There are some who can live without wild things, and some who

cannot.” This essay is about one who cannot. Sand County Almanac by
Aldo Leopold exposes a profound and fundamental detachment
between contemporary people and the land. This detachment based
on mechanization, individualization, consumerism, materialism, and
capitalism is leading mankind down an un-returnable path that seeks
to destroy the land that we love. Nevertheless, Aldo Leopold writes
about the delicate intricacies that intertwine to form an infinite system
linked together by relationships that still escape understanding.
As Leopold’s story progresses he reveals an unparalleled wisdom
flowing from his interaction and experience living as a piece of the
ecological community—not as a separate machine, but as a cog within
a greater and more infinitely complex system. Numerous examples
flow from his simple yet fundamentally different perspective. Leopold
writes, “The autobiography of an old board is a kind of literature not
yet taught on campuses, but any riverbank farm is a library where he
who hammers or saws may read at will” (27). By reading these elegant
passages, the reader opens a window into the mind of a man who
viewed the world in direct contrast to contemporary cultural values:
viewing a seemingly worthless board as an organism (entity) with a
story written within the very veins of the wood. Another example of
Leopold’s paradigm shift is the crane marsh—“His tribe, we now know,
stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in
which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When
we hear this call we hear no mere bird. He is the symbol of our
untamable past, of that incredible sweep in millennia.” Leopold is
attempting to show...

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...onmentalists do not think of preservation in the terms of an axe.
Moreover, having an intricate relationship with the land was relatively
new. Although, I believe Leopold would argue that at the same time
this connection is as ancient as mankind itself. Overall, Aldo Leopold
is calling for a bold return to the past in order to defend the flora,
fauna, and the land.
That is to say, that in order to heal the earth humankind must restore
the primordial link between the land and its people through an intense
and present reevaluation of the pyramid of life. However, it is
complicated—“All conservation of wilderness is self-defeating, for to
cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and
fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish” (101).