Aldo Leopold And Les Cheneaux

In 1898, Carl Leopold purchased a summer cottage on Marquette Island, visible from here across Mackinac Bay. His family, includ-ing son Aldo, traveled there each summer from their home in Iowa. Aldo’s summers on the island were the start of a lifetime dedicated to the study of nature. His professional career included nine-teen years with the U.S. Forest Service and fifteen years at the University of Wisconsin teaching wildlife management. In his book A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Leopold defined his concept of a land ethic. He believed that people were stewards of the land and that the natural environment should be viewed as a community, not a commodity.

[Back]: As a young man, conservationist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) explored the Les Cheneaux area with family and friends. His brother Frederic wrote, “Aldo knew most of the island intimately. He produced several handmade maps artistically decorated and illustrated with typical trees, animals and birds in appropriate places. All of the trails were shown including some newer trails which he himself created.” Leopold continued to visit the Les Cheneaux area after his graduation from Yale Forestry School in 1909. As a prolific author, researcher and educator whose works still influence the field, Aldo Leopold is widely considered to be a founder of the conservation movement in America.