The Land Ethic Reclaimed: Perceptive Hunting, Aldo Leopold, and Conservation

A thing is right when it tends to preservethe integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong whenit tends otherwise.

Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac,1949

Hunting has been a core conservation management tool in the United States since its founding. Indeed, "perceptive hunters" believe hunting should contribute to conservation rather than hinder it. As conservation science has improved, so have calls for understanding the role of game species in ecosystems, as well as in regional politics and economics. Deer, pheasant and elk are cultural icons because of their value to hunters, and are also a source of persistent controversy because of their role in complex ecological and economic systems.

Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac, accepted a chair in game management atthe University of Wisconsin and published a textbook in 1933 marking theemergence of wildlife conservation as a professional discipline. The scientificand ethical foundations laid down by Leopold fostered the emergence of a uniquemodel for wildlife conservation in North America.

This course will provide students with an understanding of the historical legacy of wildlife management and recreationalhunting as a part of conservation, the role of wildlife in ecosystems, theimportance of ethics in guiding management decisions and hunter choices, andthe politics and economics of controversies surrounding game and non-gamemanagement, hunting, and conservation. We will also look at the emerging face of hunting today, and contemporary models of conservation. The content draws on the expertise andexperience of scholars, researchers, managers, and citizens in the overlappingspheres of applied ecology, policy, environmental and natural resourcemanagement.