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l;.Akshay Wuppuluri

Moosman

IB LA HL

19 November 2021

August Through October ASCA

August summary:

The author, Leopold, talks about a river that is closeby. An artist who is painting

beautiful scenes, paints the surface of the water. The river is seen as temperamental and

stubborn. It is incredibly impossible to know the river and its course and what it will do. This art

is seen as beautiful yet passing and always morphing, however the author still understands and

appreciates it. The river can paint a beautiful picture however for it to guarantee that it can, we

must give it some time alone or some remoteness. We would only have to visit it to see how

much it has grown and changed as things are growing and it is attracting animals and wildlife

around it but the author says that you can take a mental picture and be able to preserve and

display it in your brain.

September summary:

By the time September had rolled around the birds had stopped singing in the mornings

and when the singing of birds started to become rare, Leopold tends to enjoy it even more.

Despite the fact that he frequently gets up early in the morning to listen to birds but only to be

met with stillness, he believes that "the hope of hearing quail is worth half a dozen risings-in-

the-dark." But when he hears a "chorus" of quail singing nearby one morning while sitting on
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his porch He feels "honored," and the world around him appears to brighten and become more

lovely. He sees these birdsongs as a performance to him, even though they do it for themselves,

and he believes he is lucky enough to hear and see.

October summary:

Hunting is divided into two categories by Leopold: category one is grouse hunting in

Adams County when the tamaracks are smoky gold, and category two is hunting anything else

under any other circumstances. There is something special, a beauty to standing beneath a

tamarack tree as its "golden needles come sifting down" and a grouse fleeing into the

underbrush, according to Leopold. Leopold tends to put full trust in his dog when it comes to

grouse shooting in the tamaracks. He relishes the moments when the dog has spotted

something but he is unsure what it is; it could be a grouse, a woodcock, or a rabbit. He

recommends pheasant hunting over grouse hunting for individuals who wish to hunt with

confidence and not have to be intrigued with what they are hunting.

According to Leopold, he believes that the best hunting spots are always taken away

which implies the best hunts are those in a remote wilderness where no one has gone before,

or in a secluded location near to home that has stayed unnoticed for whatever reason. This is

Grouse hunting as most people are unaware that grouse exist in Adams County and drive right

past the sections of wilderness where they can be found, leaving it all to him and for him to

enjoy and take in at its full capacity. The neighboring tamarack groves are a source of

tremendous beauty for Leopold as while he's on the hunt for grouse, he'll stop to admire the

blue gentian blossoms tucked among the golden tamarack needles.

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As Leopold is going through the woods, he sees an old barn. He also sees an elm tree

which says that it is from the 1930’s which shows how Leopold knows that this is an old barn.

Many animals, including freight trains and hunters, get up "too early," and according to Leopold

all early risers feel united because they understate their goals and achievements either silently,

like the stars, or modest, like the owl. Early mornings encourage people to listen because they

can't see much of the world around them, which helps to enforce humility. Leopold believes

that everything and everyone is captivated by self-importance and inflated self-worth in the

sunlight, but that this is wiped away at sunset.

October reflection:

Leopold like hunting, but he enjoys it even more in these particular circumstances. This

is an early illustration of how a single species, or in this case two species—the grouse and the

tamarack tree—can have a difficult-to-quantify impact on a landscape, improving and

brightening it in ways that are disproportionate to any measure of mass or economic value.

Leopold looks to his dog once more, knowing that his dog has knowledge and skills that are

often more useful than his own. Leopold is content to defer to his dog, whom he respects and

recognizes as superior in certain areas. It shows how we have put our trust more into animals

than into humans, which is also seen prominently in today’s time.

Later in the book, Leopold would present a more holistic view of wilderness and what it

is beneficial for. This is an early illustration of Leopold's fascination in undeveloped, uncharted

territory. He enjoys areas that haven't been touched by humans, despite the fact that being in

them at all inevitably corrupts them as it brings unwanted attention and unwanted human
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problems to these lands by others. Even though the grouse seems to be more useful, The

tamarack is able to provide a different type of worth has there is a deep beauty to it that is

appreciable.

We see that Leopold comes across a barn and he sees a barn and an elm. The young elm

blocking the barn door shows how wood and trees can directly show history as it blocks a very

old barn showing that it was planted long ago and that the doors haven’t been tried to be open

for a long time now. He talks about animals and their respect for them as they tend to wake up

early. He will later propose the concept of a "land ethic," in which humans are considered

members of a community with the land, but here he portrays himself as a member of a

community with the animals on his farm, who are linked by their preferred habitat and sleeping

habits. He treats these animals with the same deference he would a fellow human awake at the

same time.

Leopold enjoys hunting in less-traveled locations just as much as he enjoys learning

forest secrets that others do not. Furthermore, he takes satisfaction in minor features of the

natural world that many others would disregard, such as the crimson leaves of the blackberry

plant, which appear after the blackberries have been eaten and thus have no human worth

other than their beauty—which is enough for Leopold. This fascination with nature and its

natural beauties shows what humans need to take in and understand in our world. We must

show respect for our lands and their beauties that not many people notice.