On March 4, 1948, Aldo Leopold penned his final contribution to A Sand County Almanac. Today, 68 years later, communities across the Midwest and beyond will begin celebrating Leopold’s life and legacy during Leopold Week and Weekend events. If there is an event happening in your area, I encourage you to attend. If there’s not, I hope you will celebrate on your own, and on social media using the hashtag #LeopoldWeek.
Leopold Weekend is officially celebrated in Wisconsin during the first weekend of March. Leopold’s home state of Iowa also has their own statewide celebration during the first full week of March. But this is not just a Midwest event– in the last fifteen years, community organizers have planned and hosted Aldo Leopold Week/Weekend events in over twenty states and one foreign country. As of today, we know of 25 celebrations happening in 9 states during the next two weeks! From a marathon progressive reading of A Sand County Almanac in Door County, Wisconsin to a Leopold Education Project workshop in Arkansas, our awesome community organizers have created quite the line-up of activities.
Aldo Leopold Foundation Executive Director Buddy Huffaker reads from “January Thaw” at a community event in Argyle, WI. Photo by Ed Pembleton.
But what if there isn’t an event planned for your community? There are plenty of ways to celebrate on a smaller scale wherever you are! Last October, our Director of Education Jen Kobylecky highlighted five fun and easy event ideas for celebrating Leopold Week/Weekend both in community events and at home. Whether it’s gathering a group of friends to watch and discuss an environmentally-themed movie or cooking a Dutch oven meal for your family, there are many ways that individuals and communities can recognize and share the legacy of Aldo Leopold in the coming week.
Celebrate Leopold Week/Weekend by cooking a Dutch oven meal, just as the Leopold family did at the Shack! Photo by one of our Ohio LEP Coordinators, Susan Setterlin. Susan took the Leopold Weekend event idea and turned it into a year-long celebration in 2007 called “Listening to the Land.”
One way for you to celebrate simultaneously at home and with the world is on social media! Each morning from today until March 12th, we will be posting an at-home challenge on the Aldo Leopold Foundation’s Facebook and Twitter pages using the hashtag #LeopoldWeek. This week is a chance to get outside and enjoy the world around you. This week is a chance to pick up that well-worn copy of A Sand County Almanac and revisit your favorite passages. This week is a chance to contemplate what Leopold’s call for a land ethic means to you, and to share your thoughts with others, both in person and online.
Today’s at-home challenge. #LeopoldWeek
Although Aldo Leopold is someone we think about daily here at the Leopold Center, the man who planted the pines that support the roof above my head, I am looking forward to taking a few minutes during each of the next nine days to celebrate Aldo Leopold, to appreciate the world outside my window, and to share my land ethic with others. Let’s make this #LeopoldWeek one that not only brings together local communities, but unites us all through the life and legacy of Aldo Leopold.