Paige Sidwell Biology 1120: Conservation Biology

The Land Ethic

What is the role of mankind when it comes to the biological community? What purpose does it sever to help us grow as a society? Whats the price tag on saving and preserving this community? Why should we care about it and will it really matter in the long run if we dont act? Aldo Leopold wrote and publishes his essays in The Sand County Almanac in 1949. Even then he could see that the action a previous generation had taken there toll on the land and the species that live there. The problems were happening then and are growing ever worse in our present day and time. Today we can see the effects that mankind has had on the planet; polluted waters, mass extinctions, extreme weather, wetlands lost, forest destruction, desertification and the list goes on. We can stop it and turn it around, but as Leopold points out that there is a price to be paid. If it does not benefit the economy then whats the point in saving the biological community. It does seem however in recent years that the world is waking up to the issues of the environment, action are being taken to help, but it is a slow process to change years human behavior and the damages may be too far gone to help if we do not take more drastic measures. Aldo also raised the topic that it would be far too much for any government to take on the role of saving the environment without the help of the everyday people, that it should also be the land owners responsibility to make changes and not just for a money incentive. When the private landowner is asked to perform some unprofitable act for the good of the community, he today assents only with outstretched palm. If everyone worked on just small everyday changes, like recycling, cleaning up their community, and using public transportation it would have a huge impact. Just small changes that would led to bigger ones over time, not just waiting for the government to make changes. Take the air pollution problem in Salt Lake for instance if we as a communities stepped up and stop driving our cars as much that would help a lot while the government can work on stop industries pollution. He wrote that our planet is an ever evolving machine that the inner works of it circuits can really only be theorized. We can only look at what effects previous extinctions and changes to the environment have had on our planet and what future ones with have if gone unchecked. The soil for example is not just dirt to be used for whatever purpose we see fit, it is the start of a giant pyramid that gives everything on the planet life. It gives life to plants that get energy from the sun, which becomes food for insects and animals, other animals feed of them then we eat those animals and plants. The pyramid is a tangle of chains so complex as to seem disorderly, yet the stability of the system proves it to be a highly organized structure. Its functioning depends on the co-operation and competition of its diverse.

I believe that conservation in small life changes can lead to bigger changes over the years. I just started out by recycling cans and cardboard, then moving up to glass. Now I watch how much water I use try not to drive if I really dont need to and recently left a job because I did not find it right to build tanks for gas refiners, the owners were also trying to get into fracking contracts which I strongly disagree with. It has been slow changes over the years in my life style; I am still planning on new ways to help the environment. This is my philosophy think before you act; think of the repercussions of that action will have the community before acting on them. As well as small changes with one person can help, if people would stop thinking well Im just one person what can I do or someone else will make the difference so why should I change? If we all do our part then big thing can happen. I have applied being a member of the biological committee by planting wild flowers in my garden every year for the past three years. I wanted to help the bee population in Salt Lake; I live downtown where there is not an abundant amount of rolling hills and flowers to pollinate. So I thought I would plant them to save water because they dont need that much and clean up the air as well as hold the dirt down. This year I had so many bees, humming birds and a large number song birds. I use scrapes of vegetables I dont use or just food that has gone bad, egg shells, coffee grounds to help keep the soil health. Whatever I dont use it well use, ever little bit helps. I feel that there has been a change in the way we look at the environment, people are really starting to see that changes need to made, but with that being said there are still others who do not see that there is a problem still. This people are the ones with the money that can make things happen unfortunately, examples of this in our own state would be the nuclear power plant, lands being sold for fracking, the new high way that would endanger the wet lands of the Great Salt Lake. People are waking up but we also need to speak up and say no we do not want these things here. We dont want them anywhere, leave the land alone and let us all enjoy it for its beauty, not for how much the economy well benefit. Utah has only a 10% unemployment rate at this time; I think we will be fine without these things in our state. Extending a community sensibility for non-human and human would be for me remembering that everything has a purpose for being here. Sometimes it hard when a person is wasting their life away and you feel that they are not doing and not doing anything so they have no value or there is a bug clawing around in my kitchen. I always have to step back and say there is a purpose for it or them just as I feel that I have purpose, so I need to show the respect that you would want in return. I do believe that the right thing to do would be to preserve the biological community and other wise a thing is wrong. This is not just for the pleasure of saving it for ourselves but for the future generations to come. It would be nice for them to see the stars at night that are not blocked out by smog or light pollution. To see the rivers running wild, not dried up or dammed for energy use. Even I wonder what it would be like to go back 20, 30, and 50 or 100 years ago

and see what the land was like back then, to see it untouched by man. No plastic bags floating in the water, chocking on car fumes, just see it and breathe in the air and see the world in all its beauty. How could one not see the beauty in nature and not feel a duty to want to protect it this question is mind blowing to me. When I see nature in all its glory I always feel the need to help and save it. These two just go hand in hand for me. Land ethic for me is a non-human element; I feel that we do not need to conquer nature for our needs. We can work with nature as the Native Americans did; taking only what is need and showing respect for the land. Leaving it for the next generations, so there can be other generations beyond that. So we dont kill our planet for a profit. I found that the essay Land Ethic to be one a my personal favorite assignments, I read it last semester for another class, I loved it then it really seem to stand out and hit me on a different level then the other reading assignments that I was asked to do. I was excited to get more in depth with it this semester. I found myself bring it up in conversation a lot. I always seem to be talking about the environment these days and I admire Aldo Leopold. He was a wise man and I feel that his message still residents in our world today. He seemed to really have a foresight in to what will happen if things do not change. I really loved the part about the biological pyramid and how the earth recycles itself, this was one of the reasons I choice my major in geology of few semesters back. I find our planet fascinating and find new things about it every day. I also believe strongly in preserving the environment, the more I learn about our planet the more I want to help save it. It is so beautiful, wondrous and magical once you see it with open eye and not looking at how it can benefit you. Leopold wrote Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward; death and decay return it to the soil. The circuit is not closed. This passage reads like poetry to me, it amazing to really look at the world around us and see it in open circuits of energy brings new life at every turn. I also agree with his point that the every step forward with the conservational movement there are two steps back. Every time our government seems to be making movement for great change another war backs out and we have to help. This is why as Aldo Leopold wrote we need to make up the difference our selves, if everyone helps we can change the world for the better.