Aldo Leopold’s introduction to nature was living along the banks of the Mississippi River in Iowa.
A renowned conservationist, environmentalist and former UW-Madison professor, Leopold is considered the father of wildlife ecology and modern conservation.
“Conservation is a state of health in the land,” Leopold said in 1944. “The land consists of soil, water, plants, and animals, but health is more than a sufficiency of these components. It is a state of vigorous self-renewal in each of them, and in all collectively.”