A Sand County Almanac: with Essays on Conservation from Round River, by Aldo Leopold (New York : Ballantine Books, reissue 1986; a number of other editions are also available)
A Sand County Almanac, part 1 in this volume, is a celebrated classic of nature and ecology writing. It “tells,” as Leopold explains in his foreword, “what my family sees and does at its week-end refuge from too much modernity: ‘the shack.’ On this sand farm in Wisconsin, first worn out and then abandoned by our bigger-and-better society, we try to rebuild with shovel and axe, what we are losing elsewhere.” Leopold’s monthly observations invite readers into the landscape, sharing glimpses of the natural world of one specific place along the Wisconsin River near Baraboo, Wisconsin, while also encouraging the celebration and conservation of all “things wild and free.”
Guided tours of the Shack are offered from Memorial Day through Labor Day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. Self-guided tours are also available. The Leopold Legacy Center is scheduled to open in April. Visit The Aldo Leopold Foundation website for information on their programs and publications.
“The months of the year, from January up to June, are a geometric progression in the abundance of distractions. In January one may follow a skunk track, or search for bands on the chickadees, or see what young pines the deer have browsed, or what muskrat houses the mink have dug, with only an occasional and mild digression into other doings. January observations can be almost as simple and peaceful as snow, and almost as continuous as cold. There is time not only to see who has done what, but to speculate why.” – from A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold