"Sand County Almanac" presents Leopold's thoughts and impressions concerning nature and conservation. This book shows Leopold in a far wider context. Leopold held many jobs and had many hobbies in his full life: forest ranger, administrator, hunter, game manager, laboratory director, wilderness traveler, professor. Every time he encountered a new situation he thought about it deeply and creatively, and recorded his thoughts in vivid, non-technical essays, many of which are collected in this book.

I was particulaly impressed by Leopold's thoughtfullness -- that he reached his conclusions not by following the majority nor by catering to the powerful nor by jerking his knee, but by deep and clear thinking. Reading these essays renders vivid the fact that current public discourse is dominated by power play and snide insults rather than by civil, reasoned debate.