Category: Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold grew up as a young boy hunting the river banks and marshes near his boyhood home in Iowa. Hunting was a lifelong activity for him serving as a source of food and also as intellectual nourishment. Leopold spent a great deal of time contemplating the ethics of hunting, the influence of predator-prey relationships on land health, and his own moral code for the activity. Hunting was one of many ways Leopold expressed his own land ethic, likely his experience as a hunter was influential in his development of the Land Ethic. Read contemporary accounts of individuals retracing his footsteps on hunting excursions, the influence Leopold’s work had on the field of hunting, and also some of his own essays on hunting.

Leopold pulling a raft in Rio Grande for hunting

Hunting Aldo Leopold’s Rio Grande

Through the lens of his own experience duck hunting along the Rio Grande, veteran hunter and writer Pat Durkin describes how Aldo Leopold’s time hunting in the Southwest influenced his opinions on conservation. By duck hunting in the marshes, Leopold was able to give first-hand accounts of how grazing was impacting the mighty Rio Grande. […]

A Lesson in Conservation History, New Mexico Turkey

MeatEater Steven Rinella and wildlife biologist Karl Malcolm embark on a rugged hunting excursion for New Mexico wild Turkey. This expedition, inspired by Aldo Leopold’s similar hunt, wrote about in his essay, “A Turkey Hunt in the Datil National Forest,” is truly an effort to retrace Leopold’s footsteps. Throughout the episode, Malcolm and Rinella reflect […]

turkey

MeatEater Talks Turkeys

MeatEater Steven Rinella and wildlife biologist Karl Malcolm meet to discuss turkey hunting in rugged terrain. Malcolm explores the connection between himself and Aldo Leopold as Turkey hunters through Leopold’s writings, eventually coming to explore why going the extra mile in rugged terrain is worth the effort. View the video