BIOL-1120

Cesar Roncancio

Mary Jane Keleher

March 2017

Land Ethic Reflection Paper

In the text The Land Ethic, Leopold talks about how land is treated as property,

always looking for the revenue that this one can bring us, and if it doesnt we humans

just go look for more fruitful and profitable lands. He talks about people as conquerors

of the land instead of and integral part of it, that respects every other actor that has a

role inside the land; animals, trees, water, soil, trees, etc, even the interaction with

this components of land is measured on what advantages can they provide to us human

inhabitants and owners of this lands, for example, birds are good and should be kept

alive because they eat bugs and prevent infestation, or eat other lesser animals and

protect our crops.

It is clear to Leopold that a type of land ethic must be established, and that land

itself, including all of its components, must be loved in order to get a true relationship,

not actually just taking all the resources land can give us, and then just dumping all the

waste somewhere else, and finally just ruining this great place we actually live in and

depend of. He clearly explains how land is only appreciated on value; economic value,

reducing its multiplicity to simple spaces between cities where crop grows.
 After we finally understand the implication that land and all its components have

in all our lives, we could finally get that it must be preserved; a clear example of this is

how cadle has a great negative impact on the slots of land and grass they consume,

and that this overexploitation hardly damages the soil and makes it become arid,really

hard to recover, encrusted with sands, and less that enough moisture to be able to grow

grass again, other techniques like the ones in India where the grass is taken to the cow,

is a miraculous discovery that should be adopted, but here in the US is not really

utilized.

In conclusion Land Ethic evolution needs to supersede so many misconceptions and

just grow together with the land itself, naturally flowing through experience, and

adapting ourselves to the land itself, not completely categorizing aour land as just an

asset, that when it devalues we just sell it or toss it aside, abandoning something that

we rather need to love and respect.

1. How would you characterize your own conservation philosophy? How did

you come to hold these beliefs?

I actually agree with leopold in many point, especially in that we as humans need to

understand that life has a cycle, every environment is a delicate balance, and we cannot

just interrupted abruptly thinking that there would not be any consequences, and that

this things that we ourselves caused are not going to impact us directly. We need to

understand our land, love it and respect everything about it, It doesnt mean, that we
cant make profit out of it, but excessive use and little recuperation would just kill the

land and affect us even worse in the future.

2. Consider this 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.

How would you apply this ethic in practice?

If we stop having this conqueror role, and become another part of the land system itself,

we would actually enrich the land instead of thinking at it as property and damaging it.

In practice we just need to understand the factors that we are damaging, for example

when we chop down a tree and don;t plant another we are just messing with the lands

cycle and affecting it negatively, but if we plan ahead and renew our resources, we can

affect our environment the less and preserve the equilibrium, same as finding new

different alternatives for many things that would be less or no harm to the land.

3. Leopold wrote in the 1940s, The land-relation is still strictly

economic,entailing privileges but not obligations. What would you say is our

land-relation today?

Today we are centered too deep on the economic value that land can give us, we really

dont care for any other aspect of it, even hunting animals, and destroying huge parcel

of land for trivial decorations, and luxury.

4. Leopold says the land ethic is extending a communitys sensibilities to all

members of the community, nonhuman as well as human. What would that mean

in your life or community?

It means that we got to respect and love nature as a whole, not just hunting for fun,

killing animals just for sport, for profit, species that are even in the verge of extinction,

and we are still killing them with no regard for life.

5. Do you agree with this passage from the Land Ethic: 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. Was Leopold suggesting

that the integrity of the biotic community supersedes the concerns for its

individual members? What are the implications of this concept for you?

Yes, I think he is right, we cannot modify the environment as we please without having

bad consequences, if we respect the integrity of the biotic community, as take care of

its balance before we even think about profit, we would be able to preserve and even

get better results than just seek and destroy, that is are actual tactic.

6. In the Land Ethic, Leopold said, It is inconceivable to me that an ethical

relationship [with land] can exist without love, respect, admiration, and a high

regard for its value. Which is more motivating for you: beauty(aesthetics) or duty

(ethics)?

I think that natures on beauty comes tightly involved with the duties of what must be

done to conserve a fruitful land, no overusing it, letting it restore, and be conscious of

what we have (beauty) and what we need to do to preserve it (duty).

7. In thinking about your land ethic, does it emanate primarily from self

interest, or from a true interest in non-human elements?

It is clearly a multiplicity of interest, conserving land and its components, will obviously

help non-human elements, but it also would help human, by not wasting all the great

abundance and resources that land gives us anyways, is just a matter of taking and

knowing to give back to it to not disturbing or damaging its cycle.

I definitely agree with a lot of things that leopold said, as a critique I think that education

is imperative, especially in this times in which we are literally running out of time, and

implementation of new technologies, some obtained by the product of experience, and

some obtained by scientific research, can come from a classroom, a better informed

land carer, it's going to run his own land way more smarter, effectively and conscious if

he/she actually understand the process and the why things happen and what actions

must be taken in order to prevent them.