Aldo Leopold
This is a biography of an early 20th century conservation ecologist, Aldo Leopold, who said, "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. [1]"
Introduction
Early Life
Later Life
Golden Rule
Leopold's Golden Rule states, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. [2]" He developed this during his years working on native prairie restoration to provide guidance to the restoration project.
Long-term Impacts
Leopold provided an ethical basis from which many conservation biologists and restoration ecologists build upon. For example, in the Principles of Conservation Biology textbook by Meffe and Carroll [3], Leopold's Golden Rule is one of the ethical foundations of the field.