A Guide to Celebrating Aldo Leopold Weekend
Join us in celebrating Aldo Leopold Weekend this year and plan an event in your community! Use the resources on this page to help you, and let us know about your event plans so we can work with you on a successful, fun event.
Online Resources:
- Tips for getting youth involved
Program Ideas
Aldo Leopold Foundation has an exciting new resource to offer to Aldo Leopold Weekend event planners: the first ever full-length (72 minute), high definition film about Leopold: Green Fire—Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time. The movie explores Aldo Leopold's life in the context of American conservation and environmental history, while also illustrating how Leopold's legacy lives on today in the work of people and organizations across the nation and around the world.
Scheduling a screening in your community
Screenings of the film are a fantastic part of Aldo Leopold Weekend events! Click here to learn more about scheduling a screening.
 
Aldo Leopold Weekend events will always have their roots in community readings, but here is a list of additional Leopold-themed events that have worked well in the past. Contact the Foundation for more information and resources on running these programs:
- Dutch oven cooking workshops
- Wild game meals
- Fly tying demonstrations
- Active sporting events: fishing, shooting, archery tournaments
- Nature walks
- Nature journal making
- Teacher workshops through the Leopold Education Project
- Field trips / tours of "Leopold landscapes"
- Community clean-up events
- Two man cross-cut saw demonstration
- Student involvement: essay/art contests, dramatic enactments with readings
- Silent auctions
- Exhibit Hall with displays from partner organizations
- Community forums
- Presentations on Leopold
- Crane watching / birding
- Community readings from A Sand County Almanac
- Screenings of the US Forest Service film, The Greatest Good
- Screenings of the video, A Prophet for All Seasons
 Getting Youth Involved
As we strive to teach the Land Ethic to folks of all ages the best place to begin is with young people. Leopold Weekend offers a wonderful opportunity to introduce youth in the ideas of Aldo Leopold. A successful event will include many different community groups. Young readers bring parents and grandparents; attendance will increase while everyone learns about Leopold.
Begin by contacting:
- Teachers in schools (home schooled as well)
- Youth leaders of Boy and Girl Scouts, 4-H (see links section for web sites)
- After school teachers
- Leaders of the community
Find ways to get kids involved with the events you've planned:
- Have students as readers
- Get teachers involved with essay, poetry or poster contest
- Involve youth as helpers in the event – passing out programs, helping with refreshments etc.
- Involve high school students in event planning and execution
Teacher Tips:
- Have students read some essays in A Sand County Almanac or read to them
- Have students read one of the biographies of Leopold
- Show the video Aldo Leopold - Learning from the Land (available in school libraries across the state), or A Prophet for All Seasons (available through the Leopold Education Project)
- Organize a school-wide essay or poetry contest
- Do Leopold activities with your students – some suggestions:
- Make careful outdoor observations and write about it
- Visit a cemetery
- Practice fly fishing
- Study tracks, weather, birds, animals, trees, plants, etc.
- Learn about your state's natural history
Links to potential partner organizations
Events are much easier to coordinate and staff when planners approached local and national organizations for support. Some of these organizations may be open to providing funding support for your event, but also think about using these folks for instruction and programming expertise and publicity assistance.
National organizations:
Wisconsin organizations:
Special thanks to Treva Breuch and Ed Pembleton for their assistance in compiling this guide. All photo credits, Ed Pembleton, copyright 2005. |
