Leopold’s “Conservation Aesthetic” (1947)
Overview
1. Outdoor recreation (getting back to nature); peace, solitude, wildlife, scenery
a. Examples of recreationists:
i. Duck hunters outside their cars surrounding a lake
ii. Bird watchers or plant finders
iii. Nature photographer
iv. Mtn climber
v. People who carve poems into trees
vi. Motorist whose recreation is mileage (all N.P. in one summer)
b. All seek and want wild things preserved
c. All seek trophies (certificates prove they’ve exercised outdoor skill)
i. But pleasure should be as much in seeking as getting
ii. Physical trophy not as important as meaning of what doing
2. Outdoor recreationists engaged in aesthetic appreciation of nature? (Leopold yes)
a. Distinction recreation and aesthetic appreciation of nature?
b. Trophy hunting as aesthetic activity?
c. Paradoxical mixture of appetite and altruism
i. Aes appreciation thought of as intrinsic valuing (like altruism, not self-interest)
ii. “We seek contact with nature because derive pleasure from it”
3. Diverse individuals seek outdoor recreation
a. If aesthetic, shows how widespread aes appreciation of nature is
b. And how potentially powerful a tool for conservation
c. But Leopold also shows the downside of particular aesthetics of nature
i. Killing predators to preserve prey to be hunted/fished
ii. Enhancing game populations leads to degradation of plant communities and endangering species (too many deer or introduced goats on islands) and degradation of deer (poor nutrition) harm of nongame species, harm to agricultural crops
4. Leopold’s worry that attempts to “develop” outdoor recreation opportunities degrade their quality by artifactualization of them
a. Hatchery trout example
5. Mass use degrades some types of outdoor recreation and not others
a. Degrades fish and game trophies
b. Not degrade photos: “Camera industry is one of few innocuous parasites on wild nature”
c. Degrades solitude (feeling of isolation in nature)
i. “Development” of roads, campgrounds, trails, toilets dilutes and does not develop this “recreational resources”
d. Not degrade “fresh air and change of scenery”
i. But this ignores pollution in parks and if scenery escaping is too many people and traffic, mass use degrades this
e. Not degrade perception
6. Perception and nature study (“perception of natural process by which land and biota get form (evolution) and maintain existence (ecology)”)
a. Perception involves no consumption of dilution of any resource
i. Swoop of hawk perceived as drama of evolution (by one)
7. Leopold quotes on importance of perception to outdoor recreation
a. “To promote perception is the only truly creative part of recreational engineering”
i. Not well understood but very important power to better the good life
b. “Only true development in American recreational resources is the development of the perceptive faculty in Americans”
i. All other attempts at “development of rec resources” at best retard or mask the dilution of those resources
c. “Recreational development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind”
8. Leopold on Daniel Boone’s lack of perception
a. Saw only the surface of things compared to someone with today’s knowledge of environmental science
b. Boone saw facts; env. science reveals origins, functions, mechanisms
i. Missed the incredible intricacies of plant and animal community
ii. This intrinsic beauty of organism called America were invisible and incomprehensible to Boone and (untutored person today)
9. Denies that “Babbit” (ordinary person) or Boone must take his Ph.D. in ecology before he can see his country
a. “The PhD may be as callous as an undertaker to the mysteries at which he officiates”
b. Is Leopold confusing necessary and sufficient conditions?
i. His argument suggests knowledge is necessary, but his undertaker example show only it is not sufficient
10. Leopold on “perception”
a. Perception can be split into infinitely small fractions w/o losing its quality
i. Weeds in city lot convey same lessons as redwoods
ii. Some of the same; not all of the same?
b. Farmer can see in his cow-pasture what scientist adventuring in South Seas may miss
i. Same point that scientist may be callous or uninterested in nature appreciation?
c. “Can’t purchase perception with either learned degrees or dollars”
i. But perception (can be) enhanced by knowledge of env. science
d. He who has a little may use it to as good advantage as he who has much
i. Denying that the more you know about nature, the more you can perceive it (and appreciate it)?
11. Discussion of “Husbandry”
a. Husbandry = Managing land by person with ecological perception; creating outdoor satisfactions
i. Farmers who willingly leave fence rows, wood lots, and manage for wildlife (hawks, foxes)
b. “When we must pay the farmer with subsidies to get him to raise a forest or produce game we realize that pleasures of husbandry in the wild are unknown to farmer and ourselves”
12. Leopold believes in higher and lower grades of outdoor recreation (appreciation of nature)
a. Rudimentary grades of outdoor recreation consume their resource-base
i. Does this include search for solitude?
b. Higher grades create own satisfactions to a degree with little attrition of land/life
13. Trophy hunting is okay as youthful reaction to nature (although a lower grade)
i. Problem is when he doesn’t grow up
b. Never develops capacity for isolation, perception and husbandry
c. He is the “motorized ant who swarms the continents before learning to see his own back yard”
d. Who consumes outdoor satisfactions but never creates them
e. Fails to see dilution of wilderness and artifactualization of trophies as problematic
f. Fails to value wildland that he will never visit/use
i. To enjoy he must possess, invade, appropriate
Leopold’s “Conservation Aesthetic” (1947)
Detailed Notes
1. Outdoor recreation (getting back to nature); peace, solitude, wildlife, scenery
a. Diverse individuals
b. Paradoxical mixture of appetite and altruism
c. Includes hunting, I expect. Hunting an aesthetic activity?
2. Bemoans the use of gadgets and trailers, the retreat of wilderness under the barrage of motorized tourists
3. Examples of recreationists:
a. Duck hunters outside their cars surrounding a lake
b. Birdwatchers or plant finders
c. People who carve poems into trees
d. Motorist whose recreation is mileage (all N.P. in one summer)
4. All the same because seeks wild things, are conservationists, wants policies that preserve wild things.
5. Recreation involves
a. Economic spending
b. Code of ethics (outdoor ethics)
6. We seek contact with nature because derive pleasure from it
7. Opera singer and duck hunter doing the same thing: reviving in play a drama formerly inherent in daily life
a. Both esthetic exercises.
8. Controversies over policies governing outdoor rec
a. Wilderness society keep roads out of hinterlands and chamber of commerce wants them there
b. Game farmer kills hawks in name of shotgun and bird lover wants to protect them for binocular hunting.
9. Components of the rec process
a. P.O outdoorsman seek, find/capture/carry away
i. Game, fish, heads, hides, photos, specimens
ii. All trophy: bird’s egg, mass of trout, basket of mushrooms, photo of bear, pressed specimen of wildflower, note tucked into cairn on peak,
iii. All are “certificates”
(1) Owner been somewhere and done something; exercised skill, persistence, discrimination
iv. Pleasure they give should be as much in seeking as in getting
v. Connotations usually more important than the physical trophy
10. Discussion of how artificial management can increase game/fish trophies, but notes inferior esthetic connotation of catching hatchery raised trout in over fished stream, polluted so it can no longer support natural trout population
a. A “man-made” trout
b. Artificiality exists in “intergrades”, and the more artificial the less trophy value
c. Killing off wild herons, terms mergansers and otters to protect the released hatchery fish
i. Like killing wolves today
11. Stocked fish paid for by destroying a “perhaps higher recreation”
a. Benefit one constituency by destroying something belonging to all constituencies
12. Killing off predators for the sake of “game”
a. Saxony one hawk killed for each seven game birds bagged; one predator of some kind for three head of small game
13. Artificial management also damages plant life
a. E.g., damage to forests by over-abundant deer
i. No deer food plants survive
ii. “Artificialized deer” threaten these plants and flora (from wild flowers to forest trees) is gradually impoverished
iii. Deer heard is dwarfed by malnutrition
b. Introduced goats for meat/sport destoyed flora and fauna many tropical islands
14. Mass-use tends to dilute quality of organic trophies like game/fish and induce damage to nongame animals, natural vegetation and farm crops
15. No similar dilution and damage from “indirect trophies” like photos
a. Can take 1000 photos of scenery and it is not physically impaired.
b. “Camera industry is one of few innocuous parasites on wild nature”
16. Basic dif in reaction to mass use of two cats of P.O. pursued as trophies
17. Solitude: Feeling of isolation in nature
18. Debate over wildnerness (designated roadless areas) shows this has a very high scarcity value for some people
a. Trails become congested
b. Pressure for air access
c. Fire roads built
d. Guide prices soar and people claim wilderness is undemocratic
e. Jeep and airplane eliminate opportunity for isolation in nature
f. Scarcity of wild places, and promotion of them, undermine efforts aimed at preventing them from becoming more scarce.
19. Mass use dilutes solitude
20. “Development” of roads, campgrounds, trails, toilets dilutes and does not develop this “recreational resources”
21. Fresh air and change of scene
a. Mass use nether destroys nor dilutes his value
b. Like photo trophy, it withstands mass use w/o damage
c. Except we do have pollution in natinal parks
d. Also if change of scene is lots of people and traffic in the city, then lots of people in national parks destroys this change of scene
22. Nature study: perception of natural process by which land and biota get form (evolution) and maintain existence (ecology)
a. An embryonic groping of mass mind toward perception
23. Perception entails no consumption and no dilution of any resource
a. Swoop of hawk perceived as drama of evolution (by one)
b. Another perceives it as a threat to the full frying pan
c. Drama may excite 100 witnesses
d. The threat only one witness–responds with shotgun
24. To promote perception is the only truly creative part of recreational engineering
a. Not well understood but very important power to better the good life
25. Daniel Boone first entered prairies/forests he found essence of “outdoor America”
26. Boone’s reaction depended not only on quality of what he saw, but on quality of mental eye with which he saw it
a. Ecological science has changed the mental eye; by disclosing origins and functions for what Boone were only facts; mechanisms for what to Boone were only attributes
b. Compared to competent ecologist of today, Boone saw only surface of things
c. Missed the incredible intricacies of plant and animal community
d. This intrinsic beauty of organism called America were invisible and incomprehensible to Boone and (untutored person today)
27. Only true development in American recreational resources is the development of the perceptive faculty in Americans
a. All other attempts at “development of rec resources” at best retard or mask the dilution of those resources
28. Denies that “Babbit” or Boone must take his Ph.D. in ecology before he can see his country
29. The PhD may be as callous as an undertaker to the mysteries at which he officiates
30. This confuses nec and suff conditions. His argument suggests knowledge is necessary, but his undertaker example show it is not sufficient.
31. Perception can be split into infinitely small fractions w/o losing its quality
a. Weeds in city lot convey same lessons as redwoods
i. Some of the same; not all of the same
b. Farmer can see in his cow-pasture what sci adventuring in South Seas may miss
32. Can’t purchase perception with either learned degrees or dollars
a. He who has a little may use it to as good advantage as he who has much
b. ????
33. Recreational stampeded is footless and unnecessary in search for perception
34. 5th Component: Sense of Husbandry
a. Realized when art of management applied to land by a person with perception
b. Enjoyment reserved for landholders too poor to buy their sport and land administrators with sharp eye and ecological mind.
35. Missed by
a. Outdoorsman who works for conservationist with vote and not hands
b. Tourist who buys access to his scenery
c. Sportsman who hires the state or someone else to be his gamekeeper
36. When government tries to substitute public for private operation of rec lands
a. It gives to its field officers (a sense of husbandry)
b. What it seeks to offer its citizens
c. Foresters and game managers might pay for our job of husbanding wild lands/crops instead of being paid to do it.
37. Agriculturalists sometimes realize that sense of husbandry used to produce crops is as important as crops; sub conservationists seldom doe
38. When we must pay the farmer with subsidies to get him to raise a forest or produce game we realize that pleasures of husbandry in the wild are unknown to farmer and ourselves
39. Don’t need to apologize for Trophy-hunter (youth, caveman reborn)
40. But problematic when trophy-hunter never grows up
a. Never develops/loses capacity for isolation, perception and husbandry
b. He is the “motorized ant who swarms the continents before learning to see his own back yard”
c. Who consumes outdoor satisfactions but never creates them
d. Fails to see dilution of wilderness and artifactualization of trophies as problematic
41. Trophy-recreationist contributes to own undoing
a. To enjoy he must possess, invade, appropriate
b. Wilderness can’t personally see has no value to him
c. Hence universal assumption that unused hinterland is rendering no service to society
42. Those devoid of imagination, a blank place on a map is useless waste (to others it is the most valuable part)
a. Share of AK worthless to me if never go there?
b. Need road to show the arctic prairies, goose pastures of Yukon, kodiak bear, sheep of meadows behind McKinley
43. Rudimentary grades of outdoor recreation consume their resource-base
a. Does this include search for solitude?
44. Higher grades create own satisfactions to a degree with little attrition of land/life
45. Expansion of transport w/o corresponding growth of perception that threatens us with degradation qualitatively of recreational resources
46. “Recreational development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind”