Leopold’s Shack and Ricketts’s Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism

4. Game Management

32 Leopold’s Report on a Game Survey of the North Central States received nearly universally positive reviews. “No one,” says Curt Meine, “had ever packed so many facts about game and habitat into a single book.”1 Leopold next envisioned a larger book as a companion to, and expansion on, Report on a Game Survey.2 He conceived of the book as a much-needed unifying treatise detailing the history, theory, and practice of game management. He worked tirelessly, and for the first six months of 1931 did almost nothing but assemble the new manuscript. Later in 1931, the Sporting Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturers ’ Institute “loaned” Leopold to the State of Iowa, as Iowa sought to pull together a comprehensive, twenty-five-year plan to guide its newly formed Fish and Game Commission.3 Between trips to Iowa, Leopold sought a publisher for Game Management. But the Depression affected the industry and companies did not want to risk releasing books on a subject with no publication history . Leopold offered to advance his own money: “I am willing chap ter four Game Management Game Management / 33 to make a substantial contribution personally to its publication, and while I cannot prove it, I feel there will be a better demand for it than the average publisher is able to appreciate.”4 Finally, in December, Charles Scribner’s Sons agreed to publish Game Management , provided Leopold make several edits to reduce production costs and contribute a $500.00 subvention. Leopold agreed and “signed the contract on January 11, 1932, his forty-fifth birthday.”5 During the second half of 1931, Leopold sent the Game Management manuscript out for comment to several experts. While waiting for replies he received a letter from Olaus Murie, the immensely talented, maverick field biologist (and later the author of the Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks).6 Murie worked for the U.S. Biological Survey, and based on his field data was deeply concerned about the quality of the science underlying the Survey ’s predator eradication programs. Murie’s supervisors were not thrilled with his conclusions, nor were they confident that Leopold would treat the issue in the manner they wished. Two men whom Leopold greatly respected, however, agreed at least in part with Murie. The Survey’s W.L. McAtee wrote, “natural enemies should not be sacrificed merely to insure sport.”7 And Paul Errington , the first leader of the first Fish and Wildlife Co-op Unit, at Iowa State University, concluded that “quail were far more sensitive to food and cover conditions than to the depredations of hawks, owls, and foxes.”8 In the end, Leopold’s “Predator Control” chapter in Game Management reflected this more open-minded approach. He wrote, “many predator-control operations have been based upon assumed or traditional predator-game relationships, or at best on generalizations supported only by a small number of observations which were, in light of present knowledge, often misinterpreted.”9 34 / Game Management In March 1932, Leopold’s funding from the Sporting Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturers’ Institute ran out. He had some investments, including stock in the Leopold Desk Company, and although the family was inconvenienced, they were not uncomfortable . Leopold continued to work on the manuscript for Game Management, and during the summer months he finished his final revisions and literature updates. Leopold organized Game Management into three sections, on management theory, management technique, and game administration . Starting with a survey of the field’s history and purpose, he moved on in the first part to address the properties and range of game populations. In “Management Technique,” he outlined the tools available to the game manager, from the creation of refuges to the control of habitat, hunting, and predation. Finally, he examined the business side of game management, ending with a bibliography, a glossary, breeding tables, and an index. With the publication of Game Management Leopold invented the field of wildlife biology. It was the culmination of his professional life since his life-threatening bout with Bright’s disease, nearly two decades earlier, and his decision while convalescing to embrace the field. Meine writes that at this time Leopold was also coming to grips with the philosophical context in which game management principles would apply.10 While Game Management took a clearly utilitarian approach—manipulating natural processes to produce more game—Leopold himself was beginning to look beyond his professional training...