Cooperation with the Rancher
The Pine Cone
March 1924 (18th Issue)
What We Stand For
(While residing in New Mexico)
Co-operation with stockmen in the control of predatory animals.
The Pine Cone
July 1931
Founded in 1915 by Aldo Leopold
Our Platform
(While residing in Wisconsin)
We stand for a policy of whole hearted cooperation with stockmen and farmers, realizing that the existence of game and continuance of hunting and fishing depend upon the good will of the land owner.
"Pioneers and Gullies"
Speaking of erosion, "Prevention Mr Leopold says, is better than cure, and the only method of prevention is to revolutionize the method of utilizing grazing resources as the forest service is now doing in the national forests of the southwest.
What were 'revolutionary methods' in 1924?
Fences to protect the livestock waters from others using the range
Livestock Care
In the 1880's sheepmen were running 100,000 sheep in herds. They were traveling herds. It was through the USFS grazing permit that this was stopped. If one didn't own the stockwaters, they were in trespass.
Balance
Aldo Leopold wrote about wildlife numbers increasing while range resources decreased.
In Wisconsin, 1942
Pheasant production is going up because the species was recently introduced, and has just finished occupying its available range. In the vicinity of good wintering marshes, there are now too many pheasants, as evidenced by large-scale corn-pulling last spring. These spots need trimming down, but if we plotted all of them on a map we would find large blanks between. As yet we lack any device for shooting the blanks lightly and the spots heavily.
Like the pheasant map, the deer map is spotty ; excess deer exist only near good wintering swamps. As in pheasants, we lack any device for shooting the spots heavily and the blanks lightly. ... The real trimming of the deer herd is done by violators who shoot does illegally. There is a grim humor in this predicament.
Land Economics
Thinking Like a Mountain, A short Essay by Aldo Leopold
I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer.