In A Sand County Almanac, pio­neer­ing con­ser­va­tion­ist Aldo Leopold set forth his endur­ing idea of the “land ethic.” The ethic is a shift from con­sid­er­ing humans to be con­quer­ers of the land to being ordi­nary mem­bers of the nat­ural world. Leopold always resisted defin­ing the shift itself. Instead, he believed it should evolve “in the minds of a think­ing community.”

The Aldo Leopold Foun­da­tion has devel­oped a train­ing to carry this con­ver­sa­tion about humans and the land into the twenty-first cen­tury. The Foun­da­tion will offer a Land Ethic Lead­ers Train­ing on June 1–3 this sum­mer at the UC Nat­ural Reserve System’s Sage­hen Creek Field Sta­tion. The work­shop is pre­sented in part­ner­ship between the Aldo Leopold Foun­da­tion, the North­ern Sierra Part­ner­ship, and Sage­hen Creek Field Station.

The two-day pro­gram will teach com­mu­nity lead­ers how to lead reflec­tive dis­cus­sions on com­plex and chang­ing envi­ron­men­tal issues. Par­tic­i­pants will learn new ways to dis­cuss col­lec­tive val­ues and crit­i­cal envi­ron­men­tal issues using lit­er­a­ture, film, and artwork.

Work­shop par­tic­i­pants explore the rela­tion­ship between human com­mu­ni­ties and the land at a deeper level. Paired with nature obser­va­tion and land restora­tion work, these dis­cus­sions offer a new way to engage and build the “think­ing com­mu­nity.” The work­shop focuses on giv­ing par­tic­i­pants the skills, tools, and con­fi­dence to help oth­ers explore their indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive con­nec­tions to the land.

The Value of Dis­cus­sion
Much dis­cus­sion of envi­ron­men­tal issues in Amer­i­can soci­ety today focuses on iden­ti­fy­ing prob­lems and for­mu­lat­ing solu­tions. It is pre­scrip­tive rather than reflec­tive. Lit­tle time or space is given to con­tem­plat­ing the root causes of these prob­lems, their eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions, or per­sonal and com­mu­nal con­nec­tions with the nat­ural world. Work­ing on conservation—whether through edu­ca­tion, com­mu­nity out­reach, research, or restoration—can be grat­i­fy­ing, but it can also be emo­tion­ally drain­ing. Deep under­stand­ing and knowl­edge of the full impli­ca­tions of the eco­log­i­cal prob­lems before us can lead to a feel­ing of help­less­ness and dis­en­gage­ment, a sen­ti­ment that affects pro­fes­sion­als and con­cerned cit­i­zens alike.

The Land Ethic Lead­ers pro­gram attempts to directly address this issue by giv­ing you a chance to explore, ques­tion, and reaf­firm your beliefs and val­ues, deep­en­ing your com­mit­ment to con­ser­va­tion and your com­mu­ni­ties. The pro­gram also aims to empower you to cre­ate sim­i­lar dia­logues in your own towns and work­places, and get peo­ple talk­ing about con­ser­va­tion in deeper, more mean­ing­ful ways.

Goals of the Pro­gram
• Learn to use your own car­ing and con­nec­tion to the land to inspire oth­ers and help to cre­ate reflec­tive dia­log about our col­lec­tive con­ser­va­tion val­ues.
• Learn to use obser­va­tion, par­tic­i­pa­tion, and reflec­tion as a sys­tem­atic method for con­nect­ing or recon­nect­ing peo­ple with the land. Explore, renew, and deepen your own per­sonal con­nec­tions to the land.
• Engage with a com­mu­nity of your peers from a vari­ety of places and back­grounds. Learn to guide reflec­tive dis­cus­sions that build com­mu­nity around shared con­ser­va­tion values.

What You’ll Take Away
• Skills and con­fi­dence in lead­ing reflec­tive dis­cus­sions on con­ser­va­tion val­ues;
• Tools to orga­nize community-based events that con­nect peo­ple and land;
• A pub­lic screen­ing license and resource kit to help show the film Green Fire, about Aldo Leopold and the land ethic,  in your com­mu­nity;
• The abil­ity to express your own def­i­n­i­tion of a land ethic and the con­fi­dence to help oth­ers develop theirs;
• New friends and links to a net­work of Land Ethic Lead­ers across the coun­try and around the world.

Your Com­mit­ment
Par­tic­i­pants are asked to plan an event or series of activ­i­ties using spe­cific tools and tech­niques from the work­shop, within one year of attend­ing Land Ethic Lead­ers. The goal is to engage with var­i­ous mem­bers of the com­mu­nity not only to intro­duce Leopold’s ideas, but to dis­cuss them in depth. Tar­get audi­ences for events may range from the gen­eral pub­lic, to co-workers or stu­dents, to groups or clubs.

Costs
The $350 work­shop fee includes all meals, lodg­ing, pro­gram mate­ri­als, and a pub­lic screen­ing license and kit for Green Fire ($150 value).

Train­ing Details
Sage­hen Creek Field Sta­tion
Fri-Sun, June 1–3, 2012
Pro­gram begins Fri­day evening and ends Sun­day afternoon.

Visit www.aldoleopold.org/Programs/lel.shtml to reg­is­ter or con­tact Jean­nine Richards at jeannine@aldoleopold.org or 608.355.0279, ext. 25 for more information.