Land Ethics Addressed at ALT Forum

The Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT) opens every staff meeting with a reading from one of Aldo Leopold's visionary writings on conservation, so to have Leopold's direct successor talk shop on land ethics, among other hot-button issues to locals, was quite an honor for the two dozen ALT supporters who gathered Thursday night.

The event, part of an ALT speaker series that featured Buddy Huffaker, Executive Director of the The Aldo Leopold Foundation, took place on the back lawn at Sweet Berry Farm, an ALT conserved property. His lecture was followed by a lively audience participation discussion on land ethics.

"At The Leopold Foundation we've been working to interweave Leopold's thinking about a land ethic throughout our society," said Huffaker, then added. "So that we come to understand that we're a part of the biological society as opposed to being apart from the biological community."

Aldo Leopold, a conservationist, forester, philosopher, writer and outdoor enthusiast, is widely regarded as the founding father of the modern day conservation movement. He is most well known as the author of A Sand County Almanac which was first published in 1949, but didn't become popular until the environmental movement and the founding of Earth Day in the 1970s, according to the foundation.

The book has since been translated into thirteen languages and has sold close to 3 million copies worldwide, said Huffaker. The foundation, which was established by Leopold's five children, is charged with advocating and interpreting Leopold's writings, both published and unpublished.

The audience on Thursday night was an active participant in the gathering. Huffaker requested that everyone select a piece of a plant from the surrounding area and then discuss with the person they were sitting next to as to why they chose it.

Huffaker challenged ALT members to think critically about the local ecosystem: Are all trees equal and do they deserve an equal opportunity? What may be beautiful in the eye of one person, may be a nuisance to another.  And where do these biases come from? Most likely they come from personal experience and are passed down from previous generations so what does that mean for future generations?

Each audience member took turns reading aloud one of Leopold's writings. The discussion that followed focused on whether it is our actions or the thought process behind our actions that are more important. The majority of the audience concluded that the thought process behind actions are more important, while a few hold-outs asserted that actions are more important.

In discussing whether there was a difference in cutting down one tree or an acre of trees, Jan Eckert, owner of Sweet Berry Farm, offered, "If you expect to illicit change, it's through the thought process."

If people think about why they are doing it and how it will affect other aspects of the land and community, they will theoretically support more sustainable practices, she explained.

"As we think about what a sustainable world will look like, unfortunately if we don't have the capacity to envision and imagine a sustainable future that's going to be one challenge, and the other challenge is going to be if we don't have good models and examples of what sustainability looks like," said Huffaker. "And that's why we always are particularly grateful for the work of places like the Aquidneck Land Trust and the things that are happening in communities like this, because we see this really as the application of Leopold's land ethic in the 21st century."

Huffaker continued, "At the end of his book Leopold writes 'I have presented the land ethic as a product of social evolution because nothing as important as an ethic is ever written. It evolves in the mind of a thinking community.' He would have been pleased to know that communities like this would come together to protect special places."

While Huffaker praised the work of the ALT, Ted Clement, Executive Director of the ALT, stressed the importance of Leopold's land ethic.

"You see that land ethic and that dialogue going on right now. It's very alive. The reality is that we actually don't have much time left," said Clement. "We've got to figure it out quickly because we don't have a lot of natural resources left on the island to tap into. Let's just hope we come to that land ethic quickly and in time."

The ALT has conserved over 2,000 acres of land on Aquidneck Island. According to their web site, they have recently entered into an Option Agreement with Wicks Nursery which will give the ALT nine months to raise $2 million to put into place a perpetual Conservation Easement on almost 40 acres of the farm, which has been under pressure from developers for several years.

"What we often don't do, especially in the environmental conservation world is have open ended discussions about the values that bring us all together to care about our relationship with the land, the land itself and our relationship with our neighbors," said Huffaker.

Having these conversations will lead to a more solid land ethic, but one that is continuously evolving, he assured the appreciative audience.

The Buddy Huffaker presentation was the second of three lectures in the ALT's 2010 Conservation Speaker Series. The next and last lecture of the 2010 series will feature Kenneth Ayers and James E. Garmen speaking about "Agriculture on Aquidneck Island: Past, Present and Future" on September 16 at 6:00 p.m at the Portsmouth Public Library.

For more information about the Aquidneck Land Trust, please visit  www.aquidnecklandtrust.com, and for more information on The Aldo Leopold Foundation, visit www.aldoleopold.org.