The Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration 2009

Honors Keioikd's legacy in New Mesico by promoting Leopold's vision that an ethical relationship with the land is essential to a vibrant and healthy community. The theme of this yearlong celebration is the relevance of Leopold's Land Ethic to how we address today's pressing environmental issues and make policy decisions about our future. Our goal is to engage the citizens of our community in the meaningful commitment to promise our children the inheritance of a beautiful and healthy physical environment.

The Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration began as the dream of a group of Albuquerque citizens who believed that careful consideration of Leopold’s legacy in the southwest could guide the citizenship toward a healthy, sustainable, and vibrant future. Initial conversations were small and intimate, but the widespread passion for Leopold’s work soon grew into a substantial grassroots effort involving individuals and organizations throughout New Mexico and Arizona.

Leopold himself believed in the power of a shared community effort. While he is rightly honored for beautiful articulation of the land ethic, he stated clearly that an ethic is not something an individual writes alone: “Nothing so important as an ethic is ever written,” he explained. “It evolves in the minds of a thinking community.” His was an invitation to all citizens to participate in careful thinking about our relationship with the land and how we might live as thoughtful, knowledgeable members of the biotic community.

The 2009 Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration extends this invitation to all individuals and organizations throughout the region. Our hope is to evoke a rich and varied conversation among ecologists and architects, philosophers and accountants, poets and politicians, artists and conservationists, students and teachers. We believe that a yearlong, community-wide exploration of Leopold’s work has the potential to shape our future in profound ways and to change us, in both mind and heart.

With the support of the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, we are planning a wide variety of programs for the centennial anniversary of Leopold’s arrival in the southwest. Details of these can be found on the events page here. In particular, we hope you will join us the weekend of February 13th-15th for the kick-off event to our yearlong celebration: A Cultural Conversation: Aldo Leopold, the Southwest, and the Evolution of a Land Ethic for the Future.

In addition to our partnership with The Leopold Foundation, we have enjoyed the support of many individuals and organizations, whose contributions have made our work possible.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Anthony Anella
Co-chair
Robert Peters
Co-chair
Andrew Wooden
Bosque School
Sheryl Chard
Bosque School

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Larry Allen
Malpai Borderlands Group
Edgar Boles
Albuquerque Historic Preservation Planner
Jim Burbank
Voices of the American Land
Craig Chapman
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
Stanley Damberger
Professor Emeritus of English
Jens Deichmann
Sustainability Education
Jay Lee Evans
Albuquerque Parks & Recreation Department
Ethan Epstein
Modrall Sperling Law Firm
Susan Flader
Aldo Leopold Foundation
William Fleming
UNM School of Architecture & Planning
Buddy Huffaker
Aldo Leopold Foundation
Verne Huser
Writer
Joanie Griffin
Griffin & Associates
Colleen Langan
Bernalillo County Open Space Division
Martin Martinez
Albuquerque Open Space Division
Ida Mazzoni
Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System
Cara McCulloch
New Mexico Architectural Foundation
Celia Merrill
Golden Apple Foundation of NM
Bruce Milne
UNM Sustainability Studies Program
Ramona Montoya
Pueblo of Isleta
Glenda Muirhead
Albuquerque Wildlife Federation
Yasmeen Najmi
Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District
Linda Patterson
Albuquerque Wildlife Federation
Ray Powell
Jane Goodall Institute
Riann Powell
Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System
Suzanne Probart
Tree New Mexico
Matthew Schmader
Albuquerque Open Space Division
Jane Catherwood Sprague
Contemporary Art Society/Land Art
Robert Stamm
Bradbury & Stamm Construction
Dana Vackar Strang
Audubon New Mexico
Jean Szymanski
USDA Forest Service
Courtney White
Quivira Coalition

COORDINATORS

Dara Johnson
Coordinator
Sheryl Russell
Assistant