Leopold was a noted forester, game manager, conservationist, college professor, and ecologist. Yet he is known worldwide for A Sand County Almanac, a little book considered an important, influential work to conservation movement of the twentieth century. In it, Leopold established the land ethic, guidelines for respecting the land and preserving its integrity. Leopold grew up in Iowa, in a house overlooking the Mississippi River, where he learned hunting from his father and an appreciation of nature from his mother. He received a master's degree in forestry from Yale and spent his formative professional years working for the United States Forest Service in the American Southwest.

In the Southwest, Leopold began slowly to consider preservation as a supplement to Gifford Pinchot's "conservation as wise use—greatest good for the greatest number" land management philosophy...