Dave Foreman, the passionate (and often controversial) “ecowarrier” on behalf of wildlife and wild lands, died on September 19 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While he had a reputation as a radical environmentalist, this often obscured a truth about Foreman: his lifelong activism was informed by a deep knowledge of conservation history, science, and philosophy.
Foreman acknowledged Leopold as an essential inspiration, and regarded him as the most important conservationist of the 20th century. In speeches he could recite Leopold’s famous essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” from memory—which Foreman often followed by leading his audience in a group howl. Yet he also knew that conservation embraced a wide range of actions, and as such noted our responsibility “to look at the whole Leopold.”
The Aldo Leopold Foundation honors the work and memory of Dave, and Cliff Germaine, devoted champions of “things natural , wild, and free.”
