Community Events

Photo: Ed Pembleton

Interested in hosting an Aldo Leopold-inspired event in your community? You’ve come to the right place!

Individuals and groups hold Leopold-themed events at many different times of the year, but these events are especially popular during the official Aldo Leopold Weekend in Wisconsin (the first weekend in March) and Leopold Week in Iowa (the first full week of March).

Planning an Event

Popular activities for Leopold-themed events include:

• Community readings of Leopold’s most famous work, A Sand County Almanac
• Screenings of Green Fire, the Emmy Award-winning film about Leopold and the land ethic
• Leopold Bench-building workshops
• Cooking demonstrations with a Dutch oven over an open fire – the way the Leopold family cooked all its meals when staying at the Shack

For additional information and ideas for planning and hosting your community event, download our Leopold Event Planning Guide (PDF). See also: “Five Ideas for Celebrating Aldo Leopold Weekend in 2016.”

Already planning an event? Add it to our calendar!

Submit Your Event

Leopold Weekend in Wisconsin

Aldo Leopold Weekend offers a chance for communities to come together around Leopold’s idea of a land ethic. In Wisconsin, Aldo Leopold Weekend is typically celebrated each year during the first weekend in March.

Leopold Weekend began in the state on March 4, 2000, when the citizens of Lodi, WI, gathered to read A Sand County Almanac aloud, cover to cover. Dubbed “Lodi Reads Leopold,” the event was so inspiring and successful that its organizer, the Friends of Scenic Lodi Valley, decided it should be an annual experience.

During the 3rd annual “Lodi Reads Leopold” event, George Meyer, former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and a “celebrity reader,” wondered aloud why every community in the state wasn’t reading Leopold that weekend. State legislator Mark Miller shouted from the audience, “I’ll introduce that legislation.”

The spark caught on. One year later, in March 2004, Governor James Doyle signed bipartisan legislation designating the first weekend in March “Aldo Leopold Weekend” across Wisconsin.

Aldo Leopold Foundation Resources

We want to help make your event a success! For additional information and ideas for planning and hosting your community event, download our Leopold Event Planning Guide (PDF).  See also: “Five Ideas for Celebrating Aldo Leopold Weekend in 2016.”

Please contact Maria Kopecky with any questions, or to request:

• Case studies of three long-standing Leopold celebrations
• Leopold Week/Weekend logos and signs
• An educational poster about Aldo Leopold
• “About Aldo Leopold” brochures
• Back issues of our member magazine, The Leopold Outlook