A Sand County Almanac Cleansing the Lens of Perception Conservation as Atonement for wrong relations?

Aldo Leopold ( )

Four Part Outline Lessons from the farm Sketches here and there The Upshot Redirecting Conservation

Lessons from the farm The place. “Wasted weekends”—what I learned. The farm’s theology. The farm’s teacher

The Place to be Redeemed?

Before

Meg Brown takes a swing

Lessons from the farm: “Wasted Weekends” The critique of progress—the white lady of progress. (Pr). The book—education and the loss of knowledge.(81) Living on the land. (6). The fence. (41) Wheels--fast travel.(46-50) Getting more by having less (Pr). Abrahamic Concept of Land. (Pr). Lynn White Jr. Humanity as God--a two-edged sword.

Lessons from the farm(cont) What time is it? The present. Deep time. Shallowness of modern man: land “called poor by those whose lights barely flicker.” Eulogy to that which has senselessly perished. The anquish of an ecological conscience. Wheating land to death. The Civil War—the severance of community—a house divided cannot stand.

Religious Metaphors: The Farm’s Theology. Still waters/mighty fortresses.

Green Pastures/Lagoons pp. 51, 142

Psalm 23 Barbara Steele Thibodeaux

Psalm 23 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Psalm 23 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

Psalm 23 thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Majesty and Power “A mighty fortress is our God, a Bulwark never failing; Did we in our strength confide, Our striving would be losing; And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them, a bideth;”

Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities: Jefferson.village.edu/osheim/intro.html Disease

Majesty and Power “Our helper, He, amid the flood of mortal ills, prevailing:Were not the right Man on our side, The Man of God’s own choosing: we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us: The spirit and the gifts are ours Through Him who with us sideth:”

“And, armed with cruel hate, On Earth is not his equal. From age to age the same, And He must win the battle. For lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. God’s truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever. Amen.” p

A teacher p. 63

Sketches here and there Darwin and the superiority of mankind An edifice a-building since the morning stars sang together The grizzly. (keystone species) Righteous invasions The emptiness of liberty The university: a place for dismemberment Beware of professors. Cycles—what goes around comes around. Pp Generational theft.

Thinking like a Mountain- Sketches cont. “Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.” Aldo Leopold Wilderness, NM.

Conflict

The upshot The dust bowl. Restoration ecology. Ethics: principles and virtues.

Majesty and Power “A mighty fortress is our God, a Bulwark never failing; Did we in our strength confide, Our striving would be losing; And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them, a bideth;”

Black Sunday?

The dust bowl “Land Pathology” Land on a hair trigger The case for private stewardship.

Restoration Ecology

University of Wisconsin Arboretum

Conservation Aesthetic

The trophy: how mass use degrades it. The feeling of isolation in nature: self limiting. ‘Fresh air and change of scene’.Not self defeating ‘Nature study: the development of perception, neither $ nor science. Husbandry: in the wild. Management by a person with perception.

Ethics

The Principle of Utility “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”

A Land Ethic “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

The implicit virtues The difference between moral principles and moral virtues. Atonement Industry Prophesy.

Redirecting Conservation

Pennsylvania Environmental Heritage: Conservation: Muir and Pinchot

“Scientific” Management: Differences with Pinchot Questioning the Enlightenment—rational understanding and possession of nature. Questioning Leviathan/Tragedy of the Commons? (Hobbes). Questioning the scope of morals— individuals and holistic approaches. Questioning the meaning of power. The Axe…is there a clear conscience?

Differences with Pinchot (cont) Questioning ownership without stewardship. The case for private property/tragedy of the commons. The meaning of stewardship. Its benefits. Questioning the locus of mind. Questioning the understanding of science. Toward Gaia, cybernetics, resilience. Questioning humanity’s relation to the Garden. Restoration of the garden, not to the garden. Redemption as dilemma.

Differences with Muir Small is beautiful. Mankind in nature. Those who lived with harmonious modification. Religion.

Leopold: Looking forward— reaching back to the primal landscape “I am trying to teach you that this alphabet of ‘natural objects’ spells out a story… Once you learn how to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives

Eden recovered?