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Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold
To those who know the grace of Aldo Leopold's writing in A Sand County Almanac, this posthumous collection from his journals and essays will be a new delight. These daily journal entries on hunting, fishing and exploring, written in camp during his many field trips in lower California, New Mexico, Canada, and Wisconsin, indicate the source of Leopold's ideas on land ethics found in his longer essays. The excerpts from these journals—many taken from notes written around a camp fire, spattered with a slapped mosquito or a drop of coffee—show in direct context what he did in his own leisure time. The essays are taken from more contemplative notes which were still in manuscript when Leopold died, fighting a grass fire in 1948. Round River has been edited by Leopold's son, Luna, a geologist well-known in the field of conservation. It is also illustrated throughout with line drawings by Charles W. Schwartz. All admirers of Leopold's work—indeed, all lovers of nature—will find this book richly rewarding.
286 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 1972
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899 people want to read
About the author
Aldo Leopold
57 books1,002 followers
A Sand County Almanac
, published posthumously in 1949, of American writer and naturalist Aldo Leopold celebrates the beauty of the world and advocates the conscious protection of wild places.
His effect on resource management and policy lasted in the early to mid-twentieth century, and since his death, his influence continued to expand. Through his observation, experience, and reflection at his river farm in Wisconsin, he honed the concepts of land health and a land ethic that since his death ever influenced in the years. Despite more than five hundred articles and three books during the course of his geographically widespread career, time at his shack and farm in Wisconsin inspired most of the disarmingly simple essays that so many persons found so thought-provoking.
Life story of Aldo Leopold, the development of his career as a conservationist, scientist, and philosopher, and his open-mindedness, his vision, and the evolution of his thinking throughout his life inspire other persons to start or to further their own intellectual journey of discovery. A closer engagement with his story, his inspiration, and his family helps persons better to understand the contours of environmental history and the role in culture and to reflect on their own in the complex weave of the way in which our society relates to land. His vision of a society that cares about the connections between people and land provides a starting point for thinking about modern-day cultures, economies, ecosystems, and communities.
Starker Leopold, Luna Leopold, Nina Leopold, Carl Leopold, and Estella Leopold—children of Aldo—founded the Aldo Leopold foundation in 1982. People respected all members of the Leopold family as scientists and conservationists in their own right. They recognized the shack and farm as a focal point for legacy of their father for generations to come and for this primary reason established the foundation. This public charity owns and manages the Leopold center, including the Leopold shack and 264 surrounding acres in addition to several other parcels and also manages much of the adjoining 1,800-acre Leopold memorial reserve, which neighboring landowners established as an early trust in 1967. It acts as the executor of literary estate of Leopold, encourages scholarship on Leopold, and serves as a clearinghouse for information regarding Leopold, his work, and his ideas. It provides interpretive resources and tours for five thousand visitors annually, cooperates with partners on education and other programming off site, and maintains a robust website and numerous print resources. The Aldo Leopold foundation manages this Goodreads page.
His effect on resource management and policy lasted in the early to mid-twentieth century, and since his death, his influence continued to expand. Through his observation, experience, and reflection at his river farm in Wisconsin, he honed the concepts of land health and a land ethic that since his death ever influenced in the years. Despite more than five hundred articles and three books during the course of his geographically widespread career, time at his shack and farm in Wisconsin inspired most of the disarmingly simple essays that so many persons found so thought-provoking.
Life story of Aldo Leopold, the development of his career as a conservationist, scientist, and philosopher, and his open-mindedness, his vision, and the evolution of his thinking throughout his life inspire other persons to start or to further their own intellectual journey of discovery. A closer engagement with his story, his inspiration, and his family helps persons better to understand the contours of environmental history and the role in culture and to reflect on their own in the complex weave of the way in which our society relates to land. His vision of a society that cares about the connections between people and land provides a starting point for thinking about modern-day cultures, economies, ecosystems, and communities.
Starker Leopold, Luna Leopold, Nina Leopold, Carl Leopold, and Estella Leopold—children of Aldo—founded the Aldo Leopold foundation in 1982. People respected all members of the Leopold family as scientists and conservationists in their own right. They recognized the shack and farm as a focal point for legacy of their father for generations to come and for this primary reason established the foundation. This public charity owns and manages the Leopold center, including the Leopold shack and 264 surrounding acres in addition to several other parcels and also manages much of the adjoining 1,800-acre Leopold memorial reserve, which neighboring landowners established as an early trust in 1967. It acts as the executor of literary estate of Leopold, encourages scholarship on Leopold, and serves as a clearinghouse for information regarding Leopold, his work, and his ideas. It provides interpretive resources and tours for five thousand visitors annually, cooperates with partners on education and other programming off site, and maintains a robust website and numerous print resources. The Aldo Leopold foundation manages this Goodreads page.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 18, 2016
Reading some of the reviews, I wonder did these people actually read this book?
Despite that this book includes one of my favorite quotes as an ecologist, considering Leopold's reputation as a conservationist, much of this book is kind of horrifying. It includes basically a log of all the wildlife he slaughters including a list of the entrails and body parts of a herd of deer they kill. I suppose a hunter might find it interesting but owing to Leopold's reputation, it's hard to take.
People have to stop romanticizing him and try to really understand what he was all about. He was first and foremost, a hunter and consumer of nature. He was secondly, a conservationist. Over time, he abandoned his, what I feel and is obvious in this book, excessive hunting practices, but still, he was no John Muir!
Don't read this book thinking it's another "Sand County Almanac" because it's not. While he bemoans the ignorance of the average citizen regarding ecology, he's also blowing away and trapping wildlife with great bliss. He doesn't seem to have any problem that what he says in this book and does appears to be completely contradictory.
I tried to appreciate it more for its historical value but still, had a hard time getting through it.
Despite that this book includes one of my favorite quotes as an ecologist, considering Leopold's reputation as a conservationist, much of this book is kind of horrifying. It includes basically a log of all the wildlife he slaughters including a list of the entrails and body parts of a herd of deer they kill. I suppose a hunter might find it interesting but owing to Leopold's reputation, it's hard to take.
People have to stop romanticizing him and try to really understand what he was all about. He was first and foremost, a hunter and consumer of nature. He was secondly, a conservationist. Over time, he abandoned his, what I feel and is obvious in this book, excessive hunting practices, but still, he was no John Muir!
Don't read this book thinking it's another "Sand County Almanac" because it's not. While he bemoans the ignorance of the average citizen regarding ecology, he's also blowing away and trapping wildlife with great bliss. He doesn't seem to have any problem that what he says in this book and does appears to be completely contradictory.
I tried to appreciate it more for its historical value but still, had a hard time getting through it.
July 3, 2018
I haven't ever read Sand Country Almanac but I will now. Round River was like meeting a fellow hiker on the trail, like having your morning coffee with you grandfather, and maybe like buying your new fishing rod. I like Aldo Leopold, and it's clear to see why so many become conservationists after reading his work. He speaks plainly and without "fluff" about the world around us. Leopold does not need to cite countless papers and journals, because he reflects solely upon his own life experiences. His family has done this world a blessing by publishing this book. I feel less alone in how I feel and think about conservation and ecology, because this grand old man felt the same way.
March 21, 2008
This is a real gem, Leopold at his best. It's been awhile since I've thumbed through Sand County, but I have to put this one right up there. Pulled from his journals, most essays are timeless little vision quests into the wilderness we depend on to survive as a species. Although he's a true master of his scientific craft, Leopold doesn't get bogged down with technicalities. His passion is the driving force.
August 13, 2016
I was introduced to Leopold in college. A Sand County Almanac was a profound and life changing read for me. This book, or rather a collection of essays and journals, is not as in depth or profound as Almanac, but it still put me right back in that place and mindset.
This book may come as a surprise to modern day arm chair environmentalists because in my experience, some think of hunting as diametrically opposed to environmentalism. Nothing could be further from the truth. A giant part of the conservation movement is spearheaded by hunting and fishing groups, not just motivated to produce better hunting and fishing, but to promote a healthy ecology by steering it back to its natural, balanced state (in which humans are part of and often play a large role in).
This book may come as a surprise to modern day arm chair environmentalists because in my experience, some think of hunting as diametrically opposed to environmentalism. Nothing could be further from the truth. A giant part of the conservation movement is spearheaded by hunting and fishing groups, not just motivated to produce better hunting and fishing, but to promote a healthy ecology by steering it back to its natural, balanced state (in which humans are part of and often play a large role in).
March 11, 2008
Aldo Leopold is one of the seminal nature writers and advocates of out time. His books tell not only of a theory of action, of an approach to the world, but also of a man who himself is emblematic of a righter way of being in regard to the natural world.
July 27, 2011
Great writing. I found myself taking pictures of certain passages so that I can save them for when people ask me, "Why did you want to become a wildlife ecologist?" He's great at explaining the reasons and motivations ecologists have for what they do.
February 3, 2013
Didn't love it as much as Sand County Almanac, but still a lovely book and glimpse into Leopold's relationship with his son through journals of their hunting and fishing trips together. A good detox after a couple violent and dark books in a row.
October 10, 2013
An interesting look at hunting that gave this non-hunter a little more insight and understanding. Leopold's passionate view of conservation must have made him seem nuts to the people of the 30s and 40s... admirable!
April 9, 2008
An good book, although not of the profundity of A Sand County Almanac (probably because they were simply trip journals which Leopold never intended to be published.)
November 27, 2019
Aldo Leopold was a Hunter.
There is no doubt that as ecosystems become squeezed due to human interference and depleting natural resources that each cache of land (defined as "...the place where corn, gullies, and mortgages grow." p31) grows weak in diversity. What he calls the, "...the complexity of the land organism." p146.
Aldo Leopold was an Outdoorsman.
He sought game with the metered stealth of one tracking his prey through the contours of the country, noting the climate, the grade of the hills, the berries on the trees, the senses of the dog at his knee, and the idea that the, "common denominator of all hunters is the realization that there is always something to hunt." p128.
Aldo Leopold was an Ecologist.
He saw the natural landscape as a series of interrelated parts that form a whole. He defines ecology as the, "...new science of relationships," and then asks this nagging question, "...does the educated citizen know he is only a cog in an ecological mechanism?" p64.
In the end Aldo Leopold was a Conservationist.
A sort of public Ecologist who works in some way for change and hopes to educate the public on what human intervention is doing to the environment. He clearly states his vision that this idea of Conservation may only be achieved if a, "...aesthetic premise...exists" and, "...conservation education must build...an ethical underpinning for land economics and a universal curiosity to understand the land mechanism." pp156-157
This series of journals and short essays put context into the wanderer of A Sand County Almanac. While he is always a humanist and a poet, "and when the dawn-wind stirs through the ancient cottonwoods, and the gray light steals down from the hills over the old river sliding softly past its wide brown sandbars-what if there be no more goose music?" Leopold is also a pragmatic dreamer who sees the relationships between human carelessness and a need to understand the, "Country," to achieve, sustainable, "Land" management.
I am not a hunter. I don't seek the deer around the bend, the duck in the sky, or study the reaction of the dog. Instead I look around and attempt to silently absorb the landscape and become a part of the larger system that surrounds my senses. I think Aldo Leopold did the same thing, only he carried a shotgun in case a covey of quail are flushed from the ragweed.
You do not have to read this book to enjoy ASCA, but the context lends itself to an ecological understanding of the relationships that exist between Leopold's beliefs and ultimately his groundbreaking conclusions.
A four for the folksy prose and five for the content....4.5 Goodreads! Grr.
There is no doubt that as ecosystems become squeezed due to human interference and depleting natural resources that each cache of land (defined as "...the place where corn, gullies, and mortgages grow." p31) grows weak in diversity. What he calls the, "...the complexity of the land organism." p146.
Aldo Leopold was an Outdoorsman.
He sought game with the metered stealth of one tracking his prey through the contours of the country, noting the climate, the grade of the hills, the berries on the trees, the senses of the dog at his knee, and the idea that the, "common denominator of all hunters is the realization that there is always something to hunt." p128.
Aldo Leopold was an Ecologist.
He saw the natural landscape as a series of interrelated parts that form a whole. He defines ecology as the, "...new science of relationships," and then asks this nagging question, "...does the educated citizen know he is only a cog in an ecological mechanism?" p64.
In the end Aldo Leopold was a Conservationist.
A sort of public Ecologist who works in some way for change and hopes to educate the public on what human intervention is doing to the environment. He clearly states his vision that this idea of Conservation may only be achieved if a, "...aesthetic premise...exists" and, "...conservation education must build...an ethical underpinning for land economics and a universal curiosity to understand the land mechanism." pp156-157
This series of journals and short essays put context into the wanderer of A Sand County Almanac. While he is always a humanist and a poet, "and when the dawn-wind stirs through the ancient cottonwoods, and the gray light steals down from the hills over the old river sliding softly past its wide brown sandbars-what if there be no more goose music?" Leopold is also a pragmatic dreamer who sees the relationships between human carelessness and a need to understand the, "Country," to achieve, sustainable, "Land" management.
I am not a hunter. I don't seek the deer around the bend, the duck in the sky, or study the reaction of the dog. Instead I look around and attempt to silently absorb the landscape and become a part of the larger system that surrounds my senses. I think Aldo Leopold did the same thing, only he carried a shotgun in case a covey of quail are flushed from the ragweed.
You do not have to read this book to enjoy ASCA, but the context lends itself to an ecological understanding of the relationships that exist between Leopold's beliefs and ultimately his groundbreaking conclusions.
A four for the folksy prose and five for the content....4.5 Goodreads! Grr.
July 21, 2025
I read this book when I got the assignment to illustrate an updated hardcover, jacketed edition for NorthWord Press in 1990. It's not as good as Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac," at least to me. An eclectic collection of essays, it dwells a lot more on the "hook-and-bullet" aspects of nature, as it's basically a diary of an extended hunting and fishing trip. But it does contain the keen observations and lyrical nature descriptions, combined with a love of and reverence for the outdoors that we've come to expect from him. Parts of this classic haven't aged well, as they reflect the more domination-heavy outlook of man over nature that was part of the American ethos when it was written. Though published posthumously in 1953, these writings span from 1922 to 1937, documenting his evolving views on conservation and the environment.
September 14, 2022
The essay portions were wonderful. It's so great to get a glimpse inside this legendary man's brain and find that he truly was very thoughtful, in love with the land, revolutionary with perspective on nature (for a white man), and decently open-minded for his time.
Half of it is hunting journals though which are short and dry without much detail. I honestly skipped through them until there was a day when they got a buck or saw an especially beautiful sunset or something- then they'd write more details and it was cool. They're the reason it's a 3 star vs a 5 star book.
Half of it is hunting journals though which are short and dry without much detail. I honestly skipped through them until there was a day when they got a buck or saw an especially beautiful sunset or something- then they'd write more details and it was cool. They're the reason it's a 3 star vs a 5 star book.
September 12, 2024
1953 edition is a gem. The essays are classic Aldo Leopold and beautifully written. Of even more interest are the hunting journals from the 1920s. It was fascinating to read how they packed in food, set up camp and actually HUNTED deer rather than sitting in a stand. I’m not a hunter, but I really enjoyed these journal entries which sometimes ended in funny lists such as “Maxims of an Unsuccessful Deer Hunter”. Great read after Sand County Almanac.
February 21, 2020
The essays on conservation are good but there are only a few, interspersed between the journal entries, which are the main portion of the book. I did not enjoy the journal entries which are too focused on hunting and killing animals or are just trivial details about daily activities on their way to the hunt. I will have to see if the essays are in a better collection. I assume they are....
June 23, 2020
I don’t hunt but I enjoyed traveling along on the outdoor trips with A.L. and others.
November 26, 2025
“one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds”
January 11, 2009
not quite up to the par of Sand County Almanac, but I liked it
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews