Abstract
This episode is part one of four of the lecture series [HTA 26] on “Part II_ Sketches Here and There,” 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 the meaning and importance of the following three topical sections: (i) the sand counties; (ii) the odyssey of the atom X across an ecosystem, and (iii) the Flambeau, and its relation to formally administered-constructed river recreation.
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Explain the significance of Red Legs Kicking; why does that memory stand out so vividly to Leopold? What does the vividness imply about human experiences of hunting, i.e., killing animals, whether or not for food or just for trophies [and there is likely a felt moral difference between the two motives]? Is the adrenaline resulting from a successful hunt a worrying motive for violence in other contexts?
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In Arizona and New Mexico, explain the relationships between mountaintops, “topping out the mountain” after the winter thaw each spring [and bragging rights for being the first to do so], Escudilla, Old Bigfoot, and to “fear lightning [… after one has…] ridden The Mountain in July.”
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Describe the Guacamaja’s relationship to its ecosystem in the Sierra Madre mountains along the Texas-Mexico border and in the Mexican desert. Describe also the jaguar’s relationship to, i.e., ecological dependence on and impact upon, its green lagoons.
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Why is cheat so invasive and problematic?
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Why is Clandeboye a marsh apart?
YouTube Lecture
YouTube: HTA 26.1; Leopold, A Sand County Almanac [1948]; Part II_ Sketches Here and There; Part One.