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

2. From Forester to Professor

14 Aldo Leopold’s midwestern upbringing and Ivy League education had prepared him to be a professional, but even from the beginning of his career he showed signs of being much more than that. Curt Meine writes that as a young professional, Leopold was “competent, devoted, and eager.” And while it is true that as a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry he was a disciple of Gifford Pinchot, Leopold was different. His attitudes “were too independent to be dominated by anyone, or by any idea. He did not often express those attitudes; they were not yet fully developed, the prevailing philosophies suYced.” But Leopold kept his mind open, “ensuring that when new light would be needed, he could help to shed it.”1 On July 19, 1909, Leopold reported to the year-old Apache National Forest just outside Springerville, in the Arizona Territory . His title was forest assistant, and he carried out reconnaissance and timber cruising. He had problems with his crew. As Meine states, “The problem was not simply that he was a greenchap ter t wo From Forester to Professor From Forester to Professor / 15 horn, but that he was confidently inflicting his greenness on the others.”2 It was about this time that Leopold’s crew shot a female wolf and he saw in her dying eyes a “fierce green fire” that would haunt him the rest of his life.3 Leopold had two other dramatic, life-changing experiences during the two decades he spent with the U.S. Forest Service in the Southwest. The first occurred during the spring of 1911. While on temporary duty in Albuquerque, Leopold met Estella Bergere. Soon afterward, he took an assignment as deputy supervisor at the Carson National Forest, near Anonito, Colorado; he quickly became supervisor. Aldo courted Estella long distance, and on October 9, 1912, they were married in Santa Fe. Meine writes, “she sensitized him to an extreme degree. She inspired him in his thought, in his senses, in his work, and in his ambitions , and she would continue to do so for thirty-six years.”4 Leopold’s second experience was much less pleasant. In early April 1913, after settling a range dispute in the Jicarilla district, Leopold got caught in a spring storm that lasted two days and included hail and bouts of rain, sleet, and snow.5 As he rode back his knees became so swollen that he had to slit his leather riding boots. When Leopold finally returned to headquarters on April 23, his face and limbs were swollen, and two days later he took the train to see physicians in Santa Fe. During the train ride he became “horribly swollen” and arrived in Santa Fe barely alive; had he stayed at Carson much longer he likely would have died. He was suffering from a case of acute nephritis (Bright’s disease). His kidneys had failed, and his symptoms were due to renal salt and water retention. His recovery took more than sixteen months. Six weeks after his diagnosis he had regained enough strength to board a train 16 / From Forester to Professor with Estella and travel to Burlington, Iowa, where he convalesced at his parents’ home and she gave birth to their first son, Starker. At his parents’ house, Leopold sat on the east porch resting, reading , and contemplating the view of the Mississippi River far below. He had always been a solitary thinker; here his thoughts turned to conservation and back to Carson National Forest, and it wasn’t long before these thoughts began to include concern for wild game. In February 1914, Leopold was allowed to return to the Southwest, but not to Carson. He finally resumed work six months later. We can ask, What do people like Leopold—with big brains they know how to use—do when they have faced death and are on the road to recovery, but are forced to be physically inactive for a long period of time? You can bet they think, and you can bet they ask themselves about the important things in life. Having faced their own mortality, they consider how, with the time they have left, whether short or long, they can make a difference. When Leopold returned to the Southwest, he brought with him a new sense of purpose. Resuming work, Leopold shifted emphasis from forestry to wildlife assignments and began developing a new program...