Abstract
This episode is part one of six [e.g., January] of the lecture series [HTA 25] on “Part I_ A Sand County Almanac,” of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac_ And Sketches Here and There, illustrated by Charles W. Schwartz [1948].
Primary Source
Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There. London/Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1949.
Guiding Questions
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Explain what an almanac is and how Leopold is constructing his own ecological record.
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Describe two episodic sections from across the twelve months; include the material facts, their causal relations to the environment, and the sociocultural history at play, including human impact, e.g., from the US Forest Service, from hunting, from road-building, logging, rafting, etc. Rather than approving or speaking negatively about these relationships, focus on explaining how the mechanisms of causation operate in an ecology.
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Describe your own September almanac in your neighborhood, whether urban or rural; spend time in this unit noticing your neighbors, your animals [fauna], your plants [flora], sun, wind, rain, weather, latitude, altitude, coastal access to hurricanes, risk of floods, droughts, fires, etc.