Shepherds, SC, Walden, etc.
2.
splitting wood in February
3.
the sky dance—minutes of light
E. community: plant/animal interaction=ecology
1.
wood stores sunlight—solar energy flows
2.
fire ecology and human impacts—Bur Oak April; reading
in the bark
3.
creation and destruction: the axe and the shovel—dead
trees transmuted into live animals and vice versa November
a)
wild=predation
F.
Adaptation
and intelligence
1.
Smart
geese knowing about hunters; predation involves knowledge [silver age]
2.
Animal
knowledge of habitat
G. otium: April stranded by flood
H. the personal connection
1.final chapter: pines above the snow; the chickadee
2.
relating to individual; banding chickadees; courage
I. God and Evolution
V. chapters
A. Forward
1.
two
kinds of people and values and ÒgoodsÓ
2.
wild things
3.
Òwe face the question whether a still higher Ôstandard of
livingÕ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.Ó
4.
a question of degree
5.
our Abrahamanic concept of landÉa commodity
6.
xix. three concepts
a)
land
is a communityÉ
b)
to be
loved and respectedÉ
c)
yields
a cultural harvest [interest in history; the preservation of the past]
7.
contempt for a plethora of material blessings
B. January
1.
seasonal
structure; context of time; theme of time and history
2.
cycle
of beginnings and ceasings which we call a year—
3.
tracking the skunk
4.
character of January—few distractions; observations
5.
meadow mouse
a)
his
point of view—value of snow; threat of thaw
6.
hawk
a)
opposite
point of view—value of thaw—illusion of purpose in natural
phenomena
7.
skunk track is the line of prose;
8.
leads to evidence of rabbits: tracks, urination, bites on
oak seedlings, battles among bucks, owlÕs meal PREDATION=wild
9.
trail ends with mystery
C. February
1.
Good oak
a)
spiritual
dangers in not owning a farm—not knowing sources of food and heat
b)
value
of fire warmth—remembering where heat comes from: wealth of hidden detail
c)
oaks
cant grow when population of rabbits is high; fauna and flora achieve
collective immortality
d)
only
one acorn in a thousand grew large enough to fight rabbits
e)
oak
stores sunlight and releases it into stove (!) awareness up close of natural
cycles and interactions
f)
lightning
killed the oak—bequeathed us three cords
g)
job
of wood making
h)
let
it season for a year
i)
saw
biting into the wood; saved chronology—transect
j)
previous
inhabitant, the bad bootlegger; oak didnÕt care
k)
rest
for breath—thoreauvian device 10.
(1)
cf. sounds7: Here come your groceries, country; your
rations, countrymen! Nor is there any man so independent on his farm that he
can say them nay. And here's your pay for them! screams the countryman's whistle
l)
the
1920Õs—boom and crash; conservation laws; big storm
m) decade of drainage dream; some wins
and some losses
n)
gay
1890Õs—like different perspectives of animals, here perspectives of
civilization vs. nature—cf. perspectives in Mary Austin
o)
destruction
of species and forests
p)
1880Õs
q)
1870Õs
carousal in wheat—misguided agriculture—wheating land to death;
land institute; restoring prairies
r)
importation
of nonnative species turning to pests
s)
destruction
of wild turkeys and prairie chickens—hunters excesses
t)
reference
to John Muir 1865; fall of oak
described 17
2.
allegory of splitting wood—all this coming from
thoughtful contemplation by the fire
a)
meditation
on time—time flowing vs. time all there in the stump—cf. ÒPresent
PerfectÓ [ecoliterary essays]
(2)
Someone had counted 170 rings in a limb that had been
amputated earlier; comparing its girth to that of the trunk, one could estimate
the tree's age at about 500 years. As I came nearer to the trunk, I felt the
haunting quality of that longevity, a reverence for what John Fowles, in his
book The Tree , calls " . . . a time span humanity cannot conceive. A
pastness, a presentness, a skill with tenses the writer in me knows he will
never know; partly out of his own inadequacies, and partly because there are
tenses human language has yet to invent."
(3)
In this tree I recognized one of the tenses for which Fowles
was searching: the present perfect. The treehas beenwhere it is since it was
born. It manifests all of its past within its present as accretion or as scar.
It responds to stimulus not by action, which disappears, but by growth, which
remains.
b)
three
kinds of history—rich conceit: 18-19
c)
cycling
the ashes
D. March—the Geese Return
1.
commitment and risk of geese flying north at that time of
year
2.
education—not noticing geese; geese need to be aware
or they turn to pile of feathers
3.
geese know the hunting laws—spared in
spring—counted 642
4.
their festive feasting on corn 21
5.
internationalism of geese converging on Artic
Tundra—lyric effusion
E. April—
1.
Come High water
a)
celebrating
the flood; cant go to work—otium
b)
boards
floating downstream as book in the brooks 27
c)
solitude
also provided by flood
2.
Draba
a)
small
meek blooms—the underdog
3.
bur oak
a)
fire
ecology—strong armor of bark
b)
battle
lines of forest and prairie—abetted by animal behavior in support or
against—ecological perspectives
c)
written
in pollen record and also in journals (1763)
d)
forests
came in when settlers did—they eliminated fire—quote from Muir
e)
Bur
oak is a history—survivor from period of fires
4.
sky dance 32—theatrical entertainment
a)
gradual
disclosure; precision of timing—ability to observe; natureÕs timings
b)
personification—romantic
light
c)
Valentines
Day
d)
npr 3
minute program:
e)
still
a hunter
F. May
1.
Back from the Argentine
a)
wing-folding
of the ploverÉappreciation of grace
b)
property
ownership witticism—hemisphere solidarity
c)
beautiful
plover, almost eradicated by plover on toast—federal migratory bird laws
[endangered species act, clear air and water acts]
G. June
1.
alder fork—fishing idyll
a)
low
warm water, follow trout upstream
b)
fish
in creel—Òkicking in the bedÓ
c)
waiting
for wind to place fly
d)
moralizing
the spectacle: trout and men—danger and virtue of eagerness
e)
audacious
fishing
H. July
1.
great possessions
a)
120
acres extends infinitely at dawn; solitude afforded 44
b)
my
cabin, what I doÉcf. Thoreau, Morning of Sounds
c)
3:30
am, cup of coffee
d)
territorial
birdcalls—cuteness of style, like Thoreau; mock real property legalese
e)
dog
translates olfactory poems
f)
morning
is over
g)
self
conscious return to beginning of piece: the world has shrunk to those mean
dimensions known to county clerks [Thoreauvian snobbery]
2.
prairie birthday*
a)
multitude
of blooming plants any day in summer
b)
within
angle of graveyard, a tiny remnant of the flowering prairie—cf
c)
Silphium—demise
of plants and wildlife
(2)
(3)
how could a weed be a book? p.50 history
(4)
funeral of flora—floristic price of good life
d)
farm
neighborhoods are good in proportion to the poverty of their floras
(1)
biodiversity count—campus and suburbs
(2)
value of wilderness in specific terms
(3)
progress vs. plants
(4)
keep cow, plow and mower out of idle spots
e)
railroad
fences save the prairie—irony
f)
we
grieve only for what we know* 52
g)
depth
of perennial roots; length of time for flowering
h)
cows
drop it to ground immediately
i)
few
will grieve
I. August
1.
the green pasture
a)
river
as painter—evanescent
2.
poetic, wondrous narrative of magical appearance of
vegetation on silt spread by river
J. September
1.
the choral copse
a)
hope
for hearing unpredictable chorus of quail
b)
delights
K. October
1.
smoky gold
a)
autumnal
atmosphere: southering birds; yellowing tamaracks
2.
the hunt
a)
wanting
grouse and flowers; hanging gardens
b)
deserted
farm; secret spot; mortgage outgrew crops
c)
tracks
and sightings
3.
too early
a)
owls,
geese, stars and freight trains, hunters, coffee pots—strained cuteness
4.
red lanterns
a)
black
berry leaves; partridge hunting a creekside stroll
b)
wisdom
of the dog
L. November [death and life]
1.
If I were the wind
a)
sitting
and watching and listening to wind; goose flock heading south
b)
Wind and lifeless ness
c)
No detaining
d)
The geese
e)
Taps for summer
f)
I would go--escape
2.
Axe in hand [landscape management]
a)
Lord giveth and taketh away
b)
Invention of axe and shovel makes man a god who assumes
these divine functions –creating and destroying plants
c)
Shovel
for planting, axe for cutting.
November is month for the axe
d)
which
tree needs felling for the good of the land
(1) writing signature with
axe73—reading and writing the landscape
(2) what are criteria of
selection? many finely stated
reasons, questions and answers
(3) multiplicity of factors in
competition and prosperity
(4) difficulties of land management;
the signature
(5) characters men impute to a tree [my
relations with my plants]
(6)
indulgence of biases
3.
A mighty fortress
a)
lessons
from woods—my woods
b)
diseases
in trees create habitats for animals
c)
roots
hide coons; windfall leaves hide grouse
d)
oak
galls feed grouse
e)
every
slab of dead bark is to chickadees a treasury of eggs, larvae and cocoons.
f)
dead
trees are transmuted into living animals and vice versa
g)
ending
with protonotary warbler 82
M. December
1.
Home Range—science knows little about this
a)
who is
the more thoroughly acquainted with the world in which he lives? –but his
knowledge is immense, as witnessed here
b)
rabbitÕs
knowledge of quarter mile between home and blitz-cellar 84—AldoÕs
inferred that from watching dog chase
c)
banded
chickadees, different ranges summer and winter
d)
studies
droppings of grouse 85—how they survive in winter; what their range is
e)
animal
ecology: every farm is a textbook; woodsmanship is the translation of the book*
86
2.
Pines above the snow
a)
Planting
trees as godlike creation—parody of genesis 81
b)
shovel—needs
to be sharp; it sings; planting trees
c)
pine
candles: terminal clusterÕs number indicates how much sun and rain to thrust
next spring
d)
autobiography
of pine to read 83—[rwl]
e)
small
talk among the pines—more reading—height of browsing tells how
hungry deer are—reading the unseen 89
(1) chit-chat of woods
f)
marriageable
age—witticism: free, white and 21
p. 91
g)
pines
bear pollen
h)
companion
plants
i)
needles
not evergreen
j)
courage
comes from the army of pines in snow, standing ramrod straight and
multitudinous 93
3.
65290—inidvidual
banded chickadee
a)
funny
characterization 94—no genius
b)
fellow
called Evolution: chickadee too small for predators
c)
sarcastic
about Bible and Sunday school and stock markets
d)
wisdom
about surviving bad weather
e)
fear
of windy places deduced from his behavior
f)
books
on nature seldom mention wind; they are written behind stoves. 97
g)
envoi
to this one chickadee
h)
why
is this last entry: power of observation—survival of tiny
birds—marvel of evolutionary adaptation.
i)
Connection
to wildness—biophilia; understanding through adaptation
VI.
The
Land Ethic
A.
Odysseus
didnÕt apply ethics to human property.
Since then those ethics have extended
B.
Ethical
evolution
C. Ethic is limitation on freedom of
action in struggle for existenceÉsoicla vs. anti-social conduct. Cooperation or symbiosis
D. Land still regarded as property,
needs to change
E.
Ethics
are a community instinct in the making
F.
Land
ethic enlarges the boundaries of the community
G. Changes role of homo sapiens from
conqueror to fellow citizen
H. We donÕt know real operation of
biotic community
I.
Plant
succession determined history of many areas
J.
Conservation
education but not enough rules
K.
Need
for participation by philosophy and religion
L.
Only
economic importance motivates land management
1.
Endangered
species act of 1970Õs changed that and was almost rolled by present
administration until coalition of evangelical officials convinced Republicans
not to.
M. Members of the community, including
land categories, have rights
N. Complaints by landowners about
government, but they donÕt do their job
O. Land is biotic
mechanism—biotic pyramid: bottom to top
1.
Biota
in soil
2.
Plants
3.
Insect
4.
Bird
and rodent
5.
Apex
is carnivores
6.
Each
layer has less members and depends on lower ones for subsistence—food
chains
7.
Trend
of evolution is to diversify
8.
Human
tools create disruptive rather than adaptive changes
9.
Other
disruptions
a)
Killing
raptors
b)
Importing
non natives
c)
Monculture
d)
Depleting
soil fertility
e)
Water
impoundment
f)
Transportation
10. Releases of biotic capital tend to
becloud or postopone the penalties of violence
11. Europe and Japan show recovery of
land from major human induced changes.
12. Health is capacity of land for
self-renewal; conservation is effort to understand and preserve this capacity
13. A/B cleavage: land as function of
commodity production vs. biota—in forestry, wildlife and
agriculture—organic farming as a discontent; conqueror vs. citizen
14. The Outlook: we are headed away
from awareness of the land; ecological education
15. ItÕs evolving—social
approbation vs disapproval
