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All for One

Ciera Nordin
Conservation Biology 1120
Professor Taylor
September 24, 2014

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The Land Ethic opens our eyes to the sad reality of our land ethic. Two factors that
play a part in land ethic are education of conservation and the economic systems of our land.
Unfortunately both of those are headed away from, rather than toward positive land
conservation.
Leopolds major points in the text are the ethical sequence, the community concept, the
ecological conscience, substitutes for a land ethic, the land pyramid. The ethical sequence is a
mode of guidance or reactions to dealing with mans relation to land and to the animals and plants
that grown on it. The community concept says that each individual is a member of a community
of interdependent parts of the land. It says that the individuals should cooperate with each other
rather than compete for the land. Ecological conscience referred to how much the people knew
about land conservation. That if they were educated and aware of the things that needed to be
done, and then they could do them. Substitutes for a land ethic give people a reason to have land
ethic. Most people do not have any land ethic because they do not get any economic value from
it. The land pyramid is commonly employed in conservation education as the balance of
nature. Everything on the land is dependent on each other. If we destroy or change one thing, it
will have a domino effect.
At first it was thought that if people were more educated about land conservation and had
a better understanding, and then they just might help out more with the conservation of the land.
However, that was not the case, but the education was not a complete waste. Certain things that
were learned were used to make improvements to the land. The only problem was that people
were not doing it to be ethical to the land, but to gain something for them self. This doesnt really
work for ethic because in order to have ethic towards something you need to care and have
respect for it. These people dont care about the land and arent going to do anything to help it
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that doesnt have a direct benefit to them. Thats the problem. When people are doing something
that could be considered land ethic they are usually doing it for the wrong reasons. People will
even do unethical things for a quick fix, or to reap the quick benefit that will have a negative
impact on the lands conservation in years to come.
Before this assignment it wouldnt take too much time to characterize my conservation
philosophy because I unfortunately didnt have any. I mean I wasnt going out of my way to
damage or hurt the land but I certainly wasnt doing all I could to help it. I was one of the many
that had the mind set, if I dont get anything out of it then Im not doing anything for it. Its a
really selfish attitude to have, especially if I put forth an effort to make a positive change that
would have not only a powerful effect on the land but it could influence those around me to
possibly change their way of thinking as well.
There is a statement A land ethic changes the role of humans from conqueror of the land
community to plain members and citizens of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and
also respect for the community as such. I would say before this assignment I thought I was a
conqueror. I had the mindset that the land was here for me, and I didnt need to give back to it
because it wasnt my job to. I thought I was in charge of the land instead of being a part of it. If
we all act as if we are a part of the land, and not running it, we would do more for it because it
would have a value to us. It would be a part of us and improvements we made to it, we would be
making improvements to our selves.
I believe our land-relation today, is the same as Leopold wrote it in the 1940s, The
land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations. I believe people
only do things to help the land if it is of economic value. Those things they do to upkeep and
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make improvements are privileges; they are not obligated to do anything. It goes beyond just
humans. We have to be sensible to other factors that may affect the land such as things more than
ourselves. If people could see that every single day that we have on the land is a blessing in itself
that should be enough to make people want to take care of the land.
I do agree that A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and
beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. I think that we rely on the
integrity of the community to take care of our land. However not everyone shares the same
beliefs, and people care about different things. So even though one persons integrity steers them
away from a certain act of helping the land, the other may do it with no hesitation at all. When
you dont have a set in stone right and wrong, its hard to rely on integrity for that reason.
I think in order for you to have an ethical relationship with anything you need to have
love, respect, admiration and a high regard for its value. When you dont value for something
you tend to care less about it and would focus more towards something of higher regard. This is
a reason our land ethic is the way it is. Not many people value our land because they believe
theyre not benefiting from it so they dont want to spend their time on improving it. If only they
realized we obtain so much from the land every single day.
I think most peoples land ethic comes from self interest. There are not enough genuine
people out there that have a true interest in non-human elements. I, for one was one of those
people that got their land ethic from personal interest. After reading this text and learning that
most people in the world had the same mind set as me, made me start to rethink my thought
process. If we all tried to find a real interest in improving out land ethic, we could make a
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significant change. We need to stop being so selfish and start doing things for the good of others
and for our land.

Before I started this assignment I thought it was going to be the usual reading assignment
that you dont care about or ever think about after you turn it in. Little did I know that it was
actually going to make me start thinking about my actions and make me want to do things in my
life differently. After reading The Land Ethic it made me realize that I have had the wrong
attitude about our land my whole life. I was one of those people that would say Im not going to
be alive in 100 years so its not going to affect me. Looking back on my attitude now it makes
me sick to think I thought so selfishly. Instead of the attitude of it wont affect me, I could have
been thinking, every good thing I do, any improvements I can make to the land will do a lot, for
more people than just myself.
The land we are blessed with to live on is just that, a blessing and we should treat it that
way. Theres so much more to it that just ourselves. We should take care of it and want people in
years to come to have the opportunity to enjoy what we have had the privilege to enjoy now.
When thinking about the land I think about the saying Leave it cleaner than when you found it
I think if the people of the world cared about the land as if it were theres. But truthfully people
will probably not start to have land ethic until they are either held responsible for taking action or
get some type of economic value from it. I think there should be certain laws put in place to help
save the land. Because once the land is harmed its going to be very difficult to get it to the way
it should be.
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For me, this assignment was extremely insightful and I would definitely recommend it to
other students. But while I was reading it, it was almost frustrating for me to learn how people
act towards the land. I think about how much it had changed my opinion and outlook on our land
that it could change many others minds too. I think about the other students in this class and
wonder what effect it had on them. Even if Im the other person in the entire class that got
something from this assignment then the land is in a little better shape that it would have been.
At least Im taking a step in the right direction. I hope that it had the same affect on the other
students that it did for me. If every student that takes this class wants to make a difference from
seeing the effects they can have on our land, then a lot could be done.