Aldo Leopold's timeless prose is illuminated in this fantastic coffee table edition celebrating the 50 year anniversary of publication. The photos follow the text and give light and meaning to this defining work of the modern ecological movement. The reader is brought directly into Sand County and shares Leopold's vision as to how a landscape can be healed and brought back into harmony when man's stewardship of the earth is encouraged. The additional essays on the environment by Ken Brower, son of Sierra Club founder David Brower, is icing on the cake! The perfect gift for my teenage son before he left for college.

Long considered the first book on conservation, this should be read by everyone. The author's love of land, wildlife and nature are fully expressed. Those thoughts are followed by philosophizing on conservation - ethics, practice, economics, etc. Written in the nascent stages of conservation in this country, a time when it was more thought than practice, the issues still resonate today. One sees the difficulties both in expanding environmental conservation as well as the pitfalls and errors made in the area (with all good intent) since the forties when Leopald wrote.
Portions of this were assigned when I was in college. Now, 28 years later, the entirety means much more. It should be required reading for everyone, especially lovers of the outdoors.

While Leopold's writing in A Sand County Almanac is timeless, Sewell's photograhs and Brower's introduction provide valuable context for this classic. I will be giving this gorgeous new volume to my fellow Leopold admirers as well as those friends and family I have been trying to get to read Leopold for years. It won't disappoint!

Aldo Leopold wrote these famous words: "There are those of us who can live without wild things and those of us who cannot." For those of you who cannot, this is your book. Aldo Leopold was a great man like a great old tree, with roots anchored down to earth and an intellect branching out towards new ways of thinking and looking at the world. The combination results in keen observations highlighted by elegant prose. I usually can't read too far into this book without getting a lump in my throat.

The "Almanac" has been published several ways during the past fifty years, I strongly recommend the book published by Oxford University Press. It includes Thinking like a Mountain, The Land Ethic, and other important essays.
From Leopold's Sketches: "Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."
Scientist, educator, forester, philosopher, writer -- Aldo Leopold appears to many as something of an enigma. In his earlier writings, Leopold was a very different man than we find in this volume. In Leopold's own words: "I was young then, and full or trigger-itch." This insightful classic is a gentle, scholarly, fatherly collection of essays, observations and stories. Like Thoreau's Walden, it is revered, loved and widely imitated. Leopold: "Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf. ... The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have ... rivers washing the future into the sea."

How can one review something so brilliantly written? One can only say thank you to an author and person we lost much too early. American's need someone like Aldo Leopold again. Just when we had another brilliant soul, named Rachel Carson we too lost her. We have lost our way and desperatly need the likes of Leopold again before we pave everything, pollute the water and darken the sky. Maybe someone will appear as they have before, like Muir, Leopold and Carson; we can only hope. This book is a must!

Aldo Leopold is widely admired for his contribution to the modern conservation movement and his seminal work, "A Sand County Almanac." In my own profession (wildlife ecology and management), it seems like a Leopold quotation carries the ultimate weight of authority (and they're much more common, since Meine and Knight's collection, "The Essential Aldo Leopold," came out).

For many years I admired the wise, kind-hearted old man who wrote The Almanac. Aldo Leopold became the most exalted member of my personal pantheon of saints. Aldo Leopold became inspiration incarnate, but lost his humanity in the process. He could do no wrong.

Then I read Curt Meine's biography. Leopold's famous essay, "Thinking Like a Mountain," chronicles only one of the many lessons learned in a life filled with equal parts reckless bravado and deep introspection. Leopold launched his career as a fortunate son, cocksure and itching to change the world, only to learn that real change takes patience, commitment, hard work, compassion, and an open mind willing to learn. Sound familiar?

I read Curt Meine's biography before I read Marybeth Lorbiecki's "Fierce Green Fire." To be honest, I enjoyed both, but found Meine's biography to be more fulfilling. If you want to understand where the Land Ethic really came from, pick up "His Life and Work."

If "Sand County Almanac" was your first taste of Leopold, you'll want to read Curt Meine's book. It's one of those books that you can't put down (if you are a true Leopold fan - if you're not - don't bother, you wouldn't appreciate it!

In The Conference Board's magazine, "Across the Board," in a Nov/Dec 2000 article on the best business books read over the past year, I wrote:

"Over the past couple of years, I must have read 10 to 20 management books every month. Unfortunately, before long, many of these titles start reading the same, hoping to capitalize on the management trend of the moment. But every once in a while a book comes along that includes unique and clear-headed thinking and writing. When I was working on an article about environmental ethics in business, I came across a new collection of the writings of Aldo Leopold, the legendary conservationist of the 1930s and 1940s perhaps best known for A Sand County Almanac. Edited by Curt Meine and Richard L. Knight, The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries is not, strictly speaking, a business book, but contained here in many previously unpublished observations are the thoughts and ideas of a natural (in all senses of the word) manager. Leopold was a rare combination of someone who saw the need for conserving nature, but who also understood and encouraged experiencing the beauty and functionality of the outdoors." --Across the Board, Nov/Dec 2000

One of my favorite quotes of Leopold's from this collection:

"Relegating conservation to government is like relegating virtue to the Sabbath. Turns over to professionals what should be daily work of amateurs."

Aldo Leopold was the author of "A Sand County Almanac" and one of the most influential conservationists of his day. In The Essential Aldo Leopold, Curt Meine and Richard Knight have collaborated to assembled a comprehensive collections of quotations from Leopold's extensive and diverse writings. These gems of wisdom, insight, and encouragement are organized in twenty-one chapters under the broad themes of conservation science and practice, conservation policy, conservation and culture. Each chapter begins with an introductory essay by a prominent conservation scholar to provide the reader with perspective on Leopold's numerous and varied contributions. The Essential Aldo Leopold is an essential, core title for any personal, academic, and professional environmental and conservation studies collection, and highly recommended reading for all Aldo Leopold admirers within the modern conservation movement.

This book provides an excellent chance to learn more about Aldo Leopold, one of the most important conservationists ever. The editors have assembled a highly instructive sample of Leopold's essays and articles written throughout his career. The essays provide insights into Leopold's development from a predator-destroying wildlife manager to world-class conservationist. The editors' introductory essays to sets of Leopold's writings are themselves first-rate. Brown and Carmony provide the reader with the historical context for understanding the significance of Leopold's essays as his career unfolded. Highly recommended.

To Whom It May Concern:

This is NOT a review, but a correction to the Kirkus Review article. Sand County Almanac was published in 1949, a year after Leopold's untimely death (he was helping a neighbor fight a fire). Kirkus has the book's pub date as 1968 -- which might have been a reissue. 1999 is the 50th anniversary of SCA, which is a rather big deal in Leopold circles. Kirkus is on the money with everything else :)

"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.

I read A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. I liked this book because it beautifully describes Leopold's extensive farm, and its plants, animals and seasons, in Sand Country, WI over 60 years ago. This book has no specific plot, rather it is like a diary that tells us about Aldo's life on the farm year-round. It is incredibly detailed, Leopold sometimes writes for several pages about one specific type of flower or tree. The fields of science that this most relates to are observational (field) ecology and biology. This is because Leopold doesn't experiment in a lab setting or set up experiments on his farm, instead he walks around and observes, and therefore draws conclusions from these observations. The characters in Leopold's book are himself, his dog, and all the hundreds and thousands of animals and plants on his farm, which he often anthropomorphizes. This book is factual, as everything he says actually happened, but it also has elements of fiction because Leopold anthropomorphizes the animals and plants he observes and often gives them personalities and tells stories about them. The book's conclusions, I think, are to enjoy nature and preserve it. Leopold loves to be outdoors, and his book recommends the same thing: to get outside, walk around, and enjoy the beauty all around you. This book also emphasizes that we need to protect and preserve nature, because if we don't care for the environment now, there will be nothing left for future generations. This is especially important to remember today, because of the world's vast global and environmental problems. This is a beautifully written, interesting book that I would recommend to anyone who likes to be outdoors.

Long considered the first book on conservation, this should be read by everyone. The author's love of land, wildlife and nature are fully expressed. Those thoughts are followed by philosophizing on conservation - ethics, practice, economics, etc. Written in the nascent stages of conservation in this country, a time when it was more thought than practice, the issues still resonate today. One sees the difficulties both in expanding environmental conservation as well as the pitfalls and errors made in the area (with all good intent) since the forties when Leopald wrote.

Interestingly, especially to me as someone who hunts, much is written in the context of hunting. He also has some insightful words about why people do hunt as a connection to nature. As only a hunter can, he identifies the hunter's reverance for the land and nature.

Portions of this were assigned when I was in college. Now, 28 years later, the entirety means much more. It should be required reading for everyone, especially lovers of the outdoors.

There are few books on conservation, wildlife and nature that haven't been quickly obsoleted, are hoplessly trapped in period pop cultural amber, are fronts for naive political extremism or are simply irrelevant.

Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" is one of those few; composed of illuminating vignettes dealing with practical knowledge of and experience in the North American wilderness, thoughtful critiques of today's accepted notions of wildlife and land "management," and the realistic acceptance of the human role as a predator within nature's massive food chain. Leopold believed humanity's ever-increasing physical and psychological isolation from full but equal participation in all parts of the natural world's reality--its beauty and wonder as well as its cruelty and danger--has been to its severe detriment.

This trend, to him, is leading us to environmental carelessness, colossal misuse and waste of natural resources, and, worst of all, gives rise to an aberrant social ideology reveling in the fatuous cartoon fantasy of nature being a big, happy, perpetually peaceful commune if only humans weren't there. After looking at our sad record of pollution, repeated habitat destruction, poaching, overfishing and listening to the endless, arrogant prattle of government bureaucrats, pop conservationists and so-called animal rights activists, it seems Leopold is indeed a prophet for our times

As someone who is intimately familiar with the work of Aldo Leopold I was quite diappointed with this book. Although there are no glaring inaccuracies with the biography there is one obvious problem with it. A far far superior treatment of Leopold's life and work has already been written. Curt Meine's book "Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work" is such a better treatment of both Leopold's 'life and work' that Lorbiecki's book never needed to be written. "A Fierce Green Fire" is a superficial treatment of one of the most, if not the most, profound thinkers of our time and cannot hold a candle to Meine's book. If Leopold enthusiasts really want to learn about Aldo Leopold I would suggest Meine's book--don't cheat yourself.

I've been a long-time fan of Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. In reading it again recently, however, I realized how little I knew about Leopold's background. Lorbiecki's biography is a well-written introduction to one of the great 'fathers' of conservation.

Leopold's career truly ran the gamut, from foresty to public relations to writing to academia. But beyond his work life, Lorbiecki illustrates the importance family played for Leopold, both in shaping his values from childhood, and in the devotion he later showed to his wife and children.

I'd strongly recommend that anyone interested in Leopold, and more generally in the history of American land and game conservation, to give A Fierce Green Fire a try.

I don't agree with review #1. As a long time Leopold reader and having read Curt Meine's book, I think this treatment of Leopold is great for an introduction to the great man's life and work. This is the kind of book which makes you think about how you live, and what you can contribute to the greater good. Not an encyclopedia on Leopold, but a great intro.

I tend to throw all the naturalists/conservationists/environmentalists into one big group and think of them in similar terms. I temporarily forgot that Aldo Leopold came to the field with a hunting background. And even though he writes about being forever affected by the regretable dying fire in a she-wolf's eyes in _Sand County Almanac_, none of that feeling is conveyed here. There's a lot of hunting in this book. A lot. Part II is one camping trip after another, with a fair amount of innocent animals providing food along the way. If you're like me and would rather not witness the carnage, read just four or five of the selections: "A Man's Leisure Time," "Country," "Natural History," and all of Part III. You probably won't miss anything crucial by doing so, and you'll get the gist of Aldo Leopold's ideas about conservation and the land ethic. His philosophic musings make for worthwhile reading. It's too bad more of them don't appear here.

Leopold's essay, "Goose Music" is a classic must read. Too bad this chapter was left out of the anniversary edition of Leopold's Sand County Almanac.