Dillard and Leopold

Did it ever occur to you how we each individual sees the world in a different light? That one might see the little details that this world has to offer us and one might see the bigger picture with material things? One person might see life and this land we live on as a community of living things, that this land has to be loved and respected, and that this land yeilds a harvest of culture? This one person is Aldo Leopold. Aldo Leopold was born in 1887 and in his eventful life that he lived, he successfully acomplished graduating from Yale University and writing a numerous amount of books including A Sand County Almanac essay from Round River. Since he passed in 1948 due to a brushfire incident, his son had to finish the publishing of A Sand County Almanac in 1949. In A Sand County Almanac, he talks about how he sees life and this world in a different perspective, and how we should all take time out of our busy lives, and take a closer look at the precious things on this earth.

In the first month, Leopold talks about how in January he follows the tracks of a skunk through the woods to determine its destination and to learn its purpose on this planet. While tracking down the skunk, he watches as a hawk sworrls above, and he likens to a king fisher. He is atune to the stirrings of a squirrel from the pinkish urinations it had left behind as a marker to its snowy scriptures tell where the structure of a rabbit and an owl overlapped in a background of survival...of life. The second month was much more drastic. Februray brings Leopold to the harvesting of wood for a fire and to have a better understanding of what separates a man of nature from a man of civilization. He says that one who does not cut his wood, does not truly know what it is to be warm. Also in this chapter, he describes fire as the release of sunlight which has been absorbed by the oak during its lifetime. In one passage he states in the februray chapter is “Our saw now reverses its orentation in history; we cut backward across the years, and outward toward the far side of the stump”(Leopold 17).

Leopold relates the story of the upland plover in his May chapter of this book. An upland plover is a shore bird. In Wisconsin he says, the arrival of the plover in May is the final proof that spring has arrived. The plover flies over four thousand miles to return from Argentina each year. The plover returns to lay eggs and bring up the baby chicks. The chicks are usually fully grown in about thirty days and by August they will be able to fly. In this book, Leopold explains to use how in the early 1900’s, Wisconsin almost lost the upland plover to hunters and their appetite for plover-on-toast. He says in one of his passages “The belated protection of the federal migratory bird laws came just in time”(Leopold 38).

As time passes by on his excursions through the wilderness, he comes to the month of October. In october, he describes a day spent hunting grouse among the gold tamaracks in Adams county. Tamaracks are a type of tree that usually change from green to yellow when the frost comes, and sometimes the empty stems have a pinkish tint to them in the sunlight. Leopold and his dog are out trying to hunt grouse throughout this chapter. At one point, he finally realizes that his dog knows better than he does as to where the grouse are hiding. He explains to use how his dog will stop, give him a sideways glance asking “are you ready?” then at that moment he attacks a grouse. He says that while this happens, “he sits in solitude and listens to the hunters’ cars roaring up the highway, on their way to the crowded countries to the north”(Leopold 59).

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard can compare in a sense and also can contrast as well. These two books can compare to each other by how both authors see this world and the enviornment as a different light and how they both are living in some part of the wilderness for a decent