A Sand County Almanac

[Kai]

This book written by Aldo Leopold and published first in 1948 is probably my most favorite. My own paperback copy is riddled with notes, worn and dogeared. I can read it over and over. Its a book in two parts, the first with short essays on events set in the stage of the seasons. The second part is describing Leopold's Land Ethic, and his environmental philosophy that is often quoted today. Because I am from Wisconsin, where Leopold worked and wrote, and especially because I am from the sand counties area, I read this book when I was in grade school for the first time, and it was very profound for me then, as it is now. In any other part of the world, only philosophers read Leopold, so I consider myself lucky.

To give you all an idea of the writing, here are some quotes.

Within a few weeks now Draba, the smallest flower that blows, will sprinkle every sandy place with small blooms.
He who hopes for spring with upturned eye never sees so small a thing as Draba. He who despairs of spring with downcast eye steps on it, unkowing. He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it, in abundance. 
Draba asks, and gets, but scant allowance of warmth and comfort; it subsists on the leavings of unwanted time and space. Botany books give it two or three lines, but never a plate or portrait. Sand too poor and sun too weak for bigger, better blooms are good enough for Draba.  After all it is no spring flower, but only a postscript to a hope.
Draba plucks no heartstrings. Its perfume, if there is any, is lost in the gusty winds, Its color is plain white. Its leaves wear a sensible woolly coat. Nothing eats it; it is too small. No poets sing of it. Some botanist once gave it a Latin name and then forgot it.  Altogether it is of no importance--just a small creature that does a small job quickly and well.

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little is known about it.
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?' If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the land. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

More quote here: http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/chrisj/leopold-quotes.html

[indifferent betty]

as you reccomended this to me previously i ventured to my library only to find them shit and crap.

do yu have an ebook version i can felch thru your intawebz? i am too damn po to buy a book see.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I just ordered it from Amazon.

[indifferent betty]

I just ordered it from Amazon.

currency owning showoff!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

LAWL

[Kai]

as you reccomended this to me previously i ventured to my library only to find them shit and crap.

do yu have an ebook version i can felch thru your intawebz? i am too damn po to buy a book see.

No. Cant find on Avax or AnnonIB. You'll have to buy a copy like the rest of us fuckers and read it over and over again until it gets as marked up and dog eared as mine is.

A note about that: I don't know what it is about teenagers, but they seem to have a perchance to take drawings of animals and ink dicks and sex all over them, which is what you found when you opened up a copy of ASCA from the high school library. It was odd, and it NEVER FAILED. I'm glad mine isn't like that at least.

[indifferent betty]

as you reccomended this to me previously i ventured to my library only to find them shit and crap.

do yu have an ebook version i can felch thru your intawebz? i am too damn po to buy a book see.

No. Cant find on Avax or AnnonIB. You'll have to buy a copy like the rest of us fuckers and read it over and over again until it gets as marked up and dog eared as mine is.

A note about that: I don't know what it is about teenagers, but they seem to have a perchance to take drawings of animals and ink dicks and sex all over them, which is what you found when you opened up a copy of ASCA from the high school library. It was odd, and it NEVER FAILED. I'm glad mine isn't like that at least.

ahhh, you mean Ye Olde Busse Stoppe Cock.
as found in such premier locations as bus stops, library books and all over your coursework if you leave it unattended.

[Kai]

And another interesting tidbit: I just realized this book, and his other famous collection of essays Round River, were published posthumously.
He had this in draft form at his death in 1948, and his son Luna Leopold (who by the way is also a rather famous conservationist and wrote Waters, Rivers and Creeks, a primer on water resource management) edited and published the first book and combined some essays together to publish the second.

[Quercus]

Shit. You're from Wisconsin? I'm two words away from moving there in April. (You're and hired).

Yeah, I read sand county while I was living/working in Minnesota for a bit. Good book.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I had just gotten it and someone commented on it on my kitchen counter.

[Kai]

Shit. You're from Wisconsin? I'm two words away from moving there in April. (You're and hired).

Yeah, I read sand county while I was living/working in Minnesota for a bit. Good book.

Nice state. Unfortunatly not living there right now.

Nigel, who commented?

[Pariah]

I'll have to check it out.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Shit. You're from Wisconsin? I'm two words away from moving there in April. (You're and hired).

Yeah, I read sand county while I was living/working in Minnesota for a bit. Good book.

Nice state. Unfortunatly not living there right now.

Nigel, who commented?

Optimus Pinecone.

[Kai]

Shit. You're from Wisconsin? I'm two words away from moving there in April. (You're and hired).

Yeah, I read sand county while I was living/working in Minnesota for a bit. Good book.

Nice state. Unfortunatly not living there right now.

Nigel, who commented?

Figures he would recognize it.

Optimus Pinecone.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yep. He is teh stealth awesome.