Ecological Conscience

According to Aldo Leopold, Ecological Conscience is neccessary to maintain a good land ethic.  He claims that people today only conserve their land to the extent that is necessary and profitable and exptect the government to do the rest.  Conservation education must build an ethical understanding for land economics and a universial curiosity to understand the "land mechanism", or the understanding of each different part of an ecosystem.  The "ecological consicene" is the ability for people to recognize the intregate parts of nature, not only the one they deem personally useful.  They must know that every human action has an ecologiacal consequence.

"Walking" next to the "Round River"

Both of these texts, "Walking" and "Round River", examine man's relationship with nature.  Specifically how nature could possibly be conserved or preserved.  In these two quotes, one from each text exemplify this scenerio.  First from "Round River", Leopold writes, "Conservation is the state of harmony between men and land".  This basically amounts to the theory that man must acknowlege nature, and build up a good enough relationship with it and want to perserve it.  Likewise, Thoreau wrote, "The wilderness the preservation of the world."  This is basically saying that in order to preserve the world for future generation, we must look to the wilderness for help in the process.  These quotes are similar in that they both dipict a scenerio that show preservation of wilderness is not only necessary, but plausable.  They both show that man must work with the wilderness, but also give it space to grow and flourish.

Leopold

In his essay, Thinking Like a Mountain, Aldo Leopold, makes the following arguement.  In which he discusses why top predators are essential for the survival of an ecosystem. 

"I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does the mountain live in mortal fear of its deer.  And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer fail of replacement in as many decades."  -Leopold 140

http://chelm.freeyellow.com/page37.html

http://www.ehow.com/way_5751627_ways-preserve-ecosystems.html